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Cooling
To test the cooling capabilities of the Aegis 3, we ran AIDA64 to stress both the CPU and GPU. It is also important to note we tested using the ‘extreme mode' that is set from within MSI's Gaming Center app.
As you can see, thermal results are fine. Both CPU and GPU do idle relatively warm but it is nothing to be concerned about. The components peaked at 80C and 82C respectively, which is not super-cool, but we are still a long way from from the danger zone.
Thermal performance is only half the story, though – clock speed is the other half. We are happy to report the GTX 1070 Ti would run at a decent speed of around 1733MHz while gaming – it's not the fastest 1070 Ti we've ever seen, but it's not slow either and we know it is capable of solid gaming performance.
The CPU, however, is another matter. The multiplier-locked i7-8700 has a rated boost-clock of 4.6GHz, but under load its all-core turbo speed is 4.3GHz. Unfortunately, with the CPU pegged at 100%, the all-core speeds would slow to 3.7GHz – 600MHz less than we would hope for.
For gaming, this isn't a problem – in fact, we noticed speeds of between 4.3-4.5GHz across the six cores when gaming – but if you want to run CPU-intensive tasks for more than 5 minutes, you will notice things slowing down. That means how big of an issue this is very much depends on your planned use-case for the Aegis 3.
Power
Powering the MSI Aegis 3 is a 450W 80+ Bronze unit. Unusually, this is actually a 1U power supply, the likes of which would usually be included in a rack-mount server system. It is cooled by a 40mm fan.
Actual power consumption is not high – 317W for the whole system under 100% load. This means the 450W unit is only working at around 70% load.
However, I do think it is very poor from MSI's side to only include an 80+ Bronze unit. We are in 2018, 80+ Gold should be the minimum for a system like this, and how much is MSI really saving by going for Bronze – it can't be more than £20 at the wholesale level, and considering this system will cost you at least £1699 (spec depending), we expect more.
Noise
We measured the noise levels of the Aegis 3 with our sound meter positioned 1 foot from the right side of the case.
In terms of pure volume output, the Aegis 3 isn't actually that loud – 42.9 dB under load is certainly noticeable, but I have heard much louder systems in the past.
The problem I have with the noise output of the Aegis 3 is simple – the power supply fan is whiny. It's only 40mm in size, and it emits a high-pitch thrum that isn't loud, but it is certainly irritating. It may not sound like much, but when a system is set next to you all day, it does become quite annoying.
