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MSI’s panoramic PC case severely underestimates how bad at cable tidying I amFoolproof? We’ll see about that

Foolproof? We’ll see about that

Image credit:MSI

Image credit:MSI

The MSI Project Zero X PC with a cable-hiding motherboard propped up against it.

As someone who believes in theidealof the trim, tidy PC interior, I do applaud the intent behind MSI’s Project Zero X. Currently on show atCES 2025, it’s a prototype desktop build that uses clever geometry and an unconventional motherboard I/O layout to hide practically every single wire in the joint, for a clean design that’s housed for your viewing pleasure within a four-sided glass chamber. It’s the closest PCs have come to the simple Victorian pleasures of a nice terrarium, and honestly, good on it.

The problem is that if Project Zero X’s components ever actually go on sale, there becomes a non-zero percent chance that I will come into possession of that see-through case. And there is aone hundredpercent chance I will ruin it.

Point being, it doesn’t matter what MSI have done with the Project Zero X case, even if they have gone to such ginnard-concealing lengths that it’s somehow got the GPU outputs pointing out of the side. If I try tobuild a PCwith this, it will be full of stray cables, and its entire purpose will be undermined. I don’t know how. But I’ll find a way.

Still, for less deficient PC builders, this could make for quite the statement piece. Provided, anyway, that the still-traditional blend of glass and metal remains within the boundaries of Your Kinda Thing. Opinions on chassis designs can of course vary, even in the relatively tiny sample size of the current RPS team: per a meeting this morning where I brought up the Project Zero X, it turns out Graham wants to see as little of his PC’s insides as possible, Edwin dislikes anything painted black or with lights, and Nic wishes his was made out of wood. Maybe not the case for us lot, then.