Cracking open the MSI Trident 3 Arctic to check out its inner workings

During the initial hands-on, the Trident 3 Arctic wasn't running at its best, suffering from random shutdowns, most likely caused by overheating issues. After repositioning the PC, things seem to be working fine, but one has to wonder, why was this unit so sensitive to begin with. In order to find out, cracking open the PC and checking out the internals seemed like a pretty good idea.

As you might expect from such a small unit, things were quite compact on the inside. The left half of the computer houses the motherboard, RAM, CPU, and wireless card, while the right-hand side is reserved for the graphics card. If one wanted to upgrade components in the future, it seems like a fairly straightforward process. However, one thing to note is that before you open up the unit, you'll have to break a seal that is placed over the screw ports that will end your warranty. This is a bit of a downer but I don't think this will be an issue for most, as I don't see many cracking their units open in an attempt to upgrade in the first year.

If anything was learned, it's that proper ventilation is absolutely critical to this unit. Unlike other PCs that can deal with the heat, this model is prone to overheating if left in an area that doesn't allow for maximum airflow.

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