A compact gaming PC with an exorbitant price. The sheer performance of today's leading components is incredible, but what's arguably more impressive is how modern CPUs and GPUs can deliver such thrills in tiny packages that are far more efficient than previous generations. An obvious upside to that trend is that today's phones, laptops and desktops can be smaller yet more powerful than what came before.

In the gaming desktop market, it is no longer necessary to make space for a full-tower beastie just to get a taste of the high-end PC experience. We've seen multiple small-form-factor solutions in recent years - the Corsair One being arguably our pick of the bunch - and MSI has been known to dabble in this arena with turnkey systems proclaiming PC power in a console size. The firm's latest such solution is the Trident X 9th.