Unique, expensive, stylish, imperfect and bold. Meet MSI's take on the Mac Pro. One of the great things about PC gaming is the sheer amount of diversity. We're starting to hear rumours about games consoles considering tiered hardware specifications, but such choice has always been available on PC and the divergence extends well beyond performance alone. Pricing can range from under £500 to over £3,000, the list of accessories and peripherals is seemingly endless, and high-end gaming rigs come in all shapes and sizes.

There are obvious benefits to big machines touting lavish cooling, complete flexibility and simple upgrades, yet there's increased demand for small-form-factor solutions. Mini gaming rigs are a better fit for the living room, they bode well for LAN party transportation, and there's something perpetually satisfying about compact machines capable of dishing out full-tower levels of performance.

Factors such as heat, noise and price tend to make small-form factor gaming PCs a tough nut to crack, but MSI reckons it has a winner on its hands with the Vortex G65. Borrowing design cues from Apple's Mac Pro and applying a gaming twist, MSI's unusual desktop packs an Intel Core i7 processor and dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GPUs into an eye-catching 6.5-litre cylinder.