MSI Aegis RS 11th

There aren’t many parts available to build a computer right now, so it’s difficult. If you can get a pre-built desktop with the components you want, it may be worth the money. To get the most up-to-date Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, MSI’s Aegis RS11th ($1,999 to start, $2,499) is the best option. You should consider this PC if you’re looking for those components.

Rather than using a strange, proprietary chassis that is difficult to open, MSI is using a standard chassis with only a few MSI-branded components. ‘ You can upgrade and grow with this PC when parts are more readily available.

However, Rocket Lake isn’t as powerful as the MSI Aegis RS 11th, which makes it a great gaming PC but a poor choice for other tasks.

The MSI Aegis RS 11th’s Design

The MPG Gungnir 110R, a mid-tower chassis with tempered glass and black aluminum, is one of MSI’s existing PC cases that will have a significant impact on how much you like the Aegis RS.

When viewed from the front, it looks like a computer case with two faces. Seeing as our review unit had three RGB fans in the front, I was a little disappointed that they were partially obscured. A strange decision was made in the design of this product.

Rest of it is more conservative, however. The cable management is hidden behind an opaque right panel, with the left side being made of tempered glass so you can see what’s inside. On top of the case, there’s a magnetic dust filter, and in front of the intake fans, there’s another.

The front of the computer has three 120mm intake fans. MSI Coreliquid 120 liquid cooler has a second exhaust fan on the back, which also cools the radiator. Because there is no obstruction in this case, I would like to see a regular exhaust fan installed in the back of the case, which has room for an up to 240mm radiator. (Also, I’d like to see a more powerful cooler for this processor.) This custom chassis, on the other hand, does not appear to have any issues with fan placement.

A button labeled “LED” on the top of the case or a module in the MSI Center software can be used to control RGB lighting on the front three fans and CPU cooler.

On the Aegis RS, the Alienware Aurora R11, and the iBuypower Gaming RDY IWBG207 are all larger than the Aegis RS (18.9 x 19.2 x 8.5 inches). In comparison, the HP Omen 30L measures 17.7 x 16.8 x 6.8 inches.

MSI Aegis RS 11th Specs

Processor	Intel Core i7-11700K
Motherboard	MSI Z590 Pro Wi-Fi (ATX)
Memory	16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3000
Graphics	MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X OC (10GB)
Storage	1TB XPG Gammix S70 PCIe Gen 4, 2TB Seagate Barracuda (7,200 RPM)
Case	MSI MPG Gungnir 110R
Networking	Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210, Bluetooth 5.2
Front Ports	2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks
Rear Ports (Motherboard)	4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C,  PS/2, DisplayPort, HDMI, audio connectors
Video Output (GPU)	3x Displayport 1.4a, HDMI 2.1
Power Supply	MSI MPG A750GF – 750W
Cooling	MSI Coreliquid 120R liquid cooler, 3x 120mm case fans
Operating System	Windows 10 Home
Dimensions	17.72 x 16.93 x 8.46 inches
Price as Configured	$2,499

Aegis RS 11th ports and upgradeability

One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks are all found on the chassis’s top.

This motherboard’s rear ports include USB 2.0 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 1-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-A, and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, as well as audio connectors and PS/2 for legacy peripherals. DisplayPort and HDMI are also available, but you’ll most likely use the options on your graphics card.

Because it’s built like a PC, you can easily update or repair the Aegis from the inside out. There are no custom chassis tricks or hidden parts in this vehicle. As a result, MSI separates the case, the power supply, the graphics card, the motherboard, and the liquid cooler. It doesn’t have anything proprietary that you can’t change or update later.

The tempered glass side panel can be removed to gain access to the majority of the components. With two thumb screws, no tools are required to secure it to the back of the chassis. A pull handle is provided to help you remove it from the case. A sled for a 2.5-inch drive is one of the most notable features here. The RAM and M.2 SSD can be accessed without having to remove anything.

The HDD and PSU are hidden beneath a shroud in the right side panel, which comes off in the same way as the glass door. Additionally, the case’s RGB controller and another 2.5-inch drive sled can be found here.

Although the cable management isn’t as beautiful as some other prebuilts, it is functional and easy to access, unlike some other prebuilts where the cable management isn’t as well thought out.

Gaming and Graphics

When it came to gaming, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and Intel Core i7-11700K delivered.

I tried out Control on the Aegis RS, which I like to play because of how well it incorporates ray tracing and stresses even the most powerful parts. I used the high preset and medium ray tracing to run it at 4K.

While exploring, fighting hiss guards in the Oldest House, and fighting on the Astral Plane in the beginning of the game, the game ran at 57 frames per second on average. When I used a lot of Jesse’s melee attacks, which result in large telekinetic explosions with a lot of moving objects, the frame rate dropped as low as 37 fps. Even during combat, the temperature in the Astral Plane, which is rendered on a mostly white background, remained in the low 70s. You could easily achieve a steady 60 frames per second with a lower resolution or a few tweaks.

The game ran at 147 fps in 1080p and 57 fps in 4K on the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings). Only the Alienware Aurora R11 (149 fps at 1080p, 64 fps at 4K) with an RTX 3090 managed to outperform it in both tests.

In Grand Theft Auto V, the Aegis RS was able to run at 163 fps in 1080p and 54 fps in 4K. iBuypower and Omen both had identical 4K performance to the Aegis, but the Aurora came out on top.

New Dawn benchmark results show that The Aegis is still the best in FHD mode with a frame rate of over 130 FPS. In 4K, it clocked in at 94 fps, which was a few frames slower than the iBuypower, Aurora, and Omen.

In Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium settings) at 113 fps, the Aegis was just behind the Alienware, but had the highest 4K score at 40 fps. By comparison, the iBuypower had a 10 frame advantage over the Omen.

The Aegis RS was able to hit 136 fps in FHD and 58 fps in 4K on Borderlands 3’s “badass” settings. However, it’s on par with the HP Omen 30L in terms of 1080p performance. RTX 3090-powered Aurora won both resolutions, thanks to its RTX 3090 GPU.

The Performance of the MSI Aegis RS 11th

The Intel Core i7-11700K is making its debut on a pre-built desktop for the first time. Additionally, it comes with a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD in addition to a 2TB hard drive from MSI. The processor has eight cores and sixteen threads. Core i9 processors in high-end PCs pose a threat, however, as many have more cores. Even the Core i9 Rocket Lake has just 8 cores, so this isn’t a limitation of testing the Core i7.

The Aegis RS 11th achieved single-core scores of 1,676 and multi-core scores of 10,102 on Geekbench 5, an overall performance benchmark. The other three desktops had higher multi-core scores despite having the highest single-core score. Intel’s Core i9-10900K chips, which have 10 instead of 8 cores, were used in all of these tests.

The Aegis’ PCIe Gen 4 SSD failed to impress. In comparison to the Omen (978MBps) and Aurora (25GB), it transferred 25GB of files at a rate of 635.3MBps, which is just a hair faster than the iBuypower (1,201.87 MBps).

It took MSI Aegis RS 11th 5 minutes and 19 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p using Handbrake. Aurora and Omen both beat Aegis’ time by five seconds, which is faster than iBuypower.

Clutch GM08 Mouse and MSI Vigor GK30 Keyboard

An included keyboard and mouse are good enough for those who don’t own much else, but you may want to replace them with your own preferred peripherals in case you don’t have any spares lying around.

However, the Clutch GM08 mouse has rubberized grips on the side, which I found to be a little too small for my large claw grip. In spite of these shortcomings, there are a few high-end features here, such as the ability to adjust the weight of the mouse (two 3-gram weights and one 5-gram weight). You can get up to 4,200 DPI by using the PixArt PAW351. The mouse has two buttons on the left side and a DPI switch for adjusting sensitivity, but neither of these buttons can be customized in MSI Center. Don’t get your hopes up too high, but if you’re in a pinch, it can get the job done. MSI’s software also does not allow for customization of the red LED light.

A similar keyboard, the Vigor GK30, came with my review sample of the MSI Aegis Ti5. Just ok, really. Keys on the mechanical-like keyboard MSI claims are stiff but not quite clicky. Around the Keys, there’s a lot of RGB lighting. They are also inaccessible via MSI’s software, but they can be customized via the keyboard’s buttons.

On the MSI Aegis RS 11th, MSI Center, Software, and Warranty
For the first time, an MSI PC has come across my desk equipped with MSI Center, the company’s replacement for its previous swiss army-knife applications, Dragon Center (for gaming) and Creator Center (for creative projects) (for, well, creating).

Even so, the MSI Center appears to be lacking. If you don’t mind having a light/dark mode switcher or CPU and GPU temperatures displayed, you can still choose from a variety of use cases, but they’re hidden behind menus. However, some of Dragon Center’s features, such as one-click optimization for games, Mystic Light, and the LAN manager, are only available as optional modules. When you go to “download, update or uninstall” (MSI’s typo, not mine), it feels like a beta version.

Microsoft’s version of BlueStacks, which runs Android apps, and LinkedIn are both included in MSI’s bloatware. A notable absence is Cyberlink, which I’ve previously complained about on previous systems, but Windows 10 bloat like Facebook Messenger, Hulu, and Roblox cannot be avoided.

MSI provides a one-year warranty

Configurations for the MSI Aegis RS 11th
Intel Core i7-11700K “Rocket Lake” processor, 16GB RAM, MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X OC GPU, 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and 2TB 7,200-rpm HDD were all included in the Aegis RS review unit we used to test out the system. The system will cost $2,499 when it goes on sale in mid-April.

MSI informed us that the RS 11th series would begin at $1,999 when we were reviewing this model. An RTX 3070 GPU and 650W power supply were suggested for the base model, while the HDD was removed. After using the Z490 motherboard, some configurations may switch to Z590 as their supply gets low. As of now, the Aegis RS series is expected to have a Core i9-11900K, RTX 3090, 32GB RAM, an 850W power supply, and a 240mm CPU cooler that can reach $3,899 in price.

The Bottom Line

As long as MSI Aegis RS 11th is in stock, you’ll get the most recent parts from Intel and Nvidia.

Unlike some other prebuilts, there is no proprietary information in this one. It’s made up of mostly MSI components that can be easily upgraded in the future.

In our review configuration, Intel’s Core i7 Rocket Lake and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 worked well together. However, in terms of productivity, Rocket Lake’s low core count couldn’t keep up with the competition, which has an impact on certain workloads.

MSI’s MSI Center utility needs a little more polish.. Using the app to monitor CPU usage, check temperatures, and adjust RGB colors will make the app appear to be in a state of beta. You may not notice if you prefer other applications.

The Aegis RS 11th is a powerful gaming rig that lacks unnecessary bells and whistles. Using the right settings, you can play games at 4K resolution on this PC.