Threading cables to and from the power supply to the motherboard and other components has been a headache for PC builders for decades. But what would happen if you could just tuck them out of the way? That’s MSI’s Project Zero, designed for AMD Ryzen builds, that MSI showed off at Computex.
Project Zero puts the cables on the back of the case, plumbing through the connectors to the bottom of the motherboard where a thin gap allows the cables to snake through without impeding airflow. That’s the key. While a largely cable-less central chamber may look fresh and clean (and it does!) the idea is to eliminate any obstacles to that sweet, sweet cool air as it flows inside the chassis.
Of course, you’ll need a motherboard that accommodates this, and that’s the other piece of the puzzle: a microATX Project Zero board that MSI plans, too. For now, the board is built around a B650, AMD’s mainstream chipset for the AM5 socket used by the Ryzen 7000 series. We don’t have pricing for this yet, but we know that it will ship sometime in the second half of the year.
For those who might be thinking, hey, this feels kind of familiar — well, you’re right. Gigabyte and Aorus tipped off Project Stealth last year, which also routes the connectors down through the board to the back, and hides them in the back of the case. The difference? Project Stealth was an ATX board. MSI plans an ATX board as well, but that’s coming in the future. Gordon Ung walks you through what all this means in our video, below.
What’s even better is that MSI sounds like that they’re willing to work with other board vendors, too. We don’t have a formal, collaborative name for all of this, but it sounds like there’s at least a willingness to allow you to mix and match these sorts of compact, reversed boards in the future. And that’s good news for everybody.
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Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor
As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.