MSI Aegis RS11th review

Our Verdict

The MSI Aegis RS11th couples stiff functioning with a chassis that'll fit your needs equally they grow, at a price that'southward fair — if it's in your budget.

For

Powerful hardware for gaming
Placidity performance
Spacious, tinkering-friendly instance

Confronting

Lackluster peripherals
Limited lighting customization options

Tom's Guide Verdict

The MSI Aegis RS11th couples strong performance with a chassis that'll fit your needs as they grow, at a price that'south fair — if it'south in your budget.

Pros

+
Powerful hardware for gaming
+
Serenity performance
+
Spacious, tinkering-friendly case

Cons

-
Lackluster peripherals
-
Express lighting customization options

MSI Custodianship 11th review: Specs

Price: $2,599
Processor: Intel Cadre i7-11700K
RAM: 16GB
Graphics Card: MSI Geforce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X 10G OC
Storage: 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD, 1TB XPG Gammix S70 1000.2 SSD
Accessories: MSI Vigor GK30 keyboard, MSI Clutch GM08 mouse
Ports: USB-C, USB-A, 3.5mm audio, Ethernet, DispalyPort, HDMI
Size: 16.93 x 8.46 x 17.72 inches
Weight: 29.98 pounds

I've always taken the DIY approach with gaming PCs, but MSI'due south Custodianship RS 11TE-089US ($2,599) makes a compelling argument for letting someone else do the work.

Information technology's an understated, aggressively priced workhorse, packing performant hardware (including the nigh-mythical Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080) into a tranquillity, upgrade-friendly chassis.

No, it'south non cheap. But prospective buyers who don't want to build their own rig will find a capable automobile, with room for upgrades that'll continue their investment relevant for years to come, making this one of the best gaming PCs currently on the marketplace.

MSI Aegis 11th review: Toll and availability

The $2,599 Aegis RS 11TE-089US is, unsurprisingly enough, an MSI showcase. The liquid-cooled Intel Core i7-11700K processor is paired with an MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X 10G OC graphics card on the MSI Z590 Wi-Fi motherboard. They're powered past an MSI MPG A750 ability supply, and built inside an MSI MPG Gungnir 110R chassis. An MSI Clutch GM08 mouse and MSI Vigor GK30 keyboard complete the set.

You'll as well find a 1TB G.two solid state drive that hosts Windows and other programs, and a 2TB 7,200rpm hard drive for storage. The PC we reviewed is simply shy of the highest tier in the Aegis RS 11th series lineup; differences largely boil down to processor and motherboard selection, with less expensive models downgrading the graphics card and storage options.

MSI Custodianship 11th review: Blueprint

This is a fairly mundane-looking car, particularly compared to PCs similar Alienware's Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition. The example's peaked front end face up breaks up the traditional boxy monotony, and a transparent panel on the side lends a clear view of the brightly-lit internals.

Image 1 of iii

MSI Aegis RS11th review — (Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Image 2 of 3

Image three of three

Color options on the RGB fans and closed-loop liquid cooler are limited, only you lot tin cycle through the presets by pressing the "LED" push button on the superlative face. If you opt for Wi-Fi the antennas tin go far the style of cables, only information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel enough to make everything fit.

The case measures 16.93 x viii.46 10 17.72 inches, and weighs just under 30 pounds — larger than PCs like Dell's XPS 8940, but smaller than the aforementioned Aurora R10, or Corsair's Vengeance i7200. All told, it's a simple design that would look nice on height of your desk, specially if a splash of colour speaks to you.

MSI Aegis 11th review: Ports and upgradability

The machine offers ii.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi vi (also known as 802.11ax); if your home network can deliver greater than gigabit speeds, then these are neat "squeamish-to-haves." Also included are Bluetooth 5.1, a pair of USB-C ports (one on the top, one on the rear), four USB ii ports on the rear, and five USB 3 ports (ii USB 3.2 Gen ane on top, one USB iii.2 Gen 2 and two USB iii.2 Gen 1 on the rear).

The graphics card has three DisplayPort outputs and an HDMI port, complementing the HDMI and DisplayPort from the motherboard. The 16GB of RAM arrives in the form of two 8GB sticks, leaving two complimentary slots for upgrades when you're set up.

Atrocious as I am at cablevision management, I'm fractional to a case that gives me lots of room to piece of work with. MSI'south Gungnir does well hither. Rubber grommets proceed all of the cabling routed out of the main cabin and into the contrary side of the case. It looks a bit untidy back there, but there's enough room to effortlessly seal the case back upwards. The instance prioritizes airflow from the trio of fans on the forepart face out through the rear, and so there isn't all that much infinite left over for additional storage.

There'southward a bulldoze bay for a pair of 3.5mm hard drives adjacent to the ability supply, on the far side of the case. There are as well two SSD mounting brackets: one mounted vertically on the far side of the case, and 1 in the motel, sitting on the power supply muzzle. Their placement feels a footling odd to me, but the grommets should proceed cablevision management under wraps.

MSI Aegis 11th review: Gaming performance

The Aegis RS 11TE-089US handles 4K gaming comfortably, if not quite reaching the 60 frames per second threshold in all the games we tested. Its averages in Assassinator'southward Creed Valhalla (52 fps), Grand Theft Auto V (54 fps), and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (57 fps) aren't far off the mark, nevertheless. The lowest outcome of fifty fps in Ruby Dead Redemption 2 is admirable, given that game'due south trend to beat out lesser machines.

Anecdotally, the PC churned through my testing with aplomb. I tried out titles like Control, Battlefield V, and Cyberpunk 2077 with nary a hitch at maximum settings on my 1440p display. The machine remained appreciably tranquillity throughout: I could hear the graphics carte du jour purr during especially active gaming sessions, merely the fans were never distracting.

MSI Aegis 11th review: Overall functioning

The PC averages a GeekBench 5.3 multicore score of 10,102, just shy of the Corsair Vengeance i7200'south 11,047. It completed our Handbrake video encoding exam in 5 minutes and 19 seconds, again bested by the Corsair (v:thirteen), and scored 635.3MBps in our 25GB file copy test (versus the Corsair'due south 824.4MBps). The Corsair offers twice as much RAM (32GB, vs 16GB), and its Intel Core i9-10850K processor offers more physical cores and threads for multi-core workloads. Adding a chip more RAM will footstep up performance, but these differences aren't a dealbreaker for real world use cases.

MSI Aegis 11th review: Software

Bloatware is limited. Norton Security comes pre-installed, aggressively shadowing your steps across the internet with nagging security prompts while regularly nudging you to subscribe. The MSI Centre, a catch bag of customization, monitoring, and quality of life tools, is a bit more than useful. Enthusiasts tin can utilize the Monitor tool to check temperatures, and tweak voltages, clock, fan, and pump speeds, without diving into the BIOS. The interface is a little spartan for a process that could easily turn your gaming rig into a paperweight, simply if yous know exactly what yous're doing, it's likely fine for some quick monitoring.

Of dubious note is Mystic Lite, which lets you lot tweak the hardware's colour schemes on the fly. It includes voice commands that let you say "Hey Lucky," followed by a phrase (e.g., "Mystic Light Rainbow" or "Mystic Light Steady") to automatically bandy to a unlike LED style. I lack that creative je ne sais quoi required to make the most of RGB lighting, but I cannot fathom a state of affairs where using my vocalism to change my keyboard's colour scheme would be a value add together. Information technology works though, so your mileage may vary.

MSI Aegis 11th review: Peripherals

The included MSI Clutch GM08 mouse is ambidextrous, and fits comfortably in my relatively large hands. There are two thumb buttons on the left border, and a dots-per-inch (DPI) sensitivity button on the spine; yous can cycle betwixt v unlike DPI sensitivity settings. Yous can likewise accommodate the lighting effects on the mouse'south palm balance and ringlet cycle, provided you were looking for a languid cherry-red pulse, or no lighting at all.

The MSI Vigor GK30 ticks all of the boxes for a modernistic gaming keyboard: a relatively loud clack when y'all type, RGB lighting, and a function key with the brand's logo. The keyboard'southward lighting is divided into just half-dozen zones: you lot can have a single outcome that spans the keyboard, or pick private colors for blocks of keys.

The keyboard'southward "mechanical-like plunger switches" claim to offer the same typing feel of "true" mechanical switches, but the mushiness of membrane keys shines through here. And while non quite equally loud as Crimson MX Blues, they're however rather loud — yous're getting the worst of both worlds hither. I recommend making the keyboard (and mouse) the beginning items on any upgrade list.

MSI Aegis RS 11th review: Verdict

I like to make a quick and totally unscientific "back of the napkin" cess on desktops, gauging what I'd pay for the build equally listed, and weighing that number against the sticker price. My total came out to around $2,360 (excluding taxes and shipping, which volition add up). I've had absolutely no luck tracking down an Nvidia RTX 3080 at anything close to MSRP so this is purely a theoretical do, but buying this pre-built automobile and letting someone else handle sourcing the parts, wrangling the cables, and testing the build after assembly is non a bad deal.

This brings us dorsum to the centre of the thing: is $2,599 too much to spend on a gaming rig? That's a personal option. MSI seems to exist able to keep the price (relatively) reasonable by using their own wares, and when it's fourth dimension to upgrade, there are no cages to fiddle with, or obtuse locking mechanisms to get in your way. If you were building your ain car and diligent with regards to sales and component availability you could hitting a more favorable price betoken, and pick components that accommodate your needs: I'd take a closer look at AMD's CPU offerings, opt for more RAM, and driblet the HDD in favor of a larger, faster SSDs, to start.

All that said, the MSI Custodianship RS 11TE-089US gets you nigh of the fashion there. Potent performance is coupled with a chassis that'll fit your needs as they grow, at a cost that's fair — if it's in your budget. Just keep an eye out for a new mouse and keyboard, and you won't go wrong here.

Nate Ralph has over a decade of experience tinkering with, on, and effectually technology. He'due south driven by a demand to empathise how things work, which manifests as a passion for building and re-building PCs, self-hosting open source services, and researching what's new and next in the earth of tech. When he'southward not troubleshooting his home network, he can be found taking and editing photos, dabbling in infinite and flight sims, or taking infant steps into the earth of woodworking.