Meet Project Zero — where hardware and aesthetics converge.
If you've ever looked inside a desktop PC, you've almost certainly found a tangle of various power cables waiting for you.
The more expensive and professionally built the machine, the fewer cable segments you'll actually see. They'll be carefully hidden behind metal panels, bundled with zip ties or color-matched tape, and routed in ways that conceal them as much as possible.
And yet — they're always there. Jutting out of the motherboard at impossible angles, undermining the aesthetics.
Earlier this year, MSI announced Project Zero.
The goal of Project Zero is to create a line of hardware components that allow every cable to be connected from the rear side of the motherboard, leaving the side that faces outward toward the glass panel completely clean.
This is a far more complex undertaking than it might appear at first glance.
PC cases, motherboards, and graphics cards are all designed with front-facing cable connections, which means Project Zero requires that every component come from a limited list of compatible, supported hardware.
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Over the longer term, it's fair to say with a high degree of confidence that these components will become the standard — because they offer significantly easier access for cable management alongside a marked improvement in the overall aesthetics of the build.
I believe a PC is a piece of furniture with just as much character as a designer kitchen or a grand piano, and I strive to bring that philosophy to expression in every build I design.
Image source: MSI