MSI Stealth Chassis Reviewed: Mixed Experiences

The chassis has a rubberized exterior except for the steel side panels and back. This gives the chassis a nice feel and a good overall look. The chassis felt sturdy, as well.




The front panel has two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 Super Charger port, and standard headphone and microphone jacks. However, we immediately noticed that the front panel USB 3.0 ports were sticking out and misaligned. The USB 3.0 were permanently affixed in that position, and had no wiggle whatsoever. MSI believed that the cause was due to mishandling during shipping, although the packaging was quite secure, and we think that any sort of damage caused by shipping would have likely caused the USB 3.0 ports to become loose in their sockets.


Original

Our replacement chassis exhibited the same permanent misalignment, though not to the same degree of severity.


Replacement

The bottom of the chassis has two dust filters. However, unlike the majority of dust filters we have seen on chassis, these dust filters had no border plastic to allow them to pop into or slide on/off a chassis. These filters were just some mesh with tabs cut into it designed to slide into a few metal slots on the bottom of the chassis. Since mesh is not the most rigid of materials, this design caused the dust filters to fall off at the slightest disturbance. Putting them back on only takes a minute or so, but it is an annoyance that could easily have been avoided by spending a bit more money on materials to create a slide in panel for a dust filter.