14 DAY TRIAL // While releasing a pair of gaming laptops and a multimedia notebook, Micro-Star International updated its collection of all-in-one computer systems as well, its business line to be precise.
The two systems go by the names of Wind Top AE2081 and AE2081G. Mostly, they have the same hardware, down to military Class II components, though the latter also gets NVIDIA discrete graphics.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. The new Wind Top AiO systems measure 20 inches in screen diagonal length.
The screen is a liquid crystal display panel (LCD) with a native resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels, just one step above HD (1366 x 768 pixels).
The CPU at the heart of it all is an Intel Core i3 3220, supported by the H61 chipset and featuring the Intel HD 2500 integrated graphics.
4 GB of DDR3-1333 MHz memory back it up, although the capacity can be raised to 8 GB if required.
Moving on, a 3.5-inch SATA HDDs provides 500 GB of storage space (SATA II 3.0 Gbps speed only), while the standard set of I/O ports provide connection between the system and peripherals, as well as external storage and networking devices.
In this, at least, MSI did not hold back and implemented USB 3.0 support, a multi-card reader, two HDMI ports (one out, one in), Wi-Fi, optional PCI Express, LAN, etc.
As for graphics, we said that only the Wind Top AE2081G had discrete graphics. The GPU in question is NVIDIA GeForce GT630M and yes, Optimus technology is present (it switches between it and the Integrated GPU based on need).
Finally, since we did not mention it when we described the screen, the LCD is covered with a multi-touch panel, presumably to make Windows 8 navigation easy.
Alas, MSI does not ship the newcomers with Microsoft's newest OS, but Windows 7 Home Premium. For the full touch experience, buyers will need to acquire their own copy of Windows 8 and install it.