MEG Prospect 700R. New definition of high-end by MSI

Martin Bednár

1 year ago

Conclusion

We’ve had cases with a display in our tests before, but MSI has taken its usability to a new level. The touchpad can still be used for control, but it also serves as an indicator for various useful things. Sure, the case sits pretty high at three hundred euros, but it’s not just about the extra cost of the display. The MEG Prospect 700R also justifies the price in other aspects. For example, the really precise build quality.

Basic parameters


Parameters	MSI
	MEG Prospect 700R

Supported motherboard formats	Mini-ITX, mATX, ATX, E-ATX
Supported PSU format	ATX
CPU cooler	up to 185 mm
Graphics cards	up to 440 mm
Fan	10× 120 mm/7× 140 mm (4× pre-installed)
Supported liquid radiators	2× up to 280/3× up to 360 mm
2,5" positions	2 + 2 shared
3,5" positions	2 shared
5,25" positions	0
Dimensions [H/D/W] (and volume)	537 × 585 × 257 mm (75 l without feet)
Weight	15,95 kg
Materials	steel + plastic + tempered glass
Connectivity	2× USB 3.2 gen. 1 type A + 1× USB 3.2 gen. 2 type C + 2× 3,5mm jack
Approx. retail price	300 EUR

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Exterior

Upon pulling out the contents of the full-colour box, you can see that this is a luxury case. This is indicated by the tailor-made fabric wrapping instead of the usual plastic and the sturdy filling in the box, which is made of foam. So it won’t leave a mess behind when you take it out, as with polystyrene. The accessories of the case are also quite plentiful. You’ve got the standard supplied screws, single-use zip ties, and simple installation instructions. You can get to the detailed one on MSI’s website in electronic form. Less commonly found in case accessories are a Phillips screwdriver, a three-fan splitter cable, and a vertical graphics card bracket, but you’ll find all of that here too. In the next accessory box, there are three rectangular plates for various customizations of the case.

The left side panel consists of two parts. The larger part is made of tempered glass, while the smaller part is a combination of plastic and sheet metal. The front part of the side panel is coated with anodised aluminium on the surface, which gives the case a luxurious look. Size-wise, the side panel covers the entire side of the case and extends all the way to the front panel. But it doesn’t stop there and protrudes slightly beyond it. The protruding front part of the side panel serves to open the case, as it can be gripped there.

The mounting of the side panel is elegantly designed with two hinges, which allow the side panel to remain attached to the case and one to reach inside the case. Of course, for more complicated operations, it is advisable to simply remove the entire side panel by lifting it. The three round latches that fit directly into the locks on the case frame are used to secure the side panel. This tool-less method of securing is becoming increasingly popular among case manufacturers. To protect both the side panel and the front panel, it has thin rubber pads on the front to reduce the chance of scratching one part or the other when closing.

Considering the size of the side panel and the way it opens, I would imagine that the glass could be as thick as four millimetres, but in this case the glass thickness is smaller, namely 2.9 mm.

The right side panel is mounted and secured to the case using the same system as the left side panel. The only difference is that most of it is made of sheet metal. Its front part is covered by an irregular band of triangular perforations. On the inside, however, the perforations are covered by a fine nylon dust filter, so you don’t have to worry about dust covering the cables. The filter from the front fits precisely into the grooves on the side panel, while the other side is held in place by magnets.

The front mask stands out with its sharp contours and triangular perforations. To remove it, it is necessary to open both side panels with the overlap. The sheet metal perforation is secured on top by ball studs, while underneath it is merely hooked into the holes. It is therefore necessary to pull on the upper part to remove it.

After removing the sheet metal perforation, you get to the fine nylon filter that effectively protects the inside of the case from even fine dust particles. The dust filter can be easily removed using the handle on its top. Since it is attached to the body only with the help of magnets on its sides, you just need to overcome their force. Behind the filter, you will come across three ARGB fans of 140 mm format. Interestingly for a 300 EUR case, there are no further specifications of the fitted fans. The only thing that can be ascertained is the supply voltage (12 V), current (0.28 A) and designation (14025 L 1.0) directly from the label on the back of the fan.

The fans are mounted on a metal frame, which can be removed with four screws if necessary. The presence of this frame makes the installation of a liquid cooler radiator in particular much easier, even if the case is already fitted with components. You have enough space for a liquid cooler radiator in the 280/360 mm format.

The reason to choose the MEG Prospect 700R is undoubtedly its touch-controlled display. It is the capacitive type with a diagonal of 4.3″ at a resolution of 480 × 800 px. Before testing, I had my doubts about the reliability of the touch control display, but my fears were ultimately unnecessary. Every subtle touch of the display was perfectly registered and responded to immediately.

The touch panel has not only an informative but also a functional role. With its help, you can almost fully control the entire case. On the main screen you will find eight different options: ARGB, Fans, Screen Saver, Sync Mode, Hardware monitor, Weather, Clock, Temp.

ARGB – You can instantly select a backlight mode with the corresponding colour. You don’t have to click through the button many times, as is usual.
Fans – via “Port” A, B, C or D you control all fans connected to the touch panel microprocessor. The only thing missing for full control of the case is precise fan regulation. Through the panel you can only control them in 20% increments.
Screen Saver – If the panel is not in use, you can activate the screensaver. This can be set to a duration of inactivity from 30 to 120 seconds. There are three different animations to choose from.
Sync Mode – select how you want to control the colour and speed of the fans. Either via the touchpad, the MSI Center utility app, or the motherboard.
Hardware monitor – you can monitor the CPU and graphics card clock speeds as well as their temperatures on the display. However, this feature is only available with the MSI Center app installed.
Weather – This feature, which is only active with the utility app, shows you the temperature, UV index, humidity and precipitation probability in your selected location.
Clock – displays the time, which it takes from your operating system. Also, the function is not available without the utility application.
Temp – informs you about the temperature from a sensor that is connected to the microprocessor of the touch panel.

Among the case’s connectors are two USB Type-A ports, separate microphone and headphone outputs, and, as the icing on the cake, USB Type-C. The latter is not just any USB Type-C . Its theoretical bandwidth reaches up to 20 Gbps. Although this USB speed standard was introduced back in 2017, its use in cases is still very rare.

The restart and power buttons have a brushed finish. Interestingly, the power button is slightly recessed into the case, unlike the restart button. That one is flush with the top panel. Pressing them is very comfortable and provides tactile and audible feedback.

The rest of the top is made up of a metal panel with triangular perforations. This can be easily removed using the handle at the back. The securing system is the same as on the whole case, with snap-in ball studs. The presence of a fine nylon filter located directly under this panel, which is not commonplace even on more expensive cases, should be appreciated. The filter covers the opening for three 120/140mm fans or a liquid cooler radiator up to 280/360mm.

At the back of the case you can notice a larger perforated space directly under the ceiling. This indicates that there will be plenty of space in the case even in these places. Underneath there is an opening for the motherboard I/O panel. Right next to that is a perforation for a 120/140mm fan, with one of the same fans as the ones in the front already installed here. There are seven covers for PCI Express expansion card slots. Along with the motherboard opening, these parts are recessed 15mm inwards into the case, which means you’ll need to open the left side panel to access them. There’s a removable bracket at the bottom for a power supply. This means that its mounting will be from the rear and not from the side. Underneath there is a handle for the dust filter on the bottom of the case.

All three vents at the bottom are also equipped with a fine dust filter that can be pulled out by the handle. Personally, I prefer the option to pull it towards the front as I have a wall behind the case and so pulling it out is not easy. The dust filter is secured on the sides by metal brackets, but they are very tight and removing the filter was a struggle. But it can certainly be solved by modifying them yourself, by bending them. There are non-slip rubber pads on the feet that hold the case firmly in place.

Interior

The inside of the case is spacious with the ability to accommodate perhaps any hardware of your choice. From the factory, the case is ready for Mini-ITX, mATX and ATX motherboards. However, it is possible to extend the support up to E-ATX (310 × 304.8 mm) motherboards, using one of the three accessory panels. For graphics cards, the manufacturer specifies a maximum length of 400 mm but there’s 440 mm of space from the PCI Express expansion slot covers to the fan frame. For a tower CPU cooler, up to 185 mm is available.

All openings for cables are fitted with rubber grommets for a uniform appearance. The holes are not the largest, but 21 mm is enough to thread the cables through without difficulty. Alternatively, you can use the side vertical hole to thread the cables through if you would like.

On the top of the tunnel you also have three identical grommets as on the motherboard tray. There are three holes in the middle to secure the vertical graphics card bracket. However, you must remove all the PCI Express expansion card slot covers when mounting it. The front of the tunnel is made of plastic and is different in color from the rest of it.

The case can also be disassembled with the tunnel and side panel next to the tray. It is this space that is reserved for the three panels from the accessories. The first extends motherboard support up to E-ATX format. The second serves as a bracket for three 120mm fans or a 120/240/360mm liquid cooler radiator. The third serves only as a cabling cover from the rear.

There are two positions on the floor of the disassembled tunnel for the storage drawer bracket. Depending on the accessory panel used, this can be removed or repositioned more towards the centre of the case. However, placing the bracket in the middle of the case doesn’t leave much room for the power supply with cables. The Corsair RM750x test power supply is 160 mm long and there is only 50 mm available for the cables in the case of a center bracket placement. But if it is in the front, I still have 170 mm of space available.

The first photo shows the original panel serving as an extra opening for the threading cables. The second photo is with a panel extending motherboard support. You will have to remove the storage drawers when using it though, as it interferes with them. On the third is a panel as a mount for three 120mm fans or a 120/240/360mm liquid cooler radiator. If you want to fit the bracket all the way, you’ll have to remove the plastic front of the tunnel with the storage drawers.

EKWB, in cooperation with MSI, has created a liquid reservoir with pump exactly for the MEG Prospect 700R and 700RL cases. This is designed exactly into the hole where the accessory panels are also installed.

The front plastic part of the tunnel is held to the body by two screws and two pins. When removed, you have up to 135 mm of space between the front frame and the rest of the tunnel. This can be used for the reservoir, for example.

On the other side of the tray you will find a large number of cables but also two troughs directly for them. The centre trough is designed for most cables. Three Velcro straps are available to secure them. I immediately don’t like its rectangular ending at the bottom, though. You’ll have to bend the cables directly from the power supply to get them in there at all. The trough at the end of the case is rather narrower, as only the cable for the CPU power supply is routed there. There are up to four Velcro strips ready for that.

From the trough to the side panel, you have a solid 33 mm of space for cable management. The panel with a hole for threading cables gives you an additional 33 mm.

Among all the many cables you will find one special one. This one is terminated with a sensor to measure the temperature that the display will show you when you click on the “Temp.” box. Its length is sufficient to place it anywhere in the case.

The hub and also the microchip that controls the entire case is located on the top of the tray. It is powered through a SATA cable directly from the power supply. You can plug in six fans with a 4-pin connector and six peripherals with a 3-pin connector for ARGB. You only have the ability to control four ports on the display though, as the first three connectors on the hub fall under “Port A”.

There are relatively few storage positions for such a large case. Behind the motherboard on the tray is a bracket for two 2.5″ storage drives. This hooks onto the tray from the bottom and secures with a single screw on top. The other two positions are in the tunnel. You can fit both 2.5″ and 3.5″ storage in the two hybrid drawers. The disadvantage with 3.5″ platter drives is that they only fit on the side posts of the drawer. There are no anti-vibration pads available.

The manufacturer specifies a sheet thickness of 0.8 mm, while we measured around 0.9 mm at various positions. The bottom line is that the tray and overall the case is solid and does not bend. That is, except for the right side panel. The latter has the same thickness but because of its length and the two-point mounting on the hinges, it wobbles when opened.

Installation of components was quick and easy thanks to the large space inside the case. Also the space under the ceiling is ample, 72 mm. With the variant of the panel with a cable hole, cable management was easy and also visually up to par. This was also helped by the additional panel, which is only designed to cover the cables at the front of the case. However, I can’t imagine using a different panel and having to bend cables from the power supply directly into the trough in order to thread them through the grommets. Here it would be enough to simply leave the trough straight at the bottom.

Utility app

Without the MSI Center utility app, the display won’t show you hardware info, current time or weather information. It can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website, but when you choose an operating system, the only choice is the latest Windows 11. But it also works without difficulty on Windows 10, on which I tested it.

When viewing hardware information, you can select the clock speed and temperature of a processor and a graphics card

You have three display options for current time

The weather is updated every three hours, and you also need to have location tracking enabled in your operating system settings

MSI Center fully replaces your motherboard app for fan control

There are three default animations for the screensaver, but you can also add your own

Test methodology

The case has no shortage of air supply from the surroundings thanks to the three 140 mm fans in the front in the intake position. However, it’s weaker on exhausting already heated air. This is taken care of by just one 140 mm fan installed at the back of the case. Of course, the physics will also do its job through the perforations on the ceiling. For 300 EUR, the case should already have the cooling fine-tuned, so we will only test the variant with the original fan setup.

Testing is done in a home environment where I strive for the most accurate results possible. In the room during testing, the air temperature in front of the case is 23 degrees Celsius and the minimum noise level I can measure with the Voltcraft SL-100 noise meter is 32.4 dBA. The sensor of the noise meter is aligned to the center of the top of the case at a distance of 10 cm, for the best measurement of the speed difference of the fans, which I change using the motherboard. For easy comparison to other cases, they are always regulated to fixed noise levels.

Individual components are heated for 10 minutes in FurMark synthetic stress tests and with Prime95 (custom settings) at the same time. This time is long enough to allow all components to warm up sufficiently. There are then 15-minute cooling breaks between tests, during which the component temperatures (and the case air temperature as well) are brought back to default.

Noise mode levels:

36 dBA
38 dBA
39 dBA


Test setup
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Taichi
CPU cooler	Scythe Fuma rev. 2 (single fan)
Thermal compound	Noctua NT-H2
Graphics card	Asus RTX 2060 Super Dual
RAM	Patriot, 2× 8GB, 3600 MHz/CL17
SSD	Western Digital Blue 500GB (2280)
Power supply	Corsair RM750X

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CPU and GPU cooling tests

Motherboard cooling tests

SSD cooling tests

Temperature under the ceiling

Conclusion

The Prospect 700R didn’t shine when it came to CPU cooling, but it didn’t let itself be embarrassed either. It certainly wouldn’t have hurt the case to have another 140 mm fan right on the ceiling for the price of 300 EUR. It could even be without backlight. It came in second place in graphics card cooling at 39 dBA, just behind the Torrent case from Fractal Design. The Prospect 700R now takes the top spot in cooling efficiency when it comes to under-ceiling temperature. The other measured values are also in a better section compared to the competition.

The build quality of all parts of the case is of a high standard. All plates and even the large side panels fit exactly into place. You can see that the designers have taken great care with the details. Every perforation where the case can suck in dust has its own fine nylon filter. This is a great advantage especially in dusty environments. The only thing I don’t like is the method of removing the bottom one – by pulling it backwards. If you have a wall behind the case, you’ll exercise your biceps when you push it out.

The customizability of the case is also great thanks to the interchangeable panels. You can choose whether to fit an additional radiator next to the motherboard or extend the motherboard format up to E-ATX, or leave an extra “hidden” hole for the cabling. EKWB even created a bespoke liquid reservoir with a water pump for the case.

The touch panel display is a nice innovation among cases. Thanks to it, you can control the fan speed and backlight without the need for an app. You can also view information about the status of the CPU and graphics card, the weather or even the current time. The smoothness of the display and the speed of the touch response is great.

The installation of the components into the case went without difficulty. Even the largest variants of the current hardware can be fitted into the case, so I still had plenty of room to manipulate with the test setup I used. Cable management is convenient with the original removable panel that creates an additional hole for the cables. But if you were to use a different panel, the bending of the main cable management trough already ruins the enjoyment of a simple installation.

The MSI MEG Prospect 700R case, priced at 300 EUR, features effective cooling, various customizations and great build quality. To top it all off, you get a touchscreen display panel on the front panel, through which you can control the case and display various information. All this in one case deserves the “Top-notch” award.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš


MSI MEG Prospect 700R
+ Component cooling at an excellent level
+ Four efficient 140 mm fans pre-installed...
+ ... space for ten fans in total
+ High build quality
+ Touch panel display...
+ ... case control without software
+ Four fine nylon filters
+ USB Type-C connector with speeds up to 20 Gbps
+ High customizability of the case
- An unfortunate bend in the cable routing trough

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