How MSI Went From 'Game Over' to Gaming Industry Power Player

Zarathustra[H]

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Entrepreneur.com has an interesting story up about how MSI turned their troubled business around based on a focus on gaming and gamers, both inside and outside the company. Apparently things were not too rosy over at MSI as recently as 2009, but a shift in focus to gaming, including hiring employees passionate about gaming has made all the difference. This seems to fall in line with our recent reports of gaming currently driving the PC market as a whole.

Personally, I didn't realize MSI was in so much trouble in 2009. If they were, I would have guessed it had more to do with the financial crisis and a reputation for poor quality motherboards, after a series of high profile capacitor failure issues back in the day. With their motherboard issues many years behind them, I'm glad that this gaming focus has helped them. I just hope they are cognizant of the brewing backlash against excessive gaming aesthetic touches, we reported on last weekend.

Unlike consumer PC owners, customers in the gaming world typically demand high-performance devices to help enhance their game play--and they're willing to pay extra for them. While sales of traditional PCs have been slow or trending downward, high-end gaming PC sales are thriving. Specifically, the global gaming hardware market continues to grow and is expected to reach $140 billion by 2019. That's billion, with a "b."
 
Most interesting quote from the article

Demand full commitment from employees: In a company-wide announcement in 2012, co-founder Henry Lu informed staff that anyone who wasn't fully committed to MSI's new direction should leave the company. It was a bold move, but an important one. Changing gears so dramatically required employees to adapt quickly. Everyone needed be committed to the company's future success.

Over the next two years, some 400 people left MSI.​
 
I love their motherboards, and their Twin Frozr video cards. Hate to sound like a fanboy, but MSI is my computer hardware company of choice! :blackalien:
 
To say the least my track record with MSI is spotted.
My first MSI motherboard I had developed a strange issue which meant my computer would freeze randomly for no apparent reason.
my MSI board in my HTPC died too.
then I purchased an MSI x99 raider, it was DOA.

I was never one to go shopping based on brands, but it would be logical at this point to avoid MSI in the future.
 
My current board is an MSI .. only issue I've run into is it sometimes boots into the UEFI every now and then. Don't know why.
 
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I despised MSI for many years after constantly dealing with their 'jiffy pop' capacitor issues on client machines. It wasn't until dealing with a spastic ASRock board that I had in my personal rig that got swapped out with the only socket 1366 board I could find with an MSI. This board has been the best board I have ever owned. Stable overclocks that I could never achieve with the ASRock.

I then bought a cheap AMD chip and another MSI board around the same time and both are still running almost 7 years later.

I have built many more client boxes since then and yet to have one come back because of the motherboard. Wish I could say the same for ASUS.....

They have definitely gotten better although I will agree with the sentiment that the gaming theme has gone a little overboard.
 
I love their motherboards, and their Twin Frozr video cards. Hate to sound like a fanboy, but MSI is my computer hardware company of choice! :blackalien:
To say the least my track record with MSI is spotted.
My first MSI motherboard I had developed a strange issue which meant my computer would freeze randomly for no apparent reason.
my MSI board in my HTPC died too.
then I purchased an MSI x99 raider, it was DOA.

I was never one to go shopping based on brands, but it would be logical at this point to avoid MSI in the future.
I despised MSI for many years after constantly dealing with their 'jiffy pop' capacitor issues on client machines. It wasn't until dealing with a spastic ASRock board that I had in my personal rig that got swapped out with the only socket 1366 board I could find with an MSI. This board has been the best board I have ever owned. Stable overclocks that I could never achieve with the ASRock.

I then bought a cheap AMD chip and another MSI board around the same time and both are still running almost 7 years later.

I have built many more client boxes since then and yet to have one come back because of the motherboard. Wish I could say the same for ASUS.....

They have definitely gotten better although I will agree with the sentiment that the gaming theme has gone a little overboard.


I used to be a huge fan of Abit back in the day, but ever since their demise, I haven't had much in the way of brand loyalty. With motherboards - however - I mostly consider Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, in about that order.
 
I despised MSI for many years after constantly dealing with their 'jiffy pop' capacitor issues on client machines. It wasn't until dealing with a spastic ASRock board that I had in my personal rig that got swapped out with the only socket 1366 board I could find with an MSI. This board has been the best board I have ever owned. Stable overclocks that I could never achieve with the ASRock.

I then bought a cheap AMD chip and another MSI board around the same time and both are still running almost 7 years later.

I have built many more client boxes since then and yet to have one come back because of the motherboard. Wish I could say the same for ASUS.....

They have definitely gotten better although I will agree with the sentiment that the gaming theme has gone a little overboard.


ASRock socket 1366 mobos, now those were a nightmare. My company purchased 5 and 4 died within 6 months. I still scavenge some parts from them here and there if I need a single capacitor or component. I found a working one in storage and didn't even bother selling it with the i7 920 and RAM simply because I knew it had a high chance of dying - didn't want someone to have their rig die in the coming months.
 
I generally look to MSI for all my GPUs. I don't think I own a single other brand......and I have a shit-ton of GPUs.

As for MBs, I've never owned anything other than ASUS for gaming and Gigabyte mITX for my HTPC and my office machines.
 
I love their motherboards, and their Twin Frozr video cards. Hate to sound like a fanboy, but MSI is my computer hardware company of choice! :blackalien:

The only reason I'm not on an MSI build right now is because they didn't really have x270 ready when I took the plunge, but in my mind they are the best most reliable builder of anything gaming related, though I don't have anything bad to say about Gigabyte right now either.
 
They've certainly made quite a turn around. I remember them mostly as a mediocre brand when I first heard of them. I've liked them so much recently though, that I picked up an MSi 1070 and Krait motherboard. They've been pretty good items for the price so far.
 
The MSI gaming laptops are competitive in terms of bang for the buck. Plus they have lots of choices from low end to high end. I have one with a 970m and it is a good performer at 1080p. It also has a speedy nvme ssd.
 
I love their motherboards, and their Twin Frozr video cards. Hate to sound like a fanboy, but MSI is my computer hardware company of choice! :blackalien:

As far as stability and UEFI goes I like MSI boards. They make some really really stupid decisions on layout at times though. Labeling a board as an SLI edition yet having the two PCI-E slots that you have to use for SLI so close that the two cards will touch each other. Then their boneheaded connector layout on the Z971I Gaming AC. That board had the worst layout I have ever seen on an ITX board. I have no idea what they were thinking.
 
For me, the money quote for [H] was

While sales of traditional PCs have been slow or trending downward, high-end gaming PC sales are thriving. Specifically, the global gaming hardware market continues to grow and is expected to reach $140 billion by 2019.

Sites like [H] perform a hugely valuable function in this market.
 
I love their motherboards, and their Twin Frozr video cards. Hate to sound like a fanboy, but MSI is my computer hardware company of choice! :blackalien:

First and last MSI product I've purchased was a GTX260-216; it produced artifacts, and was promptly returned for an EVGA, I believe. I've been with EVGA since (except for that one time I tried AMD).

Can't say I wouldn't mind given them another shot.
 
I'm glad they recovered. I didn't know they had such issues. I still have and use my MSI NF680i SLI P6N Diamond as an htpc. MY buddy also still uses his old MSI GTX460 video card. No issues, these are solid products. Pretty much one of the key reasons I haven't used their boards in a while is color scheme.
 
Last time I bought one was 1366 board reviewed by [H] and the thing never worked right. RMA didn't work either so I haven't bought MSI since.
 
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