MSI Codex R2 Gaming Desktop: Intel Core i5-14400F, Geforce RTX 4060 Ti, 16GB DDR5, 1TB m.2 NVMe SSD, 80+ Gold PSU, WiFi, Keyboard & Mouse, DIY Friendly, Windows 11 Home:…

I’ve been using the MSI Codex R Gaming Desktop for around four months now, primarily for gaming and video/photo editing work. It’s been a solid performer, handling everything I throw at it with ease, from demanding games on the highest settings to multitasking between heavy applications. The machine’s capabilities have thoroughly impressed me.

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing from the get-go. Initially, during setup, I encountered a significant issue tied to the pre-installed MSI software, commonly referred to as bloatware. It somehow managed to disrupt Windows, necessitating a complete reinstallation of the operating system shortly after unboxing. Opting to skip the MSI software on the second go-round proved to be a wise choice, though a minor Windows issue did crop up. Thankfully, a simple command prompt fix, suggested by Windows support, quickly resolved this.

Comparing it to my previous setup, an Alienware, there were noticeable differences in build quality—particularly the feel of the jacks and USB ports, which seemed a notch below what I was accustomed to. Despite these minor gripes and the initial hiccup, the MSI Codex R offers exceptional value for its price range. It delivers the performance needed for high-level gaming and intensive creative work, making it a recommendation from me, especially if you’re in the market for a capable gaming PC. Just a heads up to perhaps steer clear of the MSI software to avoid potential setup issues.

Overall the system is decent. Replaced my 10 year old gaming PC (Haswell era i7, and a mid-life upgrade to a GTX1060 GPU). It’s decently put together, and they made sure to not choke the ram to a single channel by using 2 sticks of 16 gig to make the 32 gig total. As someone who’s about 20 years past wanting to spend the time fiddling around with parts to build my own system I’m quite happy with the value proposition here, it’s a reasonable price for someone else to handle the headache of assembly and part selection.

The one thing that I would say that wasn’t so great, proper XMP profiles for the ram were not set in the bios so the ram was running substantially slower then what it is rated for. Selecting the proper speeds and timing was easy enough but you do have to know to go in and do it.

Edit to add: to the person saying the SSD is attached to the motherboard, it’s an NVME stick. There’s a little screaming that holds it down. Once you undo it you can swap it out with another NVME stick. 2.5 inch drives do t plug into that port, they use SATA. There’s two empty drive bays in the bottom of the case you can install a 2.5 inch drive in and plug in the SATA and power cables

First the specs, since I couldn’t find any specifics anywhere (even on the MSI site). This is what mine specifically came with. Your mileage may vary, depending on how you configure it. Also it seems like this page just gets updated as they upgrade this model, so as of JAN 2024, mine came configured as follows:

Motherboard: MSI PRO B760-VC WIFI
Proc: i7-13700F 2.1 GHz
Memory: Kingston Fury DDR5-5600 (16GB (2×8), Part Number KF556C40BB-8, Timing 40-40-40 @ 1.25V)
NVME: MSI M450 SPATIUM (2TB, PCIe Gen 4, 3600 MB/s)
Display Adapter: MSI Ventus RTX 4060 TI (8GB, OC)
Power Supply: 650W (80 PLUS Gold, don’t remember mfg)
Windows 11 Pro

It should be noted that I immediately removed the Kingston and installed Corsair Vengeance (64GB CMH64GX5M2B6400C32). The following information may be affected by that.

I didn’t do extensive benchmarks, just quick 3DMark runs:

VRS T1: 880 Off / 1310 On
Mesh Shader: 243 Off / 454 On
Time Spy: Score 13611 (Test 1 – 88FPS, Test 2 – 76 FPS, Physics – 48 FPS)
Solar Bay: Score 61614 (Test 1 238 FBS, Test 2 – 238 FPS, Test 3 – 224 FPS) (This is a DX11 test, though.)

Monitors are currently a Dell 32″ Curved primary and two Sceptre 27″ sidecars (don’t judge me).

Pros (in plain English)
– Super quiet
– For my use case (non-competitive gameplay and software development) performance is excellent
– MSI BIOS is easy to use if you need to muck around in there (automatically detected and set the correct XMP profile for the new memory, though. Could have just been the default. I don’t remember.)
– No bloatware (Just MSI Center and GEForce preinstalled)
– Included mouse and keyboard are functional, but I’m not using them
– There is a second NVMe slot on the board, but it disables the SATA6 port. (How much storage do you ACTUALLY need? You’re an insane person. There’s only three drive slots in the thing.)
– Comes with video card support installed. It’s a rail that attaches to the case with three screws, so it is secure for a card this size.

Cons
– No 3.5 drive bays
– Network driver isn’t included by default in Windows 11 installation, so if you reinstall Windows, be sure to have the network driver available
– After a reinstall, the system will automatically download the MSI Center and GEForce once you’re connected to the internet. Can probably uninstall it, I don’t know if it would pull it down again. MSI Center is one of those modular “swiss army applications” that tries to do a little bit of everything, but is ultimately redundant and not great at any of the things it does. It also conflicts with iCUE, so you’ll need to work around that if you run into lighting issues with your Corsair stuff (if you have any).

The Meh
– LED fans if you’re into that sort of thing.
– Mouse and keyboard are “present”. Keyboard is advertised as “mechanical-like” which means nothing. It’s either mechanical or it isn’t. And it isn’t, but it works “fine”.
– No heatsink on NVMe, which is good or bad, depending on your school of thought. I haven’t had any issues so far.
– Excess cables are just kinda stuffed into the power supply basement. If you’re adding anything (I threw in my old SSD to use as extra storage and because I had to pull some data off of it), you’ll have to rip out that entire bundle of cables and hope you don’t accidentally yank too hard on something that’s already attached to something else. But there’s really nowhere else for these to go unless you want them dangling in your case. (Hint: you don’t.)
– Cooling is adequate. Sitting idle, the CPU is holding at 30C and the GPU at 50C. You don’t need liquid or an AIO for this.

Pro Tip

It ships with that expanding foam pack to support the video card. This can be tricky to remove. I suggest that you remove the video card support rail (the foam bag kinda swells around that and gets hung) and try to gently crush the foam toward the bottom of the case and AWAY from the motherboard. Don’t push toward the board and don’t push directly down without pulling away. Take it slow or you can break something.

Solid little machine. It’s not a beast. Don’t fall for the “never buy MSI” or “never buy pre-built” mindset. If you have the time, patience, experience and money to build your own, go for it. But for the price, this machine is fine and you get a warranty so you aren’t calling six different companies to RMA something if it breaks.

After 3 month the computer stopped working and MSI does not provide parts replacet. Amazon does not want to replace or refunds as it after their 30 days replacement policy.
I have no computer and no refund.

Shame on you Amazon