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The MSI Wind Top AE2400 is an attractive unit, even if it is a little on the porky side (7cm deep). It weighs 12kg, so you certainly won't be mistaking this for your laptop. It is not the kind of machine you would move on a regular basis anyway, so I wouldn't consider this an issue. The large 23.6 inch screen is fully HD 1080p compliant (1920×1080) with multi touch support.
The piano black bezel and screen are both extremely reflective with chrome feet underneath. The rear of the chassis is gun metal gray, not black.
At the bottom, the MSI logo takes centerstage. On the right, as is common with PC hardware, we have a row of stickers, highlighting the hardware inside. At the top in the middle, is the obligatory webcam to keep in touch with family and friends.
On the right there is the Bluray player and below this, two USB 2.0 ports and a multi card reader to easily move files between cameras and the computer.
At the rear there is plenty of connectivity which is good to see as this is designed to be an all in one machine. There are four more USB 2.0 ports here, eSATA and a Gigabit Etnernet port as well as an antenna jack for the optional TV tuner card. There is also a 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack here, which would surely have been better on the side, under the USB 2.0 ports. A Digital Optical output is also included for connection to a surround sound system. An unusual combination of VGA out and HDMI in ports are included if you wanted to connect your Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 console.
The front panel also houses two speakers with a subwoofer built into the chassis to add more depth to the audio experience. Unlike the Dell system we reviewed a short while ago, all the buttons are placed above the speaker system and are touch sensitive, including the power button. They are actually rather good and the picture settings can be adjusted here via an onscreen panel. Contrast, brightness and colour temperature options are covered with even a seperate RGB colour control is available.
The screen is a Twisted Nematic panel and delivers a reasonably good overall image. Text is clear and crisp and colours are well defined and richly saturated. With a 1080p resolution it is ideal for High definition movies however it generates many reflections if the room is even remotely lit up. The glossy finish however looks fantastic at night when you might be enjoying movies in your bedroom. Greyscale response is very good and there is a low level of backlight bleed which helps improve the black definition.
Viewing angles are particularly strong, especially as this is a TN panel. Colours are well maintained from various angles although vertically it is slightly less impressive. It certainly won't be offering a serious challenge for the 27 inch iMac, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of image. The video above is filmed from a pocket HD camera held in front of the screen, while it isnt a perfect reproduction it does give a reasonable overview of the image and audio from the AE2400.
There are two panels at the rear which can be easily removed, giving access to the memory slots and mini PCIe port.
The Windows experience index reports a healthy series of figures, limited by the mechanical hard drive.
On first boot up the end user is presented with a variety of screens to fine tune the software installation. Above is the complete software install if everything is installed. It is a bold step from MSI to offer the user a choice of software and we hope to see more manufacturers taking this route.
CPUZ screen shots detailing the E5400 specifications and memory configuration. Not a shocker to see an MSI motherboard inside.
The Radeon HD565v is certainly no powerhouse, but it should deliver a reasonable overall experience. It also has 1GB of GDDR3 onboard.
During testing today we are going to compare against the Dell Inspiron One (All in One) 23, which is a very similar system design, but utilises a Core i3 370M processor.
