MSI
MSI recently added its first CMP series card for cryptocurrency mining to its product range. Specifically, this Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) looks a lot like the GeForce GTX 1660 and RTX 1660 Super from the well-known Taiwanese manufacturer (which you can also find in our article on the best graphics cards), but it has no video outputs and cannot be used for image or video rendering.MSI CMP 30HX Miner XS is equipped with NVIDIA's TU116 GPU, equipped with 1408 CUDA cores running from 1,530 to 1,785 MHz depending on conditions. The card is equipped with 6GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit interface, just like the GeForce GTX 1660, and uses a cooling system consisting of a large aluminum heatsink with two heatpipes and two fans with double ball bearings. The mining device requires an eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector due to the 125W power consumption.
MSI says its CMP 30HX Miner XS board uses a custom designed PCB that provides “increased reliability and enhanced power circuits to push it to its limits ”. Additionally, an Ethereum hash rate of 26MH / s is declared, but performance can vary based on factors such as clock speed and operating temperature. Measuring only 206x127x42mm, the board is quite small, so it shouldn't be difficult to use a large number of them in a mining farm. Miner XS, nor any modified warranty terms. In fact, as we have previously reported, Gigabyte offers a limited warranty of only three months on its CMP, although in the European Union, by law, electronic products should be warranted for at least two years.
Looking for a new PSU to power your next GPU? Corsair RM750X, 750W modular power supply, is available on Amazon.
Don’t fall for the scam MSI Afterburner website that’s doing the rounds
If you’re looking to download MSI Afterburner, take a moment to check if the website is the real deal. MSI warns that it’s the latest target of scammers pretending to ship the software in order to piggyback viruses, trojans, keyloggers, and other nasty malware onto your gaming PC.
With the domain name disguised as afterburner-msi.space, it looks official enough if you just want to install the software and quickly tinker with your GPU settings, but it has no affiliation with MSI. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t visit this suspicious URL and if you wind up on the webpage, don’t download anything. Instead, head to the official Afterburner website.
Thankfully, the impersonating site isn’t likely to catch many people out as it doesn’t currently appear on a quick Google search and MSI is doing all it can to remove the imposter to prevent further harm. Don’t panic if you’ve fallen into the trap, however, as there are plenty of steps you can take to remove malware from your system and keep yourself protected.
To help you navigate the fraudulent minefield that is the World Wide Web, ProPrivacy’s Andreas Theodorou advises that you always “check the URL to see if it matches that of the official site, and if it doesn’t you may be walking right into a cybercriminal’s trap.”
He recommends you “always check what comes before the ‘.com’, and if it doesn’t match or there are any other questionable differences, it’s best to err on the side of caution, contact the support team, and see if you can manually navigate to the official website’s homepage.” For example, https://www.msi.com/Landing/afterburner/graphics-cards is the official link, with MSI as the domain name and Afterburner located in the path after the first forward slash.
And even if you take all the right precautions and your PC shows no signs of a virus, it’s worth giving it a digital clean every so often, just to be on the safe side.