TAIPEI—The 2025 edition of Computex, Asia’s biggest tech trade show, wasn’t just another AI-soaked, silicon-fueled spectacle. It was a playground, as it always is, of wild ideas and bold experiments. From experimental liquid coolers to innovative new approaches to AI workstations that run massive models out of the box, this year’s show was buzzing with prototypes that pushed the limits of PC design.

Some will make it to your desktop. Others might never leave the prototype bench. But all of them push boundaries and spark imagination. Let’s run down the most promising—and flat-out coolest—ones we saw.

MSI MEG CoreLiquid E13 360

AIO liquid CPU coolers with LCD screens on them are pretty much standard issue these days for PC modders, and the makers of these gadgets are engaged in an arms race of sheer LCD outrageousness. (We saw one Thermaltake AIO model, the Minecube 360, at Computex that escalated matters to a laugh-out-loud four LCD screens on a cube. It’s part of our best-in-show roundup.) This MSI prototype model, though, takes a different tack: The 6-inch, smartphone-size screen can be rotated to horizontal or vertical orientation to suit what you want to display. Vertical-style social media video? No problem. Horizontal movie clips? That works, too, in the other orientation. Pogo pins on the cooler head engage with a contact circle on the underside of the screen to make rotation swaps snap-on simple.

(Credit: John Burek)

Also, note that the hoses running from the cooler’s heat exchanger to the radiator enter the center of the radiator, not the end as in most AIO cooler designs. That’s to minimize the length of the hose run and keep the interior of your PC looking neat. (That aspect isn’t exclusive to MSl; we saw a similar mid-radiator hose-placement design in a prototype cooler from newcomer SAMA; there may be others.) 

(Credit: John Burek)

Tryx Stage

Another CPU-cooler innovation is this cute, quirky innovation from PC case and cooling maker Tryx. You place figurines, miniatures, or other objects on this mirrored platform, which is situated atop the CPU heat exchanger, as you can see here.

(Credit: John Burek)

The two rear faces are 4-inch LCDs, and you can set up a mini light show or other spectacle on the screen, simulating a tiny concert or other event on your micro-stage. The screen playback is reflected in the mirror, amping up a spectacular stage set of your own building. Now, go find inch-tall versions of Roger Waters and David Gilmour, and you can reunite Pink Floyd in 2025 inside your next desktop.

Corsair Frame 4000D With PowerBoard

Corsair was demonstrating handful of prototype technologies in its Frame 4000D PC case, our winner for the Best PC DIY Product of CES 2025. One item was a power supply with a transparent enclosure. Another was a modular sound card/amp in the front panel’s bottom, a detachable unit that allows for enhanced audio output and even a dedicated banana plug for audiophiles.

(Credit: John Burek)

Most interesting, though, is a solution that it implemented along with tech from Singularity Computers, called PowerBoard. You can see installed here a back plate that acts as a sort of nexus for power connections, lighting headers, and more coming from the motherboard. (Singularity calls it a “distribution plate for cables,” in the same way that a classic desktop distro plate for liquid cooling can move liquid around a case over a flat plane.)

(Credit: John Burek)

This design helps neaten up the interior of the case, and lets you deploy short cables connecting between the PowerBoard and the actual motherboard to minimize cable runs. This PowerBoard shown fits the 4000D and takes the place of the more typical motherboard tray. 

InWin Covalent

The hulking Covalent is a prototype PC case that’s vaguely reminiscent of one of InWin’s iconic  cases, the H-Frame. As you can see, the motif is the same series of vertical blades that define the case itself. The idea behind the Covalent, though, is that it’s meant for serious workstation configurations built for AI processing and machine learning, with support for XXL-size SSI-EEB motherboards and multiple high-end GPUs. (InWin calls it a “super tower.”)

(Credit: John Burek)

With the obsolescence of multi-GPU gaming solutions like CrossFireX and SLI, InWin’s bringing back the proper clearance (and massive size) required for installing a brace of high-end RTX cards for this crowd, but in a professional-looking, rather than gamer-focused, chassis. It measures 26.4 inches high and 21.1 inches deep; cards up to 480mm long are supported (try finding something longer!), as are radiators up to 420mm at top and side.

(Credit: John Burek)

Noctua Two-Phase Thermosiphon Development Project

Noctua first briefed us on its thermosiphon efforts at Computex 2024, and we got an update on how it’s going. In a nutshell, the cooling company is attempting to fashion an all-in-one liquid-cooling solution that doesn’t require an actual pump to move the liquid through the circuit. The concept, instead, is to have the coolant liquid boil under the heat that’s applied to it at the CPU cooler’s heat exchanger, and have the resulting vapor circulate, via its lower density, up through the system, through the radiator, and back into liquid as it cools. For this, Noctua is working with a company called Calyos, which is a specialist in two-phase cooling solutions for other industries, such as aviation and automotive.

(Credit: John Burek)

Noctua has advanced the technology to the point of settling on a specific chemical liquid with a low-enough boiling point to vaporize and circulate under typical CPU cooler temperatures. Challenges remain with the concept, including the fact that the CPU’s radiator must be kept above the heat exchanger on the CPU for the physics to work. (Gravity does some of the work in the circuit.) Also, heat exchange in the cooler tends to create an insulating vapor layer between the liquid and the cooler’s inner surface, which can impede cooling performance, due to a phenomenon, Noctua explained, known as the Leidenfrost effect. That’s led Noctua to experiment with various surfaces inside the cooler to minimize the effect.

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(Credit: John Burek)

The ultimate aim, though, is liquid cooling with fewer moving parts (apart from Noctua’s already quiet fans) and no vibration. We’ll check in again next year…

Thermaltake IX700 Liquid Immersion

We saw smaller-scale versions of Thermaltake’s liquid immersion concept PCs at CES 2025. The IX700 prototype shown at Computex, however, took the concept to a much bigger level. For one, Thermaltake has identified a much cheaper nonconductive dielectric liquid in which to immerse all the parts. (Earlier ones cost many thousands of dollars to fill the system.)

(Credit: John Burek)

In this particular implementation, the IX700 main case keeps the entire system immersed in the nonconductive fluid, and the liquid is circulated out via some mighty hoses to a separate cooling tower alongside. That tower contains up to four separate 420mm liquid coolers and a liquid redistribution manifold to manage all that flow. These radiators cool the circulating liquid and pump it back into the IX700.

(Credit: John Burek)

This is a polished-looking prototype but not necessarily a pending commercial product. Thermaltake’s experiments with immersion cooling are attempting, however, to advance the leading edge for enthusiasts and high-powered researchers who may need this extreme form of cooling—or just this extreme form of cool—without cobbling together their own solution. If it comes to market, though, you’ll still be on the hook for providing your own liquid.

(Credit: John Burek)

Thermaltake Project: Edge

We’re all pretty familiar with the effort to stick an LCD screen on practically every component in a PC; indeed, we earmarked that as one of our five top trends of the 2025 Computex show. Now, putting little screens on the edge of a case fan is not completely new; nor is sticking one in the center hub of a fan. But Thermaltake is, er, taking this to another level by implementing screens in its so-called Project Edge fans that can display continuous action that runs from one fan screen to another.

(Credit: John Burek)

The company is enabling this through a streamlined software suite, TT RGB Plus 3.0, that will also power its Minecube 360 cooler, which employs a similar continuous-action feature. The fans also snap together magnetically for easy, clean, cable-reducing joins.

Intel Project Battlematrix

At Computex 2025, Intel introduced its new Arc Pro B50 and B60 family of professional workstation graphics cards. intended for specific content-creation and AI tasks. These relatively low-power-consumption cards feature huge allotments of memory (24GB, in the case of the Arc Pro B60) to host large AI models. 

(Credit: John Burek)

Intel also exhibited alongside the new Arc Pros a prototype server running what it calls its “Project Battlematrix” concept. Battlematrix calls back to the “Battlemage” GPU architecture that underpins the Arc Pro cards. The basic idea: Battlematrix defines prebuilt workstations that use Xeon processors and up to eight Arc Pro B60 cards in parallel. Eight B60s could allow for up to 192GB of VRAM, enabling a Battlematrix server to handle AI models with more than 70 billion parameters.

(Credit: John Burek)

The big deal here, though, is that Intel is pulling together a full hardware and software stack based on Luinux (comprising all the drivers and frameworks needed) to make this all possible for easier out-of-the-box setup. Battlematric could eliminate the need for a roll-your-own approach in this confusing, emerging space. Intel partners were demonstrating Battlematrix in action in the Intel Computex suite, running a 675-billion-parameter full implementation of Deepseek on eight Arc Pros.

MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12G Cyclone Visual OC

MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Suprim Titanium Edition SOC

MSI went hard into the concept-products realm at Computex, here with two prototype video cards that may or may not see the light of day. The RTX 5070 Cyclone model is a small-form-factor card with a special fan that features a wholly gratuitous LCD in the center (see what we said about that kind of thing in the Project Edge description above) and a throwback design. The circular heatsink-and-fin calls back to earlier MSI designs and even Zalman’s old circular-style fin arrays on its CPU coolers. We’ll have to see, but this open design could allow for freer heat dissipation thanks to the lack of the usual frame around the GPU. For compact cases that have good airflow, this design could be a great way to jam serious graphics power into a small space.

(Credit: John Burek)

Meanwhile, MSI’s titanium-clad triple-fan GeForce RTX 5090 Suprim, shown here, is more of an aesthetic flex, with the card enclosure encased in titanium sheeting that’s, curiously, colored gold. The RTX 5090 is already seemingly made of unobtainium, judging from its price, so the addition of further scarce metals should only add incrementally to the price…right?

(Credit: John Burek)

MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition

One last concept-product effort from MSI was one of the most striking prototypes we saw: the Prestige 13 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous laptop that incorporates traditional Japanese artistry into the company’s line of content-creator and business laptops. Created in partnership with renowned art studio Okadaya, the laptop features a lacquer-finished lid showcasing the famous print The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. The result is more than a decorative flourish—it’s a genuine art piece with a vivid, high-gloss finish that looks stunning in person. Limited to a few hundred units per month due to its intricate production process, this machine sets the tone for what MSI is calling its new Artisan Collection of machines.

(Credit: Matthew Buzzi)

Even the keyboard has a lacquered finish on the keytops to complement the lid. That said, this isn’t just a display piece. Despite weighing just 2.2 pounds and measuring 0.7 inches thick, the Prestige 13 AI+ packs proper horsepower: up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V “Lunar Lake” processor, 32GB of RAM, and a crisp 2.8K OLED display in a 16:10 aspect ratio. As a Copilot+ PC, it’s AI-ready, too. We hope this spurs similar innovations from other manufacturers to go beyond RGB bling, incorporating new materials and design approaches to the tech objects we spend so much time with every day. PCs should delight us on the outside, as much as they capture our attention with the magic they do under the lid. We have more about the Ukiyo-e laptops here.

(Credit: Matthew Buzzi)

The Best of Computex 2025

About John Burek

Executive Editor and PC Labs Director

I have been a technology journalist for 30-plus years and have covered just about every kind of computer gear—from the 386SX to 64-core processors—in my long tenure as an editor, a writer, and an advice columnist. For almost a quarter-century, I worked on the seminal, gigantic Computer Shopper magazine (and later, its digital counterpart), aka the phone book for PC buyers, and the nemesis of every postal delivery person. I was Computer Shopper’s editor in chief for its final nine years, after which much of its digital content was folded into PCMag.com. I also served, briefly, as the editor in chief of the well-known hard-core tech site Tom’s Hardware.

During that time, I’ve built and torn down enough desktop PCs to equip a city block’s worth of internet cafes. Under race conditions, I’ve built PCs from bare-board to bootup in under 5 minutes.

In my early career, I worked as an editor of scholarly science books, and as an editor of “Dummies”-style computer guidebooks for Brady Books (now, BradyGames). I’m a lifetime New Yorker, a graduate of New York University’s journalism program, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

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