With the VR craze in full swing, MSI just announced a new front-bay mounted device aimed to make VR users’ lives a bit easier. MSI’s new VR Boost Kit is a simple bay mounted device with two USB 3.0 ports and one HDMI. It enables VR users to plug their VR devices into the front of their computers instead of having to connect and disconnect their display and peripherals from the back each time they want to use them.
The MSI VR Boost Kit is about as simple as a device can be. It fits int a standard 5.25 inch drive bay and mounts with a couple of screws. Two wires run from the ports in front. One of the wires can be connected to a motherboard for USB 3.0 support. The other is similar to many of the first USB 3.0 front bay connectors, where the connector runs from the bay device, out the PCI slots in the back of the case and is plugged into a port in the back. In this case, that would be one of the video card’s HDMI ports.
MSI intends the VR Boost Kit to be used in conjunction with its MSI Gaming App which has a built-in toggle feature to switch into and out of VR optimization. It seems, however, that the device is so simple that it could be used with nearly any VR ready graphics card. Even though the VR Boost Kit comes branded with MSI’s logo and NVIDIA’s VR Ready insignia, it has a simple black theme, which seems to lend credence the idea that it is intended to be used with any VR device. Of course, that can’t be proven until it’s tested.
The MSI VR Boost Kit doesn’t seem to be available as of yet, and no release date or pricing information has been specified by MSI in their press release.