brilliant model for one of the best prices I've seen, dropped £100 almost with no reported batch production issues, even cheaper than the ugly models than msi's aro lineup and the 1070 version is £60 cheaper than the 1060 version, defiantly worth the price difference!
Not as fast as some others but very quiet and reliable.
No
for amazon prime members its a lot better i find but its preference anyway
no but buy this then buy a better custom backplate down the line
This is pretty much an entry level non-blower style GTX 1070. There are plenty of other (read: more expensive) 1070s available with backplates, including other cards from MSI.
Why would MSI waste money on adding a backplate (which doesn't add anything in terms of performance) to one of their lower end 1070s?
I think it's great that graphics card manufacturers are still offering relatively basic models of higher end cards, which have pretty much all the performance of their more expensive counterparts, but without all the unnecessary bits which drive up the price.
for the price you could buy a custom backplate of your choosing and still come under budget