The idea is beautifully simple. Instead of the usual forest of pins lurking on the underside of the PCB, MSI’s latest boards feature flat, neatly soldered pads. This avoids impaling yourself when installing a board, so there’s no need to wear gloves that feel like you’ve wrapped your fingers in sausages.

It’s hardly a breakthrough on par with ray tracing or AI-enhanced workloads, but it’s a change you’ll appreciate the first time you install RAM without needing plasters.

MSI claims there’s more to it than injury avoidance. According to the company, the PinSafe Design also improves system stability and electrostatic discharge protection. With fewer exposed bits to snag rogue bits of metal or conductive dust, the chances of shorting things out go down too.

The debut platform for this new approach is the MPOWER series, aimed at enthusiasts and overclockers who enjoy living dangerously but prefer not to bleed on their gear. The B850MPOWER board, shown at the show, is MSI’s first AMD motherboard to feature PinSafe Design.

Alongside the flat pads, MPOWER boards come with just two DIMM slots to encourage stable DDR5 overclocking and borrow Dragon Alliance tricks from partnered memory brands. MSI’s EZ Dashboard throws in a debug LED and physical power, reset and CMOS buttons right on the board, because sometimes a good old poke is still the best way to fix things.

In the end, it’s a small tweak to a standard bit of kit, but for anyone who’s ever pulled their hand back from a case looking like they just lost a thumb war with a cactus, it’s a welcome one.