MSI Z87 XPower Review
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 19.02.14Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| A closer look at the motherboard lineup from MSI reveals that the Z87 XPower is the best equipped model. Therefore it comes with some really neat features, like for example a highly powerful powerdesign regarding CPU(+600W) and memory. 32 phases are going to be more than enough for any overclocker out there in the wild, no matter what record wants to be broken. MSI also equipped this board with features for Xtreme overclocking and gamers. There are OC PCB and OC buttons for Xtreme Overcklocking and There is a Killer LAN chip, a beefed-up audio solution as well as WiFi and Bluetooh. Apart from the features for gamers, the delivery is rich and there is more than you'll ever need with this board. |
- Features
- Bundle |
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| Layout | + | - | |
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Overall, the
MSI Z87 XPower layout has been well thought. It features more practical clear CPU socket zone
which should appeal to extreme overclockers and make it
compatible with most if not all CPU coolers. It has enough space for multi
graphics card setupts, features angled SATA connectors that you can find on almost all motherboards
nowadays. Other than that, there are a few USB 3.0 connectors, practical power- and reset-buttons, OC Genie and Bclk and
multiplier plus and minus buttons, with a CLR_CMOS, which is located at the I/O panel.
Furthermore there is even a debug display which is very useful in case you should
have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. In
total, you get five PCI Express Gen3 x16 slots (helped by PLX8747 chip), which have been very well
positioned. Between the first and the fourth slot you
will find a three slots space to provide good airflow for a
dual-slot or
even triple-slot graphics cards. Otherwise you have two PCIe Gen2 x1
slots, and MSI has also included an unpluggable PCIe Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module.
The rest is
almost standard (eight USB3, ten SATA3, one internal USB3 connector
(for two USB3 ports). In case you are looking for more overclocking friendly features, MSI has equipped the motherboard with voltage reading points and two physical BIOS with a DIP switch to select the one you want. |
-
Angled SATA
connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display / CLR_CMOS - 6x USB 3.0 - Bluetooth/Wi-Fi - 2x BIOS - Clean CPU Socket Area |
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| Performance | + | - | |
| A closer look at the performance averages of this motherboard reveals that the 3D performance of this motherboard is not showing high scores, and 2D performance results are average. When we take the power consumption into consideration, it becomes clearly visible, that this a board which comes with quite a few features and therefore, especially under idle, draws a lot of power, which is why it takes the last spot when it comes to idle power consumption. As far as the load power consumption is concerned, the performance as well as power consumption could definitely be improved. | - Sleeping Dog | -3D Marks - SiSoft Sandra Arithmetik Dhrystone - SiSoft Sandra Multimedia Floating Point - SiSoft Sandra Cryptography SHA 256 - wPrime 1024M - Bioshock: Inifinite Low |
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| Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
| We have finally arrived at the
overclocking part of the conclusion abut first let us talk a bit about
the BIOS. The BIOS is definitely great and MSI did a
good job. It is not perfect but it is a huge jump compared to the
BIOS this manufacturer used to have. The overclocking on this motherboard is easy and pleasant. The BIOS is very easy to configure and the motherboard worked well and did what we expected. The memory overclocking was easy and good compared to old MSI board specialy with new ICs like Hynix CFR, BFR, MFR and Samsung new ICs but does not run very well with old ICs like PSC and BBSE. |
- Best BIOS from MSI ever | - Room for improvement - PSC and BBSE can't be Overlcok to much | |
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| In case you are looking for a rock solid motherboard, which is also well suitable for overclocking, then the Z87 XPower from MSI is a good choice. This board features a unique and great looking color scheme and when we check Geizhals prices start at roughly 280 Euro, which is still ok for a high-end motherboard, but definitely not cheap. Wünschen würden wir uns lediglich MSI könnte bezüglich Performance sowie auch Stromverbrauch nachbessern. | -
Overclocking
CPU - Enthusiast - Gaming |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the MSI Z87 XPower 3.5 out of 5 stars. | |||
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
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