Conclusion

General		+	-
A closer look at the motherboard lineup from MSI reveals that the Z97 MPower Max is the second best equipped model. Therefore it comes with some really neat features, like for example a highly powerful power design regarding CPU and memory. The detailed 20-phase power design is going to be more than enough for any overclocker, no matter what CPU/GPU related record he wants to break. MSI also equipped this board with some features for gamers. A beefed-up audio solution as well as integrated WiFi and Bluetooh. Unfortunately, it lacks a SATA Express slot, which is the only drawback so far. Apart from the features for gamers, the bundle is rich and there is more than you will ever need with this board.		- Design - Features - Bundle	- No SATA Express Connector
Layout		+	-
Overall, the layout of the MSI Z97 MPower Max has been well thought. Once more you get practical angled SATA connectors which can be found on almost all better motherboards on the market today. Other than that, there is also an angled USB3 connector. There are also practical power- and reset-buttons along with a clr_CMOS button which one 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 will find three PCI Express Gen3 x16 slots, which have been very well positioned. Between the two main PCIe x16 you will find two slot space to provide good airflow for a dual graphics card setup. It also features four PCIe Gen2 x1 slots. MSI also provided their board with an unpluggable PCIe Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module. The rest is almost standard (eight USB3, eight SATA3, one internal USB3 connector (for two USB3 ports)). As this is MSI's overclocking motherboard, you also get voltage reading points, OC Genie buttons and two physical BIOS with a DIP switch to select the one you want.		-Angled SATA and USB3 connectors - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display / CLR_CMOS - 6x USB 3.0 - Bluetooth/Wi-Fi - 2x BIOS

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 4 - Layout
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 5 - Connectors and I/O
Page 3 - Features	Page 6 - Conclusion

Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Luca Rocchi l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch