MSI Z97 XPower AC Review
Published by Marc Büchel on 10.07.14Page:
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| A closer look at the motherboard lineup from MSI reveals that the Z97 XPower is the best equipped model. Therefore, it comes with some really neat features, like for example a highly powerful power design regarding CPU(+600W) and memory. The included 32-phase design is going to be more than enough for any overclocker, no matter what record needs to be broken. MSI also equipped this board with some features for extreme overclocking and gamers. The lineup includes the OC PCB and OC buttons for extreme overclocking as well as the OC Pen Drive, OC fan stand, a beefed-up audio solution, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth and the M.2 support. Apart from the features for gamers and overclockers, the bundle is rich and you will get more than you will ever need with this motherboard. |
- Design - 4 x PCI-Express 3.0 Slots - Features - Bundle |
- No SATA Express Connector | |
| Layout | + | - | |
| Overall, the MSI Z97 XPower layout has
been well thought. It features a clear CPU socket zone which should
appeal to the extreme overclockers and make it compatible with most, if
not all, CPU coolers as well as LN2 pots. It has enough space for multi graphics card setups
and features angled SATA connectors that you can find on almost any
motherboard these days. It also comes with quite a few USB 3.0
connectors, practical power- and reset-buttons, OC Genie and Bclk and
multiplier plus and minus buttons, CLR_CMOS button, 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
(thanks to the PLX8748 chip), which have been well positioned. It also
comes with two PCIe Gen2 x1 slots, and MSI has also included an
unpluggable PCIe Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module. The rest also complies with the
very high standard as it includes eight USB 3.0, ten SATA-III connectos and one internal USB3
header (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 | + | - | |
| Calculating the average of all 3D benchmarks we ran, we see that this board ranks in the middle of our comparison tables, except the 3D Mark Fire Strike benchmark, in which this motherboard ranked second among all Z87 motherboards we have tested so far. When taking the average of all 2D results, this motherboard ends up at the bottom of the list, which is quite surprising. The performance of this board could really be a little bit better and we certainly hope that MSI's BIOS team will have another look at the BIOS and put a bit more focus on performance improvements. On another note, when we take the power consumption into consideration, it becomes clearly visible, that since it comes with quite a few features, draws a lot of power, especially in idle. The plethora of features is most likely 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. |
- 3DMark FireStrike - UC Bench |
- PC Mark 07 (Video playback) - Super Pi 1m and 32m - Power Consumption Idle and Full |
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| Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
| The first BIOS in which we tested the overclocking potential was very bad with all memory ICs, but the latest BIOS from MSI team 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 MSI Xpower board latest BIOS works well with all memory ICs now, except MFR. The motherboard really likes the new ICs like Hynix CFR, BFR and Samsung new ICs, and it even automatically sets the right RTL and IOL settings on both channels. This MSI motherboard board could be the one of the best Z97 boards if only MSI had tweaked the PSC IC with this BIOS. We did not have any issues with overclocking the Core i7-4770K to 5GHz in normal testing scenario. |
- Sheer amount of options
- Design - Memory Overclocking |
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| Recommendation | + | - | |
| In case you are looking for a rock solid motherboard, which is also well suitable for overclocking, then the Z97 XPower from MSI is a good choice. This board features a unique and great looking color scheme and when we check Geizhals prices, it starts at roughly 310 Euro, which is a decent price for a high-end motherboard, but definitely not cheap. | - Gaming - Modding |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the MSI Z97 XPower 4 out of 5 stars. | |||
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