| A closer look at the motherboard lineup
from MSI reveals that the Z170A Gaming M5 is an upper mid-range model,
regarding their gaming branded products. Of course it comes with some really neat features, like for
example a Game Boost and the new updated UEFI BIOS. The MSI
Z170A Gaming M5 motherboard is powered by an 12-phase CPU
VRM which is enough for an overclocked system even if you wanted to do
extreme benching using liquid nitrogen as coolant. MSI also equipped
this board with features specific to gamers including a beefed-up audio solution as well as the
latest Killer E2400 Ethernet
chip. The Killer LAN chip always comes bundled with a good software,
which for example allows traffic shaping. Apart from that there is an
adequate bundle, containing everything necessary to start building a new
rig. |
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Design
- Layout
- Features
- 2 x M.2 x4 Slot
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| Overall, the MSI Z170A Gaming M5's layout
has been well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA
connectors that you can find on almost all motherboards nowadays. Other
than that there is an internal USB3 header. Unfortunately there are no practical power- and reset-buttons and there also isn't a CLR_CMOS button. Nevertheless MSI decided to equip this board with a debug display.
This one is always highly useful in case you should have issues with a component in your
system or the board itself. Apart from that there are three PCI Express Gen3 x16
slots, which have been very well positioned. You have four PCIe Gen3 x1 connectors onboard, and
they can be found in between the PCIe Slot as well as on top of the first full-sized PCIe x16. Furthermore the Gaming M5 has
also been equipped with two M.2 x4 Gen 3 slots.
Apart from that you get six USB3.0, two USB2.0 and six SATA3 ports, which is a good connectivity mix. |
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- Angled SATA connectors
- Debug display
- Space around the CPU
socket
- Audio Solution
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- No power/reset-button onboard |
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