Layout

As we've already mentioned in the introduction the MSI Z270 Gaming M7 motherboard comes with a great looking design. The PCB has a matte black finish and the heatsinks feature dark grey covers. On the PCH you'll also find the neat looking MSI dragon. The heatsinks have been shaped with a lot of attention to detail. The layout in general has been well-thought and there are plenty of useful features, like two headers to attach an external USB 3.0 port, SATA 6Gbps ports, a U.2 port, three M.2 Gen 3 x4 slots, overclocking features and more.

The MSI Z270 Gaming M7 comes with a digital 8+2+1 phase power design. The CPU is backed up by eight phases, the iGPU can rely on two phases and the memory receives stable current supply from one phase. In general the power design on this board is adequate for the job at hand. It's even good for aircooled overclocking every now and then, but we would not recommend this board for extreme overclocking. For that purpose MSI has more suitable boards in its portfolio.

This board has been equipped with a total of four DIMM-slots. Officially supported is everything up to DDR4 4133 (O.C.). There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 2.0.

The PCH as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via passive heatsinks. The heatsink for the current converters is made from two aluminium blocks which are not linked with via a heatpipe. The PCH heatsink is quite simple and flat. The cooling blocks have been very well made and on top of that they're perfetcly attached to the board to provide enough pressure on the components they have to remove heat from. The aluminium blocks are entirely black with gray sheet metal covers, overall resembling a completly new design.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 14 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 15 - UC Bench
Page 3 - Features	Page 16 - Super Pi 1M / 32M
Page 4 - Layout	Page 17 - wPrime 1024M Multi Core
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 18 - Cinebench
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 19 - Tomb Raider
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 20 - Metro Last Light
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 21 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 22 - Power Consumption
Page 10 - 3D Mark 11	Page 23 - Performance Rating
Page 11 - 3D Mark Vantage	Page 24 - Price Comparison
Page 12 - PC Mark 8	Page 25 - Conclusion
Page 13 - SiSoft Sandra 1