MSI Z87 XPower Review

Published by Hiwa Pouri on 19.02.14
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Features

Military Class 4 Components

MSI's fancy name for high quality components, the Military Class 4 Components certified motherboard are equiped with Hi-c CAP, Super Ferrite Choke and Dark CAPs for better stability, durability, efficiency and current and DrMOS 4 is the name of new MOSFETs which should deliver more than 600+ Watts for extreme overclocking.
     

OC PCB

The Z87 Xpower does not just give you 32-Phases for those that like to go crazy on the CPU voltages but MSI is also using 50% more layers for Xtreme overclocking. So, if you are an Xtreme overclocker with some LN2 to spare, you know what it means when you are running to break the world record and the mainboard starts to fail because some part of it is wet and you need to unmount whole the system. The rest of the features and design solutions include the clean CPU socket area which should have more compatibilty with LN2 containers, V-Check points for voltage monitoring, buttons for overcloking on the fly for Bclk, multiplier. While many overlcockers will not exactly like the "overclock on the fly" features which can be done easily in BIOS, it can be used when system is at the limit and when benchmarks finish and the system come back into Idle from Load and also it helps in some benchmarks like Vantage or 3Dmark 06, when in order to get higher score you need to run higher GT tests and for CPU tests when you underclock the CPU frequency.
 

DigitALL Power PWM

Like all the large motherboard manufacturers, for quite some years, MSI has been also equipping its motherboards with digital power design.
   

Audio Boost

MSI equips its motherboard with an improved audio implementation which includes the Realtek ALC1150 chip, EMI isolation, built-in headphone amplifier, high quality capacitors and PCB separation.
   

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Module

MSI bundle its motherboard with an unpluggable mPCIe card equiped with a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module from Intel. The latter supports 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and Intel WiDi.
   

Killer Ethernet

It is rather obvious, that MSI is not only optimizing this board for overclocking but also for gaming. Next to the beefed up audio solution there is the Killer Ethernet chip, which gives gamers additional control over a variety of network settings, which in the end can help reduce latency.


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 - Bioshock: Infinite
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 7 Page 25 - Conclusion
Page 13 - SiSoft Sandra 1  




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MSI Z87 XPower Review - Motherboards > Intel > Z87 - Reviews - ocaholic