MSI Z170A Gaming M7 Review
Category : Z170
Published by Marc Büchel on 04.11.15
With the Gaming M7, MSI has a very well equipped motherboard in its portfolio, which comes with lots of features. There are for example two M.2 x4 Gen 3 slots and apart from that MSI further refined the Design of their Gaming series motherbards.







Already at launch MSI has a complete portfolio of Z170 motherboards. On the following pages we're going to have a close look at the Z170A Gaming M7, which is a high-end Z170 motherboard. Already at a first glance you can see that there is a great looking design in place and the PCB is definitely not short on features.
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  
[pagebreak]

Specs and Delivery

Chipset Intel Z170
Memory Dual Channel DDR4, 4 x DIMM, Max. 64 GB DDR4, 3600 (O.C.) / 3200 (O.C.) / 2800 (O.C.) / 2666 (O.C.) / 2400 (O.C.) / 2133 Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Multi-GPU
  • Supports NVIDIA SLI Technology (2-Way)
  • Supports AMD CrossFireX Technology (2-Way, 3-Way)
Slots
  • 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16, x8/x8, x8/x8/x4 or x8/x8/x2)
  • 4 x PCIe 3.0 x1
Audio Realtek ALC1150
  • 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
  • Supports S/PDIF input/output
Storage Intel Z170 chipset
  • 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s
  • 2 x SATAe
  • 2 x M.2 ports
Network
  • Killer E2400 LAN controller (10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet)
Internal Connectors
  • 1 x 24-Pin ATX power connector
  • 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  • 2 x 4-pin CPU fan connectors
  • 3 x 4-pin System fan connectors
  • 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  • 2 x USB 2.0 connectors (supports additional 4 USB 2.0 ports)
  • 2 x USB 3.0 connectors (supports additional 4 USB 3.0 ports)
  • 1 x Front Panel Audio connector
  • 1 x Power button
  • 1 x BIOS Flashback+ button
  • 1 x Game Boost button
  • 1 x Reset button
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  • 1 x Slow mode switch
  • 1 x 2-Digit Debug Code LED
Extrenal Connectors
  • 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port
  • 1 x Clear CMOS button
  • 1 x Optical S/PDIF-out  port
  • 3 x USB 2.0  ports (HOTKEY + BIOS Flashback+)
  • 1 x USB 3.1  ports (Gen2)
  • 1 x USB 3.1  ports Type-C (Gen2)
  • 2 x USB 3.1  ports (Gen1)
  • 1 x RJ45 LAN jack
  • 1 x 6 in 1 OFC audio jack
  • 1 x DisplayPort
  • 2 x HDMI ports 
Forfactor ATX (30.5cm x 24.4cm)
BIOS 1 x 64Mb flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS