MSI Enthuastic Gaming Intel Z170A LGA 1151 Motherboard review

MSI Enthuastic Gaming Intel Z170A LGA 1151  Motherboard review

MSI Enthuastic Gaming Intel Z170A LGA 1151  Motherboard review

FOR
Excellent efficiency, Killer Networks controller, dual M.2 interfaces, Nahimic Audio, 1-year XSplit premium service upgrade.

AGAINST
Second-tier overclocking.

Benchmark Suite

Synthetics
3DMark 11	Version: 1.0.5.0, Benchmark Only
3DMark Professional	Version: 1.2.250.0 (64-bit), Fire Strike Benchmark
PCMark 8	Version: 1.0.0 x64, Full Test
SiSoftware Sandra	Version 2014.02.20.10, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia / Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth Benchmarks
Games
Battlefield 4	Version 1.0.0.1, DirectX 11, 100-sec. Fraps "Tashgar"Test Set 1: Medium Quality Preset, No AA, 4X AF, SSAOTest Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset,  4X MSAA, 16X AF, HBAO
Grid 2	Version 1.0.85.8679, Direct X 11, Built-in BenchmarkTest Set 1: High Quality, No AATest Set 2: Ultra Quality, 8x MSAA
Arma 3	Version 1.08.113494, 30-Sec. Fraps "Infantry Showcase"Test Set 1: Standard Preset, No AA, Standard AFTest Set 2: Ultra Preset, 8x FSAA, Ultra AF
Far Cry 3	V. 1.04, DirectX 11, 50-sec. Fraps "Amanaki Outpost"Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA, Standard ATC, SSAOTest Set 2: Ultra Quality, 4x MSAA, Enhanced ATC, HDAO
Applications
Adobe After Effects CC	Version 12.0.0.404: Create Video which includes 3 Streams, 210 Frames, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneosly
Adobe Photoshop CC	Version 14.0 x64: Filter 15.7MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Adobe Premeire Pro CC	Version 7.0.0 (342), 6.61 GB MXF Project to H.264 to H.264 Blu-ray, Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality
iTunes	Version 11.0.4.4 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format
Lame MP3	Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 kb/s)
Handbrake CLI	Version: 0.99: Video from Canon Eos 7D (1920x1080, 25 FPS) 1 Minutes 22 SecondsAudio: PCM-S16, 48000 Hz, 2-Channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile)
TotalCodeStudio 2.5	Version: 2.5.0.10677: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
ABBYY FineReader	Version 10.0.102.95: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages
Adobe Acrobat 11	Version 11.0.0.379: Print PDF from 115 Page PowerPoint, 128-bit RC4 Encryption
Autodesk 3ds Max 2013	Version 15.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080
Blender	Version: 2.68A, Cycles Engine, Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, 1920x1080, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Render THG.blend frame 1
Visual Studio 2010	Version 10.0, Compile Google Chrome, Scripted
WinZip	Version 18.0 Pro: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r"
WinRAR	Version 5.0: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3"
7-Zip	Version 9.30 alpha (64-bit): THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5"

Specifications

SpecificationsCPU SUPPORT: 6th Gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors and Intel Pentium/Celeron Processors for Socket LGA-1151
POWER DESIGN: CPU Power: 14 Phase
Memory Power: 2 Phase
CHIPSET: Intel Z170 Chipset
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS: Dependent on Installed CPU
MEMORY: 4 x DIMM, Max. 64 GB, up to DDR4-3600+(OC)
BIOS: AMI UEFI BIOS with 64 Mb Flash ROM
SLOTS: 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (x16, x8/x8, x8/x8/x4 or x8/x8/x2)
4 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
HDD CONNECTIVITY: 6 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (support RAID 0/1/5/10)
2 x SATAe ports (PCIe 3.0 x2)
2 x M.2 slots (PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gb/s)
NETWORKING: 1 x Killer E2400 Gigabit LAN
PORTS: 6 x USB 3.0 ports
7 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x USB 3.1 ports (1x Type-A, 1x Type-C)
1 x RJ45 LAN connectors
1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
5 x Audio jacks
1 x DisplayPort
2 x HDMI port
1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT Port
1 x Clear CMOS Switch
AUDIO: Realtek ALC1150 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
FAN HEADERS: 5 x 4-pin
FORM FACTOR: ATX Form Factor (305 mm x 244 mm)
EXCLUSIVE FEATURES:
DDR4 Boost
XMP LED
Audio Boost 3
Nahimic
MSI GAMING LAN w/ LAN Protect
Gaming Hotkey
Game Boost
Impregnable Steel Armor
USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C & Type-A
Turbo M.2
OC Engine 2
BIOS Flashback+
Mouse Master
XSplit Gamecaster V2
Click BIOS 5
Hardware Monitor 2
MSI Command Center,
MSI RAMdisk
MSI Gaming APP w/ FPS Counter
MSI Live Update 6
MSI ECO Center.


so let's take a look at a skylake motherboard this is the z170a gaming in five from MSI ladies  this is brian coming to you guys today with a skylake motherboard review this is the msi z170a gaming m5 now first of all this review we'll take a look at what you get in the box take a look at the features on the motherboard then we'll look at the bars quickly and then we'll take a look at the onboard audio and the killer and IC and then I will tell you guys my subjective thoughts and opinions on this motherboard with that being 

said though let's get on with it so included in the box you get six SATA cables you also get an SLI connector a easy Quick Start manual you also get a driver CD and some little notes there to put on your cables as well which is an interesting touch and you also get the famous door note hanger there which you can hang on your door to let people know that you're gaming now as soon as you pull this motherboard out of the box you'll notice that it has a red and black theme 

to it and also the paint included on the motherboard is a matte black finish now going over the vrm so upon pulling off the heat sinks I noticed that it had a 10 + 2 phase power design so that's ten phases dedicated to the CPU and then two phases dedicated to the ddr4 memory there now an important thing with skylake is that they've put off the voltage regulator off the CPU back onto the motherboard so vrm is a little bit more important on skylake than it is on house well 

now the good thing about MSI is what they've done here is they've included a really good vrm solution you've got Nikko's MOSFETs they're on the low side you've got 20 amps on the MOSFETs on the high side you've got them rated at 13 amps you've also got titanium chokes they're all the way across the vrm there and then you've got MSI's dark solid caps which all in all this will give you guys a very solid and stable overclock when I tested the heatsink out after

 gaming on it at 4.6 gigahertz at one point three five volt I noticed that the temperatures were like 37 degrees for the VR this is in a 23 degree cooled environment so the vrm is certainly capable of handling any cpu or any four core overclocks that you throw at it now moving to the right of the board you've got four ddr4 black-themed memory slots there and one thing that I notice is that they've got ddr4 boost printed there and upon inspection I've noticed that they've 

isolated the circuitry for the ddr4 memory which is a cool thing if you're going for a really high overclock though when I tried overclocking my memory my memory wasn't that good so the ddr4 boost couldn't help a lot there so moving down the right side of the board there you've got a USB three front out you've also got six sided three ports and to solder Express ports there so if you use two of those Saito Express ports they will cancel out four of the side of three ports 

there so that's something to keep in mind below that you've also got a LED indicator which will oddly enough tell you your cpu temperature and I found this to be a really useful touch and I really like what they've done with this because especially if you're gaming you want to know if your CPUs getting really hot now just besides that you've got a heatsink there with the dragon 

logo covering the chipset hub there which they're still kept on the z1 78 architecture now moving down to the bottom of the board here from right to left you've got a power jumper there as well as a clear CMOS jumper and then you've got two USB to front outs there as well as a TPM connector a serial connector and a chassis intrusion connector you've also got the slow mode switch there is just something there interesting that they've brought into the gaming 

m5 motherboard they're now moving to the left of that we have the audio boost 3 with its own dedicated section this is the real tach 1150 which has its own electromagnetic shield you've also got tray sliding there which lights up red in the dark now moving to the right of that you have a m dot 2 slot there and you actually get two of these one further down the board as well and then you have four PCI one speed slots and you also get three PCI 16 speed slots however the first 

port is the only port that will work in 16 speed mode the one below that will work in speed if you wish to put your graphics cards in SLI or crossfire and then the one below that is dedicated for 3-way crossfire which will work in four speed only they are all PCI 3 compatible now looking at the fan connections you get a total of five with two of them being for pin and three of them being three pin and then at the top of the board you lastly get the 12 volt connection there

 which is really easy to access and it isn't a good location so for input output from the top to the bottom of the motherboard we get one ps2 there we also get two USB to ports a DVID port and then six USB 3.1 slots there one of those being type C and then five of those being type a you also get a HDMI output meshed in there as well as a killer ni c e 2400 land input that now for 

audio out you've got a optical out there you've also got manual configuration for analog 5.1 out as well as a headphone out and a mic in and line in port also with the motherboard it's a very solid motherboard with the PCB being pretty thick and I'll surprised at how rigid the motherboard was and how good everything felt on the motherboard but a quick look at the boss one thing that I've noted with the boss is that they've changed it since the z87 iteration 

when I use the G 45 gaming they've made it more simpler that made it easier to use but they've also kept the options they're more advanced overclockers so I noticed that I had all my favorite options there and even though with skylake I believe they've done down the overclocking a little bit which is an MSI's fault they've still given you all the options you would need for an enthusiast overclocker now with that being said let's take a quick look at the onboard audio 

solution and the killer and IC software suite now let's take a look at the onboard audio solution included with the MSI zi 178 gaming but this is the audio boost 3 now when I started putting on my pair of headphones this is the Fidelio once and started listening to music I was blown away by how good this output was the bass and the sub bass were there which is indicative of a decent or a good dak ant solution and I think on this output stage they've included jewel Opie 

amps they've also included a real tech 1150 dak and as well as that I will state the separation was pretty good as well if you've got easier to drive headphones like mine which are low impedance these are the Fidelio wants high sensitivity then the volume will be more than enough and it will sound phenomenal though one thing I will stress is that if you have hard to drive headphones for instance hi-fi man hey chief for hundreds and obviously you will want to 

go out and get a separate amp to power those hard to drive in its headphones so keep that in mind another thing as well is the crosstalk was extremely low which means that you're going to get a true stereo sound coming into these headphones also the included software suite was actually really easy to use you've got preset accuser you also got things like room correction and you've got profiles that you save there the one thing I couldn't find was a custom EQ which I 

would have liked to have seen though that's easily remedied by a free program called equalizer apo and I've actually got a tutorial for that up with a link in the description below that now let's move on now to the mic input so now we've talked about output let's talk about input and now for this segment and the previous segment I've been using the v-moda boom probe plug directly into my onboard audio and now when I started critically listening to the audio going into the 

black input I noticed that when I started speaking there was a little bit of noise but if I went and I didn't say anything there'd be no noise at all did you hear any noise I bet you didn't so what that means is that noise suppression is turned on by default now when I check the options I couldn't find any checkboxes to turn on or off noise suppression which is a little bit of a bummer because if you're using this for even relatively professional recordings like doing 

streaming or something like that then you do want noise suppression off because it ultimately changes your voice and it I believe it makes it a little bit lower quality the one good thing about the mic input is that it is really loud and when I was doing a quite a Skype conversation with my brother I noticed that he could hear me very clearly and there was no hissing or anything 

like that so it was a good thing I mean the mic input is solid I would just like to see the option to turn on or off noise suppression so let's quickly take a look at the killer a 2400 which comes included on the gaming m5 motherboard now when I first installed the drivers and the software suite or the killer a 2400 I was impressed by how much more simpler they've made the user interface so it's a lot more easier to use nowadays and the good thing about killers claims is that 

they're actually legit I've tested this in the past I'll put a link in the description block to the testing but basically if you're a a university student for example at a dorm where you're on a congested network and you will get a better online gaming experience now if you're using the killer and I see with the software as opposed to another and I see which is a great thing the killer are offering their with their software suite however another good thing that MSI is done 

with the implementation of the killer is that they've allowed the option to just install the drivers only which is a fantastic thing with people like me who aren't on a congested network don't need the accompanying software suite so kudos to MSI and also I haven't come into any problems with the NI C so in conclusion the z170a gaming motherboard from MSI is one solid 

solution I was really impressed with the three top things that I look for in a motherboard that is the vrm solution first off I look at that it was a really good implementation that they've done here you've got a 12 phase power design with all solid components and a decent heatsink there which takes care of cooling and it ran cool in practice and this was with a pretty heavy 

overclock so for the VRM they've checked the box there next thing I look at is the onboard audio solution now the audio output was phenomenal so if you're a guy who wants to get into gaming and enjoy your games this motherboard has a really good onboard or their solution to boot now one thing I will critique though is the mic input there I do believe that could use a little bit of work there as I know as rock for instance on their motherboards are including 

pretty solid mic imports there so that's one thing I'd like to see improved on this motherboard however the killer and I see the third thing that I look for on a motherboard the killer and I see is definitely solid when I was playing some games on this motherboard I noticed that the killer and IC did not miss a beat and also the software suite has improved a lot since the last time I used it so all in all this motherboard is a solid solution for someone who's looking to get into 

overclocking with this simple and easy to use UEFI bass also some things that I forgot to touch on you get included an xsplit license with this motherboard and they've also put metal shrouding on the PCI Express ports they call this the impregnable armor so this will essentially make it so that you don't break your PCI Express ports I mean if you're into being a barbarian and installing graphics cards then this motherboard might be really good for you even though I

 don't know anyone who does that though on that note I will say that I could not find a clear CMOS button which was something that I was worried about first however upon overclocking on this motherboard and then coming into failed overclocks like for instance I just tested it with a complete failure an overclock I noticed that the boss just reset itself really quickly when it came into a failed overclock and it got you back up and running in no time so essentially giving 

way to not needing a clear CMOS button in the first place so very good implementation of the UFL BIOS by MSI there now for the ultimate question of is the z170a gaming m5 motherboard from msi worth your money and in my opinion yes and I will be giving this product a four out of five stars today because it has a fantastic vrm solution that's the military class 5 which besides the marketing is a very cool vrm solution you also got a great implementation there of 

the bias which both beginners and advanced users will find familiar and easy to use and you're also having things like included xsplit license and just overall a great output on the audio there which is the realtek 1150 so if you're using headphones you will have an amazing experience or easy to drive headphones you'll have an amazing experience listening to audio however I will be knocking off one star for that mic input because I believe a product that's aimed at gamers 

especially one with an included xsplit license should have a more solid mic input or a more solid amp included on the mic input so I will be knocking a staff for that so that's about it from me guys if you like this review then please give it a thumbs up and if you have any questions then drop a comment in the comment section below also this motherboard was provided for me by 

MSI Australia and it does cost around about 300 AUD however here in the States and you're in the UK and you can pick it up for cheaper then by all means do so it is one great motherboard to use in practice though that being said you go probably want to know how it performs house Kylie performed Brian house Kylie performed well I've done some preliminary tests and in gaming I did the ARMA 3 benchmark which is my cheap EU bound test it performed about 

five percent better than the four deep near the house wall floor core 46 70 K at four point six gigabits also in productivity it did very well and it is a snappy cpu however it's not leaps and bounds ahead of we'll just keep that in mind however I'll be leaving the benchmarks for the CPU review for you guys .

MSI Enthuastic Gaming Intel Z170A LGA 1151  Motherboard review

this is a socket LGA 1151 bored with the Intel's e170 chipset this motherboard comes with click BIOS 5 and steelseries peripherals who are great with MSI gaming motherboards its military class 5 certified with titanium chokes which is very impressive and these chokes withstand higher temps and have efficient heat dissipation you get a 1-year premium subscription to exploit game caster and you can overclock using the MSI gaming app with OC engine to you

 can overclock / megahertz guy Lake is winning you get an unlimited ram disk that speed system performance and this motherboard is compatible with Windows 10 and i'll probably upgrade to that from my next film it comes with audio push three and he McCaw do enhancer with dual OPA 1652 amps and metal emi shielding for even more awesome sound quality over the audio boost to the he make is a software solution for you to tweak and enhance your audio 

and you get killer a 2400 Gigabit LAN with intelligent AE as 2 point 0 that automatically prioritizes game traffic over other apps there's also emphasized twin-turbo m2 connectors but more on that later this is the second motherboard from MSI that I've seen USB 3.1 on the other being the z97 a gaming 6 you can find that video on JTL and USB 3.1 gen2 supports 10 gigabit per second speeds I saw the steel armor for pcie slots in person on a few motherboards at 

computex and I can't wait to show you guys up close in this review there's also ddr4 boost its supposed to help the memory signal stay pure for max performance and stability by isolating the memory circuitry and there's game boost it comes with an 11 setting at five gigahertz for overclocking let's see what you get in the box here's a driver CD quick install guide detailed manual SATA cable labels for those who have a lot of drives and a bad memory this is a door 

hanger mostly for travel I presume there's even a thank you note from MSI all they shouldn't have you get for se26 gigabit per second cables to l-shaped and two stray plugs as well as a foam padded I will shield with classic msi red and black colors here's an Elsa life flexible bridge and msi gaming G Series case badge as you can see the PCB is black which is a fan favorite this is an ATX form factor board measuring 305 millimeters or 12 inches x 244 millimeters or nine 

point six inches as for the design it's black and red mostly of course and you get a unique dragonfly wing look on the vrm cooler we think sin you know there's also an interesting pattern on the cooler above the Z 170 express chipset there's a total of five four pin fan headers to cpu fan connectors and three system fan connectors this is the LGA 1151 cpu socket and it supports six gen intel core processors here's a look at the for ddr4 dimm slots you get dual channel memory supporting up to 64 gigs as well as support for ddr4 up to 30 600 megahertz 

overclocked you also have support for ECC unbuffered memory and Intel X and P I believe this is the XMP led the LED shows the XMP status here are the 2 m 2 32 gigabit per second slots they support pcie 3.0 x4 and say 26 gigabit per second standards as well as pci e 3.4 MVM e-mini SAS SSD with turbo you to host card their support for up to 64 gigabit per second speeds with twin turbo yelda and you can install up to an 80 millimeter or three point one four inch 

length card there are three pcie 3.0 x16 slots on this board single card setup supports x16 mode dual card setup supports x8 x8 modes and triple card setup supports x8 x8 x4 modes and x8 x8 x1 modes there's a very handy diagram on page 30 of the user guide that shows you what that looks like you can set up to a nvidia sli or three-way AMD crossfire there's a closer look at the steel armor on the PCIe slots it prevents damage to the slot in case you somehow rage mode on 

the card and yank it out of the slot hard enough to pull the slot out too I don't see that happening with me as I'm usually very careful about these things it also helps with cooling I wish all three pcie slots had this armor but most peeps probably won't be doing a three-way setup also let's not forget about these four pci e 3.1 slots for plugging in a sound card debug card network card and the like this is the CMOS battery and clear CMOS jumper to the right 

of that and next to the jumper is the chassis intrusion connector on the top edge is the 8-pin cpu power port and to the right are the cpu fan 1 and cpu fan two connectors on the right edge is the system fan 3 connector 24 pin main power connector and USB 3.1 gen 1 connect next to the USB 3 are the SATA ports you get 6 8 a-6 gigabit per second ports for ports are reserved for 

SATA Express check page 34 of the manual for the m2 zeta and theta ii combination table raid 0 15 and 10 are available on theta 1 to say 26 beneath the SATA ports is the debug code led check page 42 for the debug code led table on the bottom edge of the system panel connectors two USB 2.0 port connector and TPM module connector to the left of that is the JTB t1 connector for connecting a specific card this is a mystery to me at the moment but I'm sure I'll 

find out in time and here's a slo-mo booting switch system fanchu connector and audio connector this PCB is four layers thick as indicated by the number on this brown box finally we have a look at the rear i oh here's the ps/2 connector for ps2 mouse or keyboard beneath that are two USB two points these three ports are also gaming device ports which means they work with mouse master software so that you can fully programmer gaming mouse there's also the 

gaming hockey feature that allows you to customize your f1 to f12 keys next to that is the dvi-d connector it supports max res of 1920 x 1200 at 60 hertz and we have the USB 3.1 gen2 type 8 port here with the USB 3.1 gen2 type-c port below that both can achieve max feeds of up to 10 gigabits per second type C has a reversible design and 15 watt support these are the two USB 

3.1 gen 1 ports and an hdmi port right here it sports a max res of 4096 x 2160 at 24 hurts and 2560 by 1600 at 60 Hertz the LAN port features 15 kilovolt anti surge protection and I wish all motherboards came with wireless but I guess it's easy enough to include an add-on and here's two more USB 3.1 gen 1 ports to conclude we have the audio ports with optical spit it out you get realtek alc 1150 codec with a channel 7.1 HD audio .


 the MSI's d1 70 a gaming and 5 motherboard for Intel's newest kylix CPUs this is a totally new platform we're looking at including a new chipset processors if you socket ddr4 Ram and so on first I'll do the main review of this m5 board and then afterwards a separate overclocking review with this board and the i7 6700 K processor as you may know have already tested the gaming and seven from MSI which did extremely well in my review and even deserved my rare gold 

award we'll see how this m5 does today it currently costs around one hundred and eighty to one hundred and ninety five US dollars which is quite a bit less than the m7 a competitive price point I'd say compared to other manufacturers at this point I'd like to thank Emma sighs so much for sending me this interesting motherboard and therefore making this review and surely 

several others possible inside a beautifully designed box is the motherboard itself the manual quick installation guide the driver city thank you note from MSI with registration the nicely padded red and black ahoo shield for SATA cables SATA cable labels and a sly bridge the cool case batch and last but not least the popular door hanger aesthetically this msi z170a gaming 

m5 is no other than the m7 it's just plain beautiful without getting too messy in terms of the design everything looks well laid out organized and professional which is very appealing to gamers as well as enthusiasts like myself the PCB is matte black and the color scheme of red and black of course is I'm as high-strung gaming colour we all know by now the design is very 

similar to the m7 I've tested just a bit less details and stuff on this board such as the missing IO cover for instance I really liked that paint finish on here as well although the erm heat sinks don't appear to be as metallic looking as the ones on the n7 so let's get started the gaming m5 features the current flagship chipset model z170 by Intel the PCH heatsink is large and looks 

great the two vrm heat sinks in the CPU socket area look good as well are not connected with the heat pipe though the m5 features a 12 phase vrm power design to ensure good stable power delivery and overclocked ability a messiah also has introduced a new quality standard at this military class 5 featuring darken hi-c caps as well as the brand new titanium chokes on this 

board we find the LGA 1155 socket for Intel's latest skylake processors for ddr4 memory dims with support for dual channel XMP capacities of up to 64 gigabytes as well as frequencies ranging from 20 133 megahertz to 3000 and 600 megahertz at OC a red LED light will light up as soon as XMP is enabled ddr4 boost is a neat feature by MSI which basically fully isolates the memory circuitry from the rest of the board to enhance RAM stability aesthetically that's a cool 

bonus here as well as for storage we have a total of 6 SATA 6 gigabits per second ports here 4 of which are reserved for the 2 SATA Express ports raid 0 1 5 and 10 are supported interestingly Indian 5 features 2m the 2 slots supporting SATA 6 gigabits per second pcie 3.0 x4 standards as well as PCIe 3 pro x4 mbm e-mini census is the with the turbo u2 hast card such a card is not 

included though raid 0 & 1 are supported for and the two PCIe storage devices and module lengths a 4 point 2 6 & 8 centimeters all these and the 2 and SATA ports run up the Intel z170 chipset certain combinations of storage devices will however lead to some ports becoming unavailable I'll not bother explaining it to you since I've clearly confused you there instead take a look at the images with examples looks complex at first but it really isn't expansion slots 3 

pcie 3.0 x16 as well as for pcie 3.0 x1 slots 3-way crossfire and 2-way SLI supported here for a single graphics card make sure to use the first slot to run at a full bandwidth of x16 for two-way use the first and second one 4 x8 x8 and for a 3-way configuration obviously use all three available slots for x8 x8 x4 operation keep in mind that the third x16 slot will only run in x1 mode when an extension card is installed into the second third or fourth x1 slot a special feature 

here by MSI is the new so-called steel arm or on the first two PCI Express x16 slots the should strengthen the slots to prevent damage that can be caused by heavy GPUs looks nice - same as on the m7 this m5 also features and size re boost three audio solution with the realtek LC 1150 H and 7.1 HD audio codec for optimum performance it's all mi shielded and isolated from the rest of the board the word interference thats nice and looks really cool in terms of aesthetics as 

well on board our audio filtering chemical capacitors and even dual headphone amps as for LAN msi goes with a very good killer 2400 Gigabit LAN controller even featuring anti search protection in total this m5 has five fan headers two for the CPU and three system fan headers all across the board down here the JSP i1 header along with the two front panel headers two 

years b2p no headers a comm header also known as serial port a TPM header a JIT bt1 header I'm sorrier than 30 use for that one and more on the left the front panel HD audio header on the side a nice angled USB 3.1 genuine or 3.0 header beside the 24 pin ATX power connection as well as the 8 pin ATX 12 volt power connection up there the z170a gaming and 5 luckily also comes with voltage track points small ones though down there a debugging led which will 

display the CPU temperature after the post process unlike the m7 days and 5 does not come with onboard power reset buttons and the game boo style game boost is available and the bias though the slow mode booting switch however makes its appearance on this and 5/2 which boots the system at a stable CPU clock speed preventing the system from crashing when under extreme overclocking conditions very noticeable is the use of high quality components all over 

the board well that's what military class 5 is all about even featuring humidity high temperature circuit over voltage ESD as well as EMI protections at a back panel we find one piece to come a port two USB 2.0 ports one DVI out one USB 3.1 gen2 type-c as well as an USB 3 pin one type a port two USB 3.1 genuine ports so basically three panel and one HDMI output 1 Gigabit LAN 2 more USB 3.1 Jen one ports an optical s/pdif output and last but not least if 

five audio jacks just so you know USB 3.1 gen2 is twice as fast as Gen 1 or R 3 for no basically the new click buys 5 ufi buys by MSI is great it comes with a refreshed design and a very nice user friendly user interface we get the option to switch between an easy mode and an advanced one for more options the bias responds fast and I like having everything nicely organized and categorized and that's exactly the case with Emma sighs click wise aspects that especially stand 

out are the hardware monitor and keyboard explorer the msi z170a gaming m5 is a fantastic motherboard a world first of all it looks great which of course as always is a matter of taste it remains perfectly stable good for overclocking the layout is done right the onboard audio solution is very impressive especially with the use of dynamic software the UEFI biases that easy to use and its response is flawless and of course this board our force tons of storage 

connectivity and possibilities in general however the m7f tested comes with a bit more features overall this and 5 lakhs special ones such as the on-board power reset buttons and the game boo styled a flashback plus USB port and button and there's also no DisplayPort video output at the back panel but MSI sacrificed some of their special features found and there are more expensive ports and instead kept the most important ones and hardly did any scaling down of 

things like connectivity on the board I think that was the right choice optional software such as the command center the MSI gaming app as well as RAM this can be neat little extra as many users could enjoy as for overclocking I managed to overclock my Intel i7 6700 K to 4.6 gigahertz at a voltage of 1 point 3 6 8 volts with this gaming m5 I mean that's a quite good 

result there although 4.6 gigahertz were achievable at one point three four four walls with the m7 so though this gaming in five clearly is not as good as its bigger broader the m7 it does a remarkable job as well the build quality is top-notch here as well and performance wise not too much of a difference here and say that's a good price performance ratio and maasai sets the bar high with their current general my reports I'd definitely recommend the MSI's e 178 gaming and five motherboard just like the m7 this m5 deserves my real gold award as well just in a different price range thanks you.

MSI Enthuastic Gaming Intel Z170A LGA 1151  Motherboard review

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