MSI Z170I Pro Gaming AC Review
Published by Marc Büchel on 07.04.16Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
The MSI Z170I Pro Gaming AC motherboard is powered by a 5-phase CPU VRM which is enough for an mini ITX system. Apart from that there are features like Killer-LAN and beefed-up audio. On the back of the board there is even an M.2 x4 Gen 3 slot, which adds to storage flexibility. There are also straight SATA ports, whereas two of thm can be combined to one SATA-Express connector. Overall this board has been equipped with a reasonable feature mix, which is perfectly adquate for the price MSI is asking. |
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Design |
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| Layout | + | - | |
| Overall, the MSI Z170I Pro Gaming AC's layout has been well thought. As we already mentioned on this page there is a total of four straight SATA ports. On such small motherboards it's not possible to use angled SATA connectors, since the memory slots need to be moved too close to the CPU socket. Other than that there is an internal USB3 header. Unfortunately there are no practical power- and reset-buttons as well as debug LED but there is a CLR_CMOS button at the back I/O panel. Furthermore there is a PCI Express Gen3 x16 slots. We liked the position of the CPU socket, which allows for the installation of large coolers. There were quite a few boards in the past, which had the socket rather close to the PCI Express slot. That meant you had to install a stock cooler or an all-in-one liquid cooler. A quick look at the back I/O panel reveals there are plenty of USB 3.1 as well as USB 2.0 ports, which in combination with the display and network connectors as well as WiFi module make for a good connectivity mix. | - Space around the CPU socket - Audio Solution | - No power/reset-button onboard - No Debug LED | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| Calculating the average of all 2D benchmarks we ran, we see that this board ranks 10th. When taking the average of all 3D results this board manages to score the 15th place. Overall performance should really be improved and we're hoping MSI is going to do so by releasing new BIOS updates. Having a look at power consumption we see that this board is very energy efficient, scoring 2nd place when it comes to idle and load power consumption. |
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- Power consumption idle | |
| Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
| MSI has put a lot of time and effort into making their BIOS look nicer and more user friendly. Especially when we compare this version of MSI BIOS to the first UEFI BIOS from MSI, it simply cannot be compared, since the two are worlds apart. What's almost self-explanatory is that you get a lot of tuning and tweaking options in order to optimize the system towards your needs. We also like the entry screen which displays a lot of useful information. Apart from that overclocking our test CPU to 5.0 GHz was straight forward and there were no issues whatsoever. | - Sheer amount of
options - Design |
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| Recommendation | + | - | |
| The MSI Z170I Pro Gaming ACis a compact Mini ITX motherobard with a very reasonable feature mix. We would really like to see the performance improved but keeping in mind that with 137 Euro the price is highly competitive this is a recommendable board. | -
Price
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Gaming |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the MSI Z170I Pro Gaming AC good 4 out of 5 stars. | |||
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