MSI Z97 XPower AC Preview

Published by Marc Büchel on 18.06.14
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Features

Military Class 4 Components

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

DigitALL Power PWM

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

OC Pen Drive

MSI started a new way to give users latest drivers with no more DVD in bundle but an 8GB pen drive named the OC Pen Drive which includes the drivers needed for the motherboard and all overclocking tools. We can also do more with this pen drive, save and load BIOS profiles with one click which means gamers and overclockers can easily share their settings and need only to load it to another motherboard with same model and BIOS version.
 

OC PCB

The Z97 XPower does not just give you 32-phases for those that like to go crazy on the CPU voltages but is also using 50% more layers for Xtreme overclocking. So, if you are an extreme 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 the whole system. The rest of the features and design solutions include a clean CPU socket area which should have more compatibilty with LN2 containers, V-Check points for voltage monitoring and buttons for overcloking on the fly for Bclk and multiplier. While many overlcockers will not exactly like the "overclock on the fly" features which can be done easily in the 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 3Dmark Vantage or 3Dmark 06, when in order to get higher score you need to run higher game tests as well as for CPU tests when you underclock the CPU frequency.
   

OC Fan Stand

OC Fan Stand is the new feature from MSI that helps extreme overclockers a lot and also very nice solution for gamers with hot graphics card(s). Basically you can install the OC Fan Stand close to memory or the CPU and any other part of motherboard to cool the components. This feature avoids the issue of fan falling or touching certain components and there is no need to find a way to fix the fan on, for example graphics card PWM area or the LN2 container.
   

Audio Boost

MSI equips its latest and greatest motherboard with an improved audio solution which includes the Realtek ALC1150 chip, studio level 600 Ohm headphone amplifier. At the I/O shield we find golden audio jacks which is to improve the audio signals as well as EMI shielded audio codec, high quality capacitors and the PCB separation.
 

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Module

MSI bundles 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.
     

M.2 Support

The new XPower Z97 motherboard from MSI features an M.2 slot which is placed between the two PCIe slots. This motherboard can be equipped with SSDs in M.2 format and it is wired directly to the Z97 PCH via two PCI Express lanes, therefore offering x2 bandwidth. In other words up to 10 Gbps can be pushed over the bus through this slot, almost doubling the performance compared to the SATA-III port.


Page 1 - Introduction Page 4 - Layout
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery Page 5 - Connectors and I/O
Page 3 - Features Page 6 - Conclusion




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MSI Z97 XPower AC Preview - Motherboards > Intel > Z97 - Reviews - ocaholic