MSI Z97 XPower AC Preview
Category : Z97
Published by Marc Büchel on 18.06.14
The Z97 XPower is MSI's flagship offer when it comes to Z97 Express based motherboards. This board not only comes with a massive 32 phase digital power design but also lots of additional overclocking and gaming related features. Other than that MSI provided this board with their unique and good looking color scheme, where basically almost anything is black apart from a few yellow spots. 
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Today, we are going to take a closer look at one of the MSI's motherboards based on the Intel Z97 Express chipset and check out if MSI is was able to do a great job with implementation of this chipset on its Z97 XPower motherboard.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Specs and Delivery
| Chipset | Intel Z97 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32
GB DDR3, non-ECC, un-buffered memory DDR3 3300 / 3200 / 3100 / 3000 / 2800 / 2666 / 2600 / 2400 / 2200 / 2133 / 2000 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz (OC) |
| Multi-GPU |
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| Slots |
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| Audio | Audio Boost (Realtek ALC1150)
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| Storage | Intel Z97 chipset
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| Network |
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| Internal Connectors |
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| Extrenal Connectors |
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| Forfactor | E-ATX (30.5cm x 26.4cm) |
| BIOS | 2 x 64Mb flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS |
- Drivers & Utilities Disc
- OC pen Drive
- OC Fan Stand
- Motherboard User Guide
- I/O Shield
- 6x SATA Cable
- Network Driver & Utilities Disc
- Software & Application User Guide
- USB 3.0 Bracket
- E-SATA Bracket
- M-Connectors
- 2x Antenna
- mPCIe card with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module
- 3xSLI Bridge
- 4x V-Check Cable
- Door Hanger
- Molex to 2x SATA Power converter
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
Layout
As we mentioned in the introduction, the MSI Z97 XPower motherboard comes with a Twin Frozr IV based design. Therefore the PCB has a matte black finish with a few yellow touches on the heatsinks. The heatsinks themselves have been shaped with a lot of attention to detail and come with a matte black colour scheme. Combined, it makes the design unique and good looking. The layout itself has been well thought and there are plenty of useful features, like eight USB 3.0 ports on the back, SATA 6Gbps ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, overclocking features and more. |
  
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MSI equipped the Z97 XPower with a 32-phase digital power design with IR3563B ICs from International Rectifier taking care of the CPU VRM. Unlike the previous MPower motherboard (Z77), the Z97 XPower power design has one DRMOS for two phases rather than one DRMOS for one phase. All those solid capacitors are part of MSI's Military Class IV group of components so that is one pretty strong power design.
The memory gets a 3-phase digital power design driven by a UPI uP1606R, which one more phase than usual.
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As far as the memory goes, you can find four DIMM-slots on the Z97 XPower motherboard. Officially supported are the DDR3 3200 / 3100 / 3000 / 2800 / 2666 / 2600 / 2400 / 2200 / 2133 / 2000 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz (O.C.). There is enough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you will not run into any issues with large coolers, even if you choose to install memory with big heatspreaders. Also supported are the Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 1.3. Overclocking the memory on this board with old ICs (PSC, BBSE), which are what all overlcockers are still using, is not really nice because of the BIOS not being optimized. On the other hand, overclocking with the new Samsung ICs or the Hynix CFR, BFR, MFR is not bad for gaming and daily use PCs, but not for getting any serious high memory frequency results.
The PCH as well as current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via passive heatsinks. The current converters heatsink is made from a single aluminium block that use one 8mm nickel-plated copper heatpipe. The PCH heatsink has not been integrated into the heatpipe loop and it is quite simple and flat. The cooling blocks have been very well made and also they very firmly attached to the motherboard to provide enough pressure on the components they have to cool down. They are entirely black colored with yellow elements to go well with Twin Frozr IV graphics card cooler design and color choices.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Connectors and I/O
MSI equipped the Z97 XPower with ten SATA 6Gbps connectors. This means you get six native SATA-III ports from the PCH and four SATA-III from another chip which is in this case an ASM1061 from ASMedia.With this motherboard you get five PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 and and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots and all of them have been coloured black. From top to bottom for the PCIe x16 slots, you get 16 lanes, 16 lanes, 8 lanes, 16 lanes and 8 lanes. This means you can do 4-Way SLI/CrossFire with a bit of help from the PLX8747 chip. If you take a closer look at the PCB you will notice four DIP PCIe switches witch are connected to the PLX and helps CPU to fully support x16 lanes on the second x16 PCIe slot, so we recommend that this PCIe slot be used with a single graphics card. The placement of the PCIe connectors has been well thought in case of the multi GPU scenario.
Something that is almost standard nowadays on premium motherboards are the practical onboard power- and reset-buttons as well as the debug LED. MSI added some extra stuff like a two physical BIOS' as well as a another switch to select which one you actually want to use. Furthermore there is an OC Genie button, voltage reading points and a Go-BIOS button. This last one is here to help you get into the BIOS on next boot after pressing it. The BIOS can be cleared by removing the battery or simply by pushing the CLR_CMOS button located in the back panel.
In total, you will find seven fan headers on the MSI Z97 XPower, which is enough to provide an overclocking rig or even a high-end gaming machine with plenty of fresh air. A closer look at the pictures below shows where they have been placed. All fan connectors are the PWM (4-pin) kind.
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Looking at the external connectors placed directly at the I/O-panel, MSI equipped the new Z97 XPower motherboard with a P/S2 connector, eight USB 3.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one HDMI connector, a DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, a CLR_CMOS button as well as an optical out and the analogue audio panel.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| A closer look at the motherboard lineup from MSI reveals that the Z97 XPower is the best equipped model. Therefore, it comes with some really neat features, like for example a highly powerful power design regarding CPU(+600W) and memory. The included 32-phase design is going to be more than enough for any overclocker, no matter what record wants to be broken. MSI also equipped this board with some features for extreme overclocking and gamers. The lineup includes the OC PCB and OC buttons for extreme overclocking as well as the OC Pen Drive, OC fan stand, a beefed-up audio solution, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth and the M.2 support. Apart from the features for gamers, the bundle is rich and there is more than you will ever need with this motherboard. |
- Design - 4 x PCI-Express 3.0 Slots - Features - Bundle |
- No SATA Express Connector | |
| Layout | + | - | |
| Overall, the MSI Z97 XPower layout has
been well thought. It features a clear CPU socket zone which should
appeal to the extreme overclockers and make it compatible with most, if
not all, CPU coolers. It has enough space for multi graphics card setups
and features angled SATA connectors that you can find on almost any
motherboard these days. Other than that, there are few USB 3.0
connectors, practical power- and reset-buttons, OC Genie and Bclk and
multiplier plus and minus buttons, CLR_CMOS button, which is located at
the I/O panel. Furthermore, there is even a debug display which is very
useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or
the board itself. In total, you get five PCI Express Gen3 x16 slots
(thanks to the PLX8748 chip), which have been well positioned. Otherwise
you have two PCIe Gen2 x1 slots, and MSI has also included an
unpluggable PCIe Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module. The rest also complies with the
very high standard: eight USB 3.0, ten SATA-III connectos and one internal USB3
header (for two USB3
ports). In case you are looking for more overclocking friendly features, MSI has equipped the motherboard with voltage reading points and two physical BIOS with a DIP switch to select the one you want. |
- Angled SATA connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display / CLR_CMOS - 6x USB 3.0 - Bluetooth/Wi-Fi - 2x BIOS - Clean CPU Socket Area |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Luca Rocchi l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch