Shootouts

High-End Intel Z87 Motherboard Shootout

By Wong Chung Wee - 14 Apr 2014

MSI Z87 MPower Max

MSI Z87 MPower Max

What struck us about the MSI Z87 MPower Max is how smooth its VRM heatsinks are. Usually, such heatsinks come with sharp and jagged edges, in order to maximise their surface area for optimal heat dissipation. However, this board has overturned this convention, with its smooth finished VRM and chipset heatsinks.

The MSI Z87 MPower Max has a 20-phase power design to ensure the stable power delivery to the CPU and memory of the board. It also features the updated Military Class IV components of its power delivery systems.

From this perspective, we can see two rows of chokes, which are lined up at a right angle, in front of the VRM heatsinks. In terms of its power delivery system, the MSI board has a 20-phase power design to ensure the stable power delivery to the CPU and memory of the board. It also features the updated Military Class IV components of its power delivery systems. They consist of new PowerPak MOSFETs, Hi-c capacitors (Hi-C Cap), super ferrite chokes (SFC), along with solid capacitors (Solid Caps) and Dark capacitors (Dark Caps).

 

When viewed from the rear, we can see the MSI Superpipe that is essentially an 8mm nickel heatpipe that connects the VRM heatsinks for better heat dissipation.

The MSI Superpipe is embedded in the VRM heatsink. Also notice that while the heatsink is thick, it's grooved internally to increase heat dissipation area.

In terms of expansions slots, the board has three PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 slots, and four PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. With the 4th generation Intel Core Haswell processor being able to only deliver 16 PCIe lanes; hence, on the MSI board, this single PCIe x16 link can be split into two x8 links or three links with a x8/x4/x4 configuration. As a result, the board is able to support up to, either a 2-way NVIDIA SLI setup, or a 3-way AMD CrossFireX configuration. This is also compounded by the fact the MSI board doesn't feature any PLX PCIe Gen 3.0 switches to boost throughput in each PEG slot.

There are three PCIe x16 physical slots, and four PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. We also see a mSATA slot that is sandwiched between the first two x16 slots.

Even as we are looking at the expansion slots of the board, we couldn't help noticing the row of buttons that consists of a triplet of the Easy Button 3 system, and the pair of Direct OC buttons. The Easy Button 3 is made up of the OC Genie, power and reset buttons. The OC Genie button will allow you to overclock the system with just a push of it; while the Direct OC ones, the "+" and "-" buttons, allow for finesse as you can use them to adjust the base clock frequency of the unlocked processor during normal operations of the board.

From the left edge of the board is the front panel audio header. The row of onboard buttons break the succession of the other headers that include a pair for system fans, followed by two USB 2.0 ones. The front panel headers are divided into two sections, with a Go2BIOS button at the end.

To the far right of the bottom edge of the board, there is the front panel audio connector. Next to it is the OC Genie mode switch that provides two overclocking modes for the OC Genie feature. After the buttons, we see two internal fan connectors, and two USB 2.0 headers. Next up, we see two system panel connectors, and to their right, there is a Go2BIOS button that allows you to boot to the BIOS utility without the need for any keyboard inputs. This button is useful as the keyboard is disabled during POST when the "MSI Fast Boot" feature is enabled.   

Nearer to the stack of SATA 6Gbps connectors, you'll find more onboard feature such as the usual debug LED segment display, and a multi-BIOS switch that allows for switching between two sets of BIOSes. The two BIOS ROM chips are located at the top of the switch.

The SATA 6Gbps connectors are black, and from the left, the first pair is connected to the board's ASMedia ASM1061 controller, and the remaining six are driven by the Intel Z87 chipset. There is a USB 3.0 header next to the stack of SATA connectors.

Moving to the right, we see the DIMM slots that support overclocked DDR3 RAM modules, rated up to 3000MHz. In addition to the voltage checkpoints that are located near the edge of the board, there is another set of voltage checkpoints near the CPU socket, for monitoring the voltages of the CPU and PCH.

 In the vicinity of the DIMM slots, there is the row of voltage point connectors at the edge of the board. Also, near the LGA 1150 CPU socket, there are voltage check points for the CPU and PCH.

The rear I/O panel of the board features a PS/2 combo port, above a pair of USB 2.0 ports. The clear CMOS button has a unique design but it could pose a danger as it may be accidentally pressed. There are a total of six USB 3.0 ports, and its video connectivity options consist of two HDMI connectors (both for outputs), and a DisplayPort port. The S/PDIF out connector sits above the HDMI connector, while the bright canary yellow hue of the RJ-45 Gigabit connector sits atop one of the USB 3.0 stacks.

 The clear CMOS button is located next to the PS/2 and pair of USB 2.0 ports, and we would prefer if its design was less outstanding so that the risk of pushing it unnecessarily is reduced.

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