MSI Z170A Gaming M7 review - MSI Z170A Gaming M7 review

MSI Z170A Gaming M7
Dressed to frag 

We have yet another Z170 motherboard review, this one is the MSI Z170A Gaming M7. A motherboard that promises to deliver a high amount of features and provide that Skylake processor the full infrastructure is needs for a kick-ass gaming PC. Dressed to kill and with added benefits like USB 3.1, multiple M.2. slots and the fastest DDR4 support the product will impress. These motherboards can (well must) be paired with new Skylake-S series processors. We'll quickly dive into the two most import ones. Skylake Core i5-6600K and Core i7 6700K processors for the desktop platform have been released. We test both processors, yet have separate reviews on each of these processors. A new chip, a new package meaning both of them are Socket 1151. The new series Skylake processors are energy efficient, quite powerful and this need to be paired with a new motherboards series. For you guys that means the Z170 and h170 range. In this review we test the Core i5 6600K. An unlocked Skylake processor that has four cores and slim a 92W TDP,that is lower compared to Haswell with its 95W TDP, thanks to the new and smaller 14nm fabrication process. The quad core CPU has 8 MB L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory. The Z170 and H170 series motherboards will all be offered with DDR4 though. For the gaming community two processors are the most important.

Core i7 6700K
Four CPU cores with Hyper-Threading, 4.0GHz frequency, 4.20GHz maximum Turbo Boost frequency, 8MB last-level cache, dual-channel DDR3/DDR4 memory controller with 1600MHz or 2133MHz support, Intel HD Graphics 530-series integrated graphics core, LGA1151 packaging
 
Core i5 6600K
Four cores, 3.50GHz frequency, 3.90GHz maximum Turbo Boost frequency, 6MB last-level cache, dual-channel DDR3/DDR4 memory controller with 1600MHz or 2133MHz support, Intel HD Graphics 530-series integrated graphics core, LGA1151 packaging;

Skylake is the code-name used by Intel for the 14nm processor micro-architecture under development and is the successor to the Broadwell architecture. 

So then, the MSI Z170A Gaming M7, it is a very feature rich product that will look terrific in any DIY PC build.

Just loaded with a bucket-load of features and positions itself in the somewhat more affordable range of high-end products. If features, performance and aesthetics matter to you then the MSI Z170A Gaming M7 might just be what the dockter ordered for you. A matte black PCB with red shielding and heatsink accents. Features wise you may expect triple PCI-Express 3.0 ports, Audio Boost 3 audio solution, the usual quality components and a Killer NIC E2400 gigabit jack. Then you will spot USB 3.1  dual M.2. slots. meaning if you put two M.2. SSDs in RAID you can boost up-to 64 Gbps of bandwith. have a peek at what we review today and then head on-wards into the review.