MSI Z170A XPOWER Gaming Titanium review - Product Showcase

Product Showcase

The MSI Z170A XPOWER Gaming Ti follows a standard form factor (30.5x24.4cm). The motherboard is located in the XPOWER Gaming range and is a high-end product within this new Skylake desktop processor range. 

Check it out first, nice huh ? Included with the motherboard are the regulars including; manuals, driver CDs, SATA cables and a rear IO plate. It also has a couple of new features which we'll talk about in-depth in this review.

• CPU support: Skylake-S class Intel Core processors
• Chipset: Intel Z170 Chipset
• 1x Gigabit Ethernet (Intel)
• Storage: 
• 8x SATA 6Gb/s Intel
• 2x M.2, PCIe 32 Gb/s and shared SATA Express ports x2
• 2x Sata Express also called SATAe
• Connectivity: 
• 4x PCI-E 3.0 x16  (single at x16 / dual at x8 / tripple at x8 - x8 - x4 / quad at x8/x4/x4/x4)
• 3x PCI-E 3.0 x1
• USB 3.0 / 3.1 
• 8-channel Audio ALC1150 Realtek

Included in the bundle is one interesting looking motherboard and gear like SATA cables, SLI connectors and so on. Nifty is the OC dashboard, a small OC panel PCB you can place outside the chassis
 

The I/O back panel reveals 3.1/3.0/2.0 ports. A Realtek ALC1150 high definition audio codec is the main source for audio. The audio unit has special noise reducing capacitors and EMI shielding. You will spot one 10/100/1000  Gigabit Ethernet jack (Intel). Included is a PS/2 combo port for either a keyboard or a mouse, optical SPDIF out port and five audio jacks. If you plan to use the integrated IGP of the processor, you can make use of a DP or one of two HDMI connectors. The button to the left is a clear CMOS button. This motherboard unfortunately this motherboard does not come with a WIFI solution.

The board has 4 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots which can be arranged in these slot configurations with graphics cards:

• 1-way mode - x16 / x0 / x0 
• 2-way mode - x8 / x8 / x0
• 3-way mode - x8 / x8 / x4
• 3-way mode - x8 / x4 / x4 / x4

As you can see these are PCI Express Gen 3.0 configurations, that's plenty for regular graphics card setups up-to even 4-way SLI/Crossfire. 

The motherboard comes with an 8-pin power connector and if you want to use it, another 4-pin as well. You'll get four DIMM slots that can be used for up-to 64GB of dual-channel memory. We use a new 3200 MHz kit from G.skill which we'll feature in detail in this review.

Back Panel I/O Ports

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse combo port
• 3 x USB 2.0 ports
•   * 1 x HOTKEY port
•   * 1 x BIOS FLASHBACK+ port
• 1 x Clear CMOS button
• 2 x HDMI ports
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 ports
• 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector
• 5 x OFC audio jacks

And yes, even the backside has that Ti coloring going on. Here you can also clearly see an audio LED (red) trace running upwards.