Product Showcase Motherboard

Product Showcase

The MSI Z97 XPower AC Gaming follows the E-ATX form factor, meaing it is 30.5 cm x 26.4 cm in size (12 in x 10.4 in), the motherboard is located in the OC series and is the flagship product. 
 

Included with the motherboard are the regulars including; manuals, driver CDs, SATA cables and a rear IO plate. This motherboard comes with a Bluetooth and WIFI adapter that you will need to install manually onto the motherboard.

• CPU support: 4th Gen Intel Core / Pentium / Celeron processors
• Chipset: Intel Z97 Express Chipset
• intel Gigabit Ethernet
• Intel 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.0, Intel Wi-Di
• Storage: 10x SATA 6Gb/s, 1x M.2, PCIe 10Gb/s
• Connectivity: 5x PCI-E 3.0 x16, 2x PCI-E x1
• 8x USB 3.0 / 2x USB 2.0 rear IO
• 8-channel Audio ALC1150 Realtek

Well look at that small and good looking. And really, as powerfull as an enthusiast setup really. Included in the bundle is one mighty fine motherboard and stuf like OC Fan stand and Fan, Delid Die Guard, OC Pen drive (8GB), SLI cables, V-Check cables, WIFI Antenna's and the WIFI module and so on really.

Ain't that georgeous? The I/O back panel reveals two USB 2.0 ports with another eight USB 3.0 ports. A Realtek ALC1150 high definition audio codec is the source for audio and we spot one 10/100/1000 fast Ethernet jack (Intel I218-V) There is a single PS/2 combo port that can be used for either a keyboard or a mouse, optical SPDIF in/out port and six audio jacks.

Then monitor connectors wise:

• 1 x DisplayPort with max. resolution up to 4096x2160@24Hz, 24bpp/ 3840x1600@60Hz, 24bpp
• 1 x HDMI ports  with max. resolution up to 4096x2160@24Hz, 24bpp/2560x1600@60Hz, 24bpp/ 1920x1080@60Hz, 36bps.

Can you see the small grey buttons roughly a cm away from the lower left? That is a clear CMOS button. The integrated audio comes from Realtek ALC1150 combined with a Cinema 2 software suite. The audio unit has special capacitors and EMI shielding. Also, you can spot gold plated audio connectors for better signal output with less chance of distortion.

 Check that, 5 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots.

• The operating mode will be x0/x16/x0/x0/x0, x16/x0/x0/x16/x0, x16/x0/x0/x8/x8 or x8/x0/x8/x8/x8.
•  Support for installing up to 4 PCIe x16 expansion cards.
• 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots

So thanks to the PLX bridge chip you will still get x8 Gen 3.0 PCIe lanes even if you install four cards! Do remember that one x8 PCIe Gen 3.0 connections offers the same bandwidth as a full x16 PCIe Gen 2.0 slot. That is pretty amazing.

The Z97 XPower AC has a 16 Phase CPU Digital Power Design. The board features five full PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 expansion slot. MSI applied their Military Class IV components on the motherboard with updated DrMOS MosFETs and aluminum colored dark caps that are going to increase the motherboards lifespan. Do you see the samall tubing slots on the primary heatsink? Yep you can add this unit towards your liquid cooling setup so that you can liquid cool the VRM / processor zone. 

The Z97 XPower AC comes with both an 8 and 6 pin power connector. You can use them both or either one of them. Recommended however is to use the one 8-pin connector at the least.