Final Words & Conclusion
Final Words & conclusion
MSI has a new trick up their sleeves, PCB coating. We already noticed some sort of coating on the M7 that we reviewed, there was a trace logo pattern on the motherboard. Meaning they have found a way to coat the PCB with a pattern and likely two tone colors combined with logo designs. In the years to come what vinyl wrapping is to cars, could become specialized coating for motherboards. The first real demonstration is this absolutely magnificent Titanium edition. Now I will nitpick here and there a little, as well it comes with my age, but the true evolution here really is the coating. Time will tell what more MSI can do with patterns, logos and colored coating, but this first introduction is magnificent (if you like the color of course). The hardware itself is great and MSI is offering one of the best performing products out there in the Z170 segment, it lacks a few features though. I do miss AC WIFI and perhaps a second Ethernet jack preferably from Intel to that user can choose either an intel or E2400 NIC, hey I told ya, old age and nitpicking :) Other then that the board is very feature rich, overclockable and and has these stunning looks. Interesting are the OC dial and the new external PCB called OC dashboard. Performance wise the board seems to rock the 6700K processor we threw at it. Intel doesn't make and thus offer any reference motherboards anymore, so it is hard to define a reference processors performance point as the board mother-partners will do everything in their power to tweak out the last bit of performance. And sure, that's not a bad thing but there can be some platform (brand) performance differences. But yeah, the extra perf you see is mostly related to the higher base clocks. That's just the processor side, I mean the Z170 offer it all in terms of features, stability and reliability really, heaps of USB 3.0/3.1 connectors, plenty SATA3 ports, super dual fast M.2. and a lovely audio solution.
The performance is up there and combined with DDR4 memory this processor makes a good step forward. Combined with the series 100 chipset new features are available as well, SATA3, M.2 and SATA Express. Then there's the added benefit of DDR4 memory that not only use less power, the frequency can be so much higher as well, bringing more bandwidth and overall performance to the applications that require fast memory. Combine that with things like nice Gigabit jacks, exemplary audio solutions on the new motherboards and things like USB 3.0 / 3.1. The overall platform experience is what it is all about for Skylake. Performance with kick-ass features.
USB 3.1 Gen 1 versus Gen2
The industry is pulling the weirdest trick in the books right now. Most boxes (packaging) are listing USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) as USB 3.1 Gen 1. Read that well as it emenas that USB 3.1 Gen 2 is the new REAL 3.1 connector with 10 Gbps. Totally lame and confusing for the end users. Really, lame. So remember, if you read USB 3.1 Gen 1, that really is 100% the same old USB 3.0 connector, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 is the new 10 Gbps connector.
Storage
Combined with 8 SATA 6Gbps ports we can hardly complain about anything. Nice are the recent developments on the M.2 interface, pop in a M.2 compatible PCI-E SSD and you'll see your SSD quickly perform in the 700/800 Mb/sec range. Overall your SATA and M.2 connectivity is plentiful and top notch when it comes to performance. Great to see is that the slow has obtained a x4 PCIe interface connection allowing it 32 Gbps of bandwidth to work in. To compare a little, your SATA3 port has 6 Gbps available. So that small form factor SSD solution now is very future proof. Even better is that MSI includes two M.2. slots both at x4. RAID them and you can achieve seriously sexy performance levels with the right M.2. SSDs.
Aesthetics
Taste differ per person, I like reallt like how the Titanium version has turned out in its looks. It's new, it's different and for that alone this motherboard distinguishes itself from the competition. Where I commented the two metal plated PCI-Express x16 slots in a previous review, they now make sense in the Titanium design. The motherboards strangely enough has red LEDs to create a bit of a HALO effect, it makes the motherboard pop out of your chassis but perhaps white would have been a better color ? Well anything visually that is subjective I guess. This is just a very lovely looking solution for the enthusiast PC gamer.
Performance & tweaking
The overall performance in combo with the MSI Z170A Xpower Titanium motherboard as such I'd rate as "really good" for a quad core Core i7 6700K and good for the Core i5 6600K. Temps remain reasonable at default clocks, temperatures when the CPU is overclocked with added voltage definitely seem to be a notch better opposed to Haswell but still can rise fast and hot. Depending at your CPU you can clock these Skylake processors anywhere from 4.6 to 5.0 GHz depending on a bit of luck. At such a high you will need a lot of voltage, 1.40 maybe passing 1.50 volts when you reach the 5 Ghz barrier on your processor.
The bottom line
The MSI Z170A XPOWER GAMING Titanium motherboard has been released for two reasons only, to shock and to awe. By going completely outside the trend and applying the new coating MSI did something really unique. Obviously the hardware itself shares 99% of the DNA that the MSI Z170A gaming series offers. But as you have been able to read, MSI did an exemplary job on the Z170 series, all is good aside from two minor points. The MSI Z170A Xpower Titanium probably could have used two Gigabit Ethernet jacks, one from Intel and perhaps a Killer NIC so that you can make a choice in-between the Killer and the Intel jack. Secondly, AC WIFI or better yet the sheer lack of WIFI whatsoever. I do believe that motherboards anno 2015 should all have some sort of WIFI as the internet of things is wireless these days. Aside from these two slight remarks we have to acknowledge that the board as tested is sweet in aesthetics, sweet in performance and sweet in its overall features. I just have to mention the Game Boost Knob, normally I am not a fan of automated overclocks, but this one worked properly. We tested a Core i5 6600K, placed the know at it's highest position (11) and booted into windows to find out we where running 4700 MHz on the four CPU cores and the memory was boosted to 2667 MHz. Now I am not saying it'll work this easy for all processors out there, but the end-result was impressive. An automated overclock with automated voltages that was stable at an impressive clock frequency, you don't see that often.
Rounding up I think that the MSI Z170A XPower Titanium motherboard is aesthetically a VERY pleasing motherboard, but does require other components to match. Example a red, white or yellow graphics card combined with a Ti flavored motherboard looks bad. So that is a bit of a challenge. Dark black components like a dark colored graphic card would be the right combo to use. The looks and design combined with USB connectivity, one Gigabit jack and all the tweaking mania you need make it a grand choice. Your DDR4 memory can be easily configured by enabling the XMP 2.0 profile. You will gain excellent features combined with seriously nice performance and very decent energy consumption levels. I have no doubt that some of you can reach 5 GHz on this CPU, the MSI motherboard will certainly allow for this. The overall combination of the MSI Z170A XPOWER Titanium and a Core i5 6600K or Core i7 6700K will be very solid. The MSI Z170A XPOWER Gaming Titanium will receive our Top pick award, as it really is that, a top pick that comes recommended here at Guru3D.com, unfortunately I did not have a price on this mobo at the time of writing.
Updated: we mistakenly assumed this board was using a Killer NIC, it's an Intel I219-V Gigabit jack alright.
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