Z170 motherboards are a different breed from their Z97 brethren. Haswell boards played it safe. While you might have found a few multicolor LEDs or a 4-lane M.2 slot here or there, all the interesting action happened over in socket 2011v3 and Haswell-E. That's not the case with Skylake or Z170 however, and there's no better example of this brave new world than MSI's recently released flagship Z170 motherboard, the Z170 XPower Gaming, Titanium Edition.
MSI has been pushing the envelope in motherboard fashion in recent years, and their latest creation looks smashing. Resplendent in its unique, partially reflective silver/white coating, the XPower resembles nothing else on the market. The color scheme manages to look both understated and over-the-top simultaneously, and complements red, blue, or green component families equally well.
Sharp-eyed readers may notice the board's sleek futuristic looks go beyond smart looking paint. Gone is the can-style VRM hardware you see surrounding other CPU sockets, replaced here with tiny, high-quality tantalum packages that last longer and handle extreme temperatures more easily. This same level of detail extends to the VCORE phases and other areas.
In fact, everywhere you look, there's candy to find. A quick inspection reveals a detachable hardware overclock panel, twin 4 lane M.2 slots, enhanced audio circuitry, and a boost knob that, no kidding, goes up to 11.
This board seems built for go as much as show, but ringing in at a hefty $300 (£227), does it measure up to its price and promise?
Out of the box and onto the bench
Since the XPower is a flagship product, MSI packs in some accessory extras. Along with the expected manual, connector backplate, SATA and USB cables, you'll find testing leads, sticky cable labels, an adhesive badge for your case and a novelty door hanger. There's also a dual-port SLI bridge in case multiple GPUs are in the cards. The board itself is well protected in a covered and padded separate box that includes the detachable overclock panel. It's a tidy package, and it feels substantial.
The Xpower's slippery shape translates to somewhat easier installation, since there's less to snag while positioning the motherboard, installing the CPU, plugging in cables, or dealing with other components. There's no built-in backplate for heavy CPU heat sinks, but the board accepts brackets from the Hyper212 EVO 212 air cooler and Corsair's H100i GTX AIO water loop readily enough. Despite the XPower's long feature list, MSI resisted the urge to go Extended ATX so a full sized tower isn't required. This means plenty of enclosure options to show off its sexy silver looks.
One small problem is the location of the supplemental power connector. Tucked between heat spreaders and the topmost PCI-E slot, the socket is difficult to reach, especially once you install the CPU cooling system or graphics card. The required cable also impedes airflow a bit.
Another quibble is a lack of sufficient fan headers on the lower right side of the motherboard: there's just one. Installed in a tower enclosure such as a Corsair T760 used here, only a single front-mounted fan could reach a motherboard power lead without lengthy extensions.
While the upper M.2 slot is obscured when a graphics card is installed, the lower one remains accessible even with a triple-width monster GPU sitting in the primary PCI-E slot. A second card will cover up the lower M.2 slot however, so plan multi-GPU setups accordingly. The OC panel can remain installed on the upper-right side as a daughter card or attached via a short, cable (included) as a small, exposed control device.
The functionality of the OC Panel is fantastic, but it needs better presentation than it's given here. A longer cable with a plastic housing for the panel or a front-mounting bracket for a 5.25" drive bay would be ideal additions to the package.
Nevertheless, the ability to directly adjust overclock settings via hardware buttons is a luxury, and a well-implemented one here. It mixes the convenience of desktop software tweaking with the stability of BIOS overclocks, although it's not a replacement for either. Deeper options will still have you tapping F2 or Delete at boot time, the same as any other motherboard.
Not all the action is limited to the OC panel. The lower-right corner of the board is home to the Spinal Tap-inspired Game Boost knob, which provides hardware access to 8 ascending overclock settings but is labeled to go up to 11 anyway. No reboot is required for these to take effect, but access to higher knob numbers depends on the quality of the CPU. You'll need some sweet silicon to turn the knob all the way up like Nigel.
