Msi z170a mpower gaming titanium review (full review)

When you are looking for beauty in the form of a motherboard, the name of the MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium jumps out at you. It is a motherboard with a white or titanium-colored PCB, with characteristics perfect for overclocking and a BIOS that with each passing day is much more stable and solid. Don't miss our review!

We thank MSI Spain for trusting the product for its analysis:

MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium technical characteristics

Unboxing and design

The MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium is presented in a silver-colored box with a larger size than we are used to. On the cover we see in large letters the model and logo of the MSI Gaming series.

While on the back we have all the most important technical specifications and describe each of its connections and connectors.

Inside we find the following bundle:

MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium motherboard. Back plate. Instruction manual and quick guide. Installation kit for processor. CD disk with drivers. Wiring stickers. Three sets of SATA cables.

The MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium is an ATX format motherboard with dimensions of 30.4 cm x 22.4 cm for the LGA 1151 socket. The board has the best design the Z170 series can ask for, there are no words to describe it with that fantastic titanium white PCB.

Rear view, for the most curious.

The motherboard features two zones with cooling: power phases and Z170 chipset. It has 16 feeding phases supported by Military Class 5 technology. What does the technology of these components offer? protection against humidity, protection against high temperatures, circuit protection, anti-electrostatic (ESD) and anti-electromagnetic protection (EMI).

It has 4 available 64 GB compatible DDR4 RAM memory sockets with frequencies up to 3600 Mhz and XMP 2.0 profile.

The MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium presents a very interesting layout for mounting a multiGPU system. As we can see in the image, it has three PCIe 3.0 to x16 slots, and three other PCIe 3.0 connections at x1 speed to connect any expansion card: sound, recorder or PCIe SSD.

Confirm that the board supports up to 3 Way CrossfireX from AMD and 2 Way SLI from Nvidia at speeds of x8-x8.

Among the PCI express connections we find two M.2 connectors to install any SSD with type 2242/2260/2280/22110 format with the benefits of 32 GB / s bandwidth. It comes in handy to save the tedious wiring of SATA connections, and we gain a much cleaner mount.

The Realtek ALC1150 integrated sound card comes enhanced with Audio Boost 3 technology. What improvements does it offer us? Better sound quality through the use of premium quality audio components with 8 channels. What will make us enjoy a more crystalline sound and with a high impedance headphone amplifier

Regarding storage, it has six SATA III 6 GB / s connections with RAID 0.1, 5 and 10 support. SAS SSD with Turbo U.2.

We also see in the image an internal USB 3.0 connection with a somewhat unusual arrangement on a motherboard and a USB 3.1 Type C connection to connect any device from our benchtable.

Finally we detail the rear connections:

1 x PS / 2 for keyboard and mouse. 4 x USB 2.0.1 x DVI-D. 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2. 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C. 1 x HDMI. 1 x LAN (RJ45). 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1.1 x Optical S / PDIF OUT. 5 x OFC audio jacks.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i-6700k.
Base plate:	MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium.
Memory:	2 × 8 16GB DDR4 @ 3000 MHZ Kingston Savage.
Heatsink	Corsair H100i v2.
HDD	Samsung 850 EVO 500GB.
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1070.
Power supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2.

To check the stability of the i7-6700k processor at 4500 MHZ and the motherboard we have stressed with Prime 95 Custom and air cooling. The graphics we have used is an Nvidia GTX 1070, without further delay, let's see the results obtained in our tests with a 1920 × 1080 monitor.

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BIOS

Its new UEFI BIOS has been revamped remarkably, with a much more pleasing design to look at, with really good stability for both overclocking and stock values and improved for compatibility with Windows 10.

Among its functions we have a system under two modes: EZ mode, with the most used functions and settings. And an expert user mode that allows adjusting all kinds of details and increasing performance with MSI CLICK BIOS 5 and tweaking your overclocked processor to the max.

Final words and conclusion about MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium

The MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium is one of the best Z170 motherboards on the market for its design and overclocking capabilities. Among its features we find 16 power phases, excellent cooling, a brutal aesthetic, reinforced with rear armor, extra shielding in its most important connectors: DDR4 and PCIe and a very stable BIOS.

We really liked the incorporation of the excellent sound card, its state-of-the-art connections: USB 3.1 Type C, double M.2 connector and compatibility with up to 64 GB of 3600 MHz DDR4 RAM.

Between our tests we have passed a gaming carousel with a GTX 1070 and the result could not have been better. Able to measure up to both 1080p, 1440p and 4K UHD resolution.

Currently it can be available in online stores for a price of 256 euros and we believe that if you want a motherboard with a design that comes out of the ordinary and you want to impress with your computer, the MSI Z170A MPOWER Gaming Titanium is the best option for this price range.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ DESIGN	- WE HAVE LIKED TO FIND AT LEAST 8 SATA III CONNECTIONS.
+ REAR ARMOR AND ARMORING IN THE MEMORIES AND PCI EXPRESS CONNECTIONS.
+ OVERCLOCK CAPACITY.
+ AUDIO BOOST 3.
+ FEEDING PHASES AND MILITARY CLASS V COMPONENTS.