Tuesday, July 21st 2015
MSI Z170 Gaming M Series Motherboards Pictured
MSI is readying a trio of Gaming "M" Series socket LGA1151 motherboards with DDR4 memory slots. It's important to note that the "M" does not denote micro-ATX, as it used to, in previous generations. It's inserted before the model number, letting you know that it's an MSI Gaming product, and not by one of its competitors, which imitated its nomenclature, with its Z97 motherboards. The lineup includes the Z170A Gaming M5, the Z170A Gaming M7, and the Z170A Gaming M9 ACK.
The Z170A Gaming M5 offers all the features you need to build a slick gaming PC build, with up to two high-end graphics cards. It offers a 10-phase CPU VRM, an all-PCIe gen 3.0 expansion area, ten SATA ports (including two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s), two M.2 slots (both 32 Gb/s), and AudioBoost III audio, with Killer E2205 GbE. The Z170A Gaming M7 takes things a notch up, with a 14-phase CPU VRM, a "Game Boost" rotary knob that steps up CPU and memory clocks in 11 preset steps, and better onboard audio. The Z170A Gaming M9 ACK leads the pack, with a back-plate, liquid-cooling preparation for the VRM heatsink, and Killer ACK WLAN. All three feature USB 3.1 with both type-A and type-C ports.
The Z170A Gaming M5 offers all the features you need to build a slick gaming PC build, with up to two high-end graphics cards. It offers a 10-phase CPU VRM, an all-PCIe gen 3.0 expansion area, ten SATA ports (including two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s), two M.2 slots (both 32 Gb/s), and AudioBoost III audio, with Killer E2205 GbE. The Z170A Gaming M7 takes things a notch up, with a 14-phase CPU VRM, a "Game Boost" rotary knob that steps up CPU and memory clocks in 11 preset steps, and better onboard audio. The Z170A Gaming M9 ACK leads the pack, with a back-plate, liquid-cooling preparation for the VRM heatsink, and Killer ACK WLAN. All three feature USB 3.1 with both type-A and type-C ports.
27 Comments on MSI Z170 Gaming M Series Motherboards Pictured
theyre pretty motherboards tho
BTW, no PCIE 4x slot...
or i am the only one to see no difference (except in orientations of the heatsink and branding)
Ie: the Z170 M5 and the Maximus VII Ranger/Hero. not the same line. :p surely the same as Haswell +4 lines :D (thanks @erixx to make me notice it) .... Skylake is not a big improvement, save for DDR4 compatibility, power efficiency, Iris IGP and USB 3.1/TB 3. (which are still nice improvement for those with CPU under Haswell/Haswell refresh ofc)
btw why would you have a X4 slot? there is already one of the 3 Physical X16 that would be wired electrically in X4 as on Haswell (mostly the one at the bottom or the middle in the ACK, the black one)
Z97 is 16 lanes, but 2 GPUs and 1 SSD= 8+8+4= 20!!!!
in your case it's right what you need if you want to run a SLI + the SSD
GPU
Empty or SSD
SSD or Empty
Equal to X8 GPU slot iirc
GPU
GPU or Empty
Empty or GPU
Equal to x8/x8 SLI/CFX
GPU
GPU
GPU or SSD
Equal to X8/X8/X4 on current Z/H97 but the last X4 is wired to the PCH and thus it's CFX only
the main difference for me reside in the fact that a
GPU
GPU
SSD or GPU (CFX only or does a X4 3.0 can be SLI? )
will still run a X8/X8/X4 but full 3.0 speed and the SSD would be in a X16 Phys/X4 Wired slot. now would it be wired to the PCH or direct CPU? i wonder...
to i might be mistaken cheap ... nope it's still overpriced for what it is. (tho can be useful in a more than 2xSLI/CFX but SLI/CFX is really worth it on X2 ... or even better single board... )
tho ... 395chf where i am ... i could call that cheap ... if the mobo and RAM kit weren't 1.5 to 3 time the price of a good Z97 board or DDR3 kit
~$350 ----- $390
same RAM price
similar motherboard price
20 lanes ----- 28 lanes
4 cores ----- 6 cores
I'm not trying to say 5820K is better, but just pointing that 5820K is cheap for its performance :toast:
EDIT: One thing though, we don't know how 6700K performs yet :P
Sooooo, it's not overpriced as I'd say, but within range :)
the 6700S (it's S now not K anymore) will not offer a huge IPC improvement over Haswell/HW-Refresh, and if the Z170 mobo price will be similare to a X99 then even Skylake is not worth it over a 4690K/4790K :laugh:
at last Skylake has a advantage: to be DDR3 compatible.
btw ... find me a 390$(well for me it cost more around 414$ ) 5820K and a 179$ (and not above thanks.) X99 mobo and i will gladly change my 230$ 4690K and my 179$ Maximus VII Ranger(well maybe not ... since i would see nearly no improvement by doing so :D )
obviously for encoding and other heavily threaded work a 5320K would be a good budget one, but most of the people working with that kind would rather take the upper model, leaving the 5820K as a showoff for someone who think a 4790K is not enough.
i'm not trying to say the 5820K is worse, just pointing that the whole platform cost more than a good Z97/4790K/DDR3 platform (who will surely skip Skylake before really needing an upgrade :D )
just wait for Broadwell-E (wait what ? the next HEDT is Broadwell? and not Skylake-E? oh well at last Broadwell-E will be compatible with the X99 like the Broadwell line was Z/H97 compatible ah no wait it seems Skylake-E will be the next HEDT .... oorrrrrr, ah who care ... )
Broadwell is Intel's only real failure since the Netburst architecture underperforming.
wait ... BW require more power for less cycles? but BW require less power than HW no?
and lucky i did write (secuuundo! ) i just didn't wanted to re edit the whole line and added that in the end :D
gah ... i bought a Laptop with a failure of a CPU by Intel, inside ... i feel cheated :cry:
Broadwell CPU performance is only 5% better than Haswell. GPU performance is quite a bit improved in Broadwell.
"The speed boost for productivity applications like Word and Excel in the new Core chips is up by only 4 percent when compared to Haswell chips. That’s lower than expected, as Intel’s CPU performance usually improves by between 10 percent to 30 percent with each new processor architecture."
Same link as above:
"Tablets like Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 are equipped with full-blown Core i chips based on Haswell. But the likelihood of such tablets getting Broadwell-based Core i chips is low. Tablets usually have chips that draw less than 10 watts of power, and the new Core i chips consume 15 watts of power and more, making them unsuitable for tablets."
Most of Broadwell's process improvements went to the GPU, not the CPU. If you're running a discreet GPU Broadwell can scarcely be considered an upgrade to Haswell...
...guess what HEDT is...
If Intel is pushing forward with Broadwell-E they better have fixed the issues with it or it will flop.