Stock

So, once I was in the OS, I took this screenshot you see above. It's fairly basic, but does show you idle at stock and that the power-saving features are enabled. You can also see ram speeds and the total used with the MSI Z170A GAMING M7. Without any adjustments made in the BIOS, the MSI Z170A GAMING M7 runs a default Turbo Boost profile with all standard power-saving features enabled.

Automated Overclocking

Since this platform is new and we do not have clear indicators on how these new Skylake CPUs will overclock, one of the easiest ways to get a general idea quickly is to look at what board makers offer us. With the MSI Z170A GAMING M7, the provided clocking features are a bit crazier than I expected. It begins with the button and dial combination pictured above, the "Game Boost" dial. Marketing material MSI provided to make sure I better understand the board's features include a link to a YouTube video of a scene from "This is Spinal Tap", a tongue-in-cheek comedy about "glam rockers". In the scene Nigel is showing an interviewer his rock gear, focusing on their amplifiers which "go to eleven".

"As you can see, all the numbers go to eleven, right across the board... Most blokes would be playing at ten, you see. All the way up, you're playing at ten." Nigel continues, "Turned all the way up, where can you go from there? Where?"



"If we need that extra push over the cliff, what do we do? You know what we do? That's right, we go to eleven!"


Both the board's BIOS and one of the software utilities have access to these controls that can be adjusted via either the Game Boost knob or through the board's BIOS. Pushing the red button on top of the knob switches between button (HW) and BIOS (SW) mode. It currently does take a reboot after making changes before the new clocks are enabled, though.


So, what happens when you turn it to "eleven"? Well, you get 5 GHz on the CPU and 2666 MHz on the memory, with boosted voltages dolled out to all areas. And when you boot into your Windows install, you'll get a notice that tells you the voltages are too high. That said, how else can we be like Marty in front of that gargantuan speaker, ready to strum? First, we crank up the power and then we hit that chord!

I nearly keeled right over when I first discovered MSI's sense of humor here. Either, they really like British comedy, or these guys are just like me in their mentality. Either way, this is bloody perfect. All you Nigels out there can feel free to crank it to eleven. The Game Boost knob is just the same as the Spinal Tap knobs... there are no odd numbers between top and bottom. You get exactly what you need at every turn. Who wants to stop at three, or five? 1-2-4-6-8 and 11. Just make sure to keep your long, flowing hair out of the fans, m'kay?