MSI to Fuse OC and Gaming Lines with Z170 Family

[btarunr]

MSI is set to fuse its two premium motherboard lines - OC Series and Gaming, with its upcoming Z170 family. The company's upcoming Z170 XPower Gaming Titanium Edition is the first such product. This stunning looking board features a silvery-white PCB, with the frosty-silver scheme continuing on to the chipset and VRM heatsinks. Its main PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (which are wired to the CPU), feature a chrome tipped slot brace. Built in the ATX form-factor, the Z170 XPower Gaming Titanium Edition draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, 4-pin ATX, and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. It uses a 16-phase VRM with tantalum capacitors, to condition power for the CPU. The CPU is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel memory.

Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU (electrical x16/NC/NC or x8/NC/x8 or x8/x4/x4); the fourth is electrical PCIe 3.0 x4 and wired to the PCH. Three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion area. Storage connectivity includes two M.2 32 Gb/s slots, two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s, and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Display outputs include one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. USB connectivity includes 4 USB 3.1 slots, which include a mixture of type-A and type-C, with a physical type-A port pointing "forwards." MSI AudioBoost 3 audio solution, and Killer E2200 NIC make for the rest of its connectivity. The board features a detachable module with OC controls, called the OC Dashboard. This plugs into headers around the voltage measurement points. You also get automatic overclocking via a rotary knob. MSI will launch this board in its first wave of socket LGA1151 motherboards.



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[Chaitanya]

that is one insane looking motherboard. I hope it is available in India at launch, as I wouldn't mind upgrading my old AMD system to either a Z170 based or a X99 based system.

 

[SammyHayabuza]

"Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU (electrical x16/NC/NC or x8/NC/x8 or x8/x4/x4); the fourth is electrical PCIe 3.0 x4 and wired to the PCH. "

But the Z170 chipset has 20 lanes, I should be able to run a GPU at full 16x and a NVMe PCIe SSD at 4x with no issues right? Also Sli at Full 8X/8X and 4x NVMe. (8x/4x/8x)

 

[AsRock]

Wow a board i actually like, like how they split the PCI-e connector too ( for x8 x8 config ). Might be short on USB ports as it might have have one short due to the diag being in the place were one normally is but looks like it has 3 up on the front of it.

Made the picture grainy so it looks better when you buy it ? , i be tempted if the price was not extreme which i think it would be.

 

[IvTK]

Full size image XD
5160x4000 is too large to upload here

http://rghost.net/6WH2zCyjD/image.png

 

[romeg]

I'm planning a Skylake build. I really like the looks of this board as well as the specs. Certainly a mobo to seriously check out.

 

[bogami]

PLX processor was Too Expensive. So he could have a titanium authority without PLX is titanium lipstick.. Titanium fuckt up.
It is normal even good board with solid elements (170$)with normal OC options . but for the color does not have to bee designate titanium.

 

[micropage7]

oo yeah, new soltek board

iwant, i want.....

 

[BorisDG]

"Guys we can't make "pure" white PCB like our rivals from ASUS, so we decided to go with "silver"-ish one. Hope you like it and ... buy it.".

 

[Caring1]

An overclocking board without dual bios or replaceable chip? No thanks.

 

[ironcerealbox]

"Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU (electrical x16/NC/NC or x8/NC/x8 or x8/x4/x4); the fourth is electrical PCIe 3.0 x4 and wired to the PCH. "

But the Z170 chipset has 20 lanes, I should be able to run a GPU at full 16x and a NVMe PCIe SSD at 4x with no issues right? Also Sli at Full 8X/8X and 4x NVMe. (8x/4x/8x)

To answer your first question: No. You will get x8 on the card and x8 (technically, x4 since I don't think there are x8 PCIE SSDs out). The configuration choices Intel gives you is x16/0/0 or x8/x8/0 or x8/x8/x4. Basically, you are better off getting M.2 PCIE 3.0x4 SSDs so as to not kill off your available GPU lanes ASSUMING that PCIE 3.0x8 will limit current GPUs (which it won't). Also, an M.2 PCIE 3.0x4 SSD should have the same theoretical bandwidth as an NVMe PCIE 3.0x4 SSD. However, latencies are now involved (NVMe vs. AHCI)...and, of course, I start to digress. But in all seriousness, running your card at 3.0x8 won't limit it in any way in the foreseeable future.

To answer your second question: Yes. Since you have 3 devices, they can match up with what Intel planned for the Z170 chipset: GPU/GPU/NVMe device @ x8/x8/x4, respectively.

The Z170 chipset is the southbridge. The CPU has 20 lanes of PCIE 3.0 for graphics. The Z170 has 20 lanes of PCIE 3.0 for M.2 support, SATA-Express, SATAIII, USB 3.1/3.0/2.0 and other "slower" devices.

That is a MASSIVE increase in bandwidth for a southbridge. Intel's enthusiast chipsets from P67 and Z68 (mated to Sandy Bridge CPUs) to the current Z97 (in line with Haswell and Broadwell) all had only 8 lanes of PCIE 2.0. Even the X99 adopters are limited to 8 lanes of PCIE 2.0 for their slower devices (of course, they get 40 lanes for CPU PCIE, though).

THAT is the main reason for my finally upgrading from my Ivy Bridge i7-3770K and a Z77 ASUS MAXIMUS V EXTREME to a Skylake i7-6700K and a solid Z170 motherboard. I really like full support by everyone (Intel and the board makers) of M.2 PCIE 3.0x4 for a whopping 32Gbps theoretical throughput along with better support for NVMe PCIE SSDs. No more workarounds to get your Z97 motherboard to recognize an M.2 PCIE 3.0x4 SSD (I'm looking at you ASRock).

So, yes, this generation of chipsets really do bring something more to the table.

 

[natr0n]

soyo dragon comes to mind.

 

[Jhelms]

Ha! First thing that came to my mind too - an old soyo dragon! Good lord I killed a lot of those mobos.

Gotta say though... this one is sexy as hell!

 

[Assimilator]

Ugh. Killer NIC being shoved into everything. Even more of a reason to stay away from MSI.

 

[Frick]

First I looked at the picture and thought ".... that dual socket board sure looks strange". Then I looked again and now I like it.

 

[kn00tcn]

my 660 is 'GAMING OC', the future was fusion?

 

[cadaveca]

Ugh. Killer NIC being shoved into everything. Even more of a reason to stay away from MSI.

You've never used this KillerNIC. Might be a bit quick to judge here.

 

[AsRock]

You've never used this KillerNIC. Might be a bit quick to judge here.

If it means cheaper motherboard to have a INTEL or broadcom or even realtec nic i am all for it. Don't need shit to drive costs up even higher foror whats been proven so many times not to be worth it.

 

[v12dock]

If it means cheaper motherboard to have a INTEL or broadcom or even realtec nic i am all for it. Don't need shit to drive costs up even higher foror whats been proven so many times not to be worth it.

They just released a 160KB driver even more reason to get MSI

 

[RejZoR]

Does it even matter what PCIe is available? Unless you're doing 4 way SLI/Crossfire, it doesn't really matter. And these are what, PCIe 3.x or 4.x ? x4 and x8 are as fast as old x16 anyway and even old ones hardly made any difference...

 

[cadaveca]

Does it even matter what PCIe is available? Unless you're doing 4 way SLI/Crossfire, it doesn't really matter. And these are what, PCIe 3.x or 4.x ? x4 and x8 are as fast as old x16 anyway and even old ones hardly made any difference...

...unless you want a PCIe SSD. They do over 1000 MB a sec if you get a good one.

You can take it from there, I suppose...

 

[RejZoR]

Reaistically, will someone who can afford a high end PCIe SSD be buying a "budget" motherboard? I think people like this go with E platforms like the X99 or whatever will be for Skylake-E...

 

[cadaveca]

Reaistically, will someone who can afford a high end PCIe SSD be buying a "budget" motherboard?

M.2 is PCIe in some implementations. So yes, I do think so.

 

[AsRock]

They just released a 160KB driver even more reason to get MSI

What ?, the gain a millisecond or some thing lol. I find it hard to believe anyone without any software telling them their is a difference will even know.

 

[Bundy]

Its not a very good value for money purchase (as a gamer) if it includes all the OC gear.