MSI Z170A Gaming M7
MSI is jumping onto Apple’s bandwagon in the naming of its USB 3.0 ports, calling them USB 3.1 Gen 1. Both names are considered valid, yet the newer one seems intended to confuse buyers into thinking they’re getting more than they paid for. By traditional names, the Z170A Gaming M7 includes a pair (Type A and Type C) of rear panel USB 3.1 ports (10 Gb/s), a pair of USB 3.0 ports that are confusingly given the same color, three USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort output, GbE, a CLR_CMOS button and the traditional five analog/one optical audio connections.
The analog audio jacks are gold-plated to assure oxide-free connections, the network port is lit from the inside and the CLR_CMOS button lights up when engaged. You’ve probably noticed that one of the USB 2.0 ports is vertical, and that’s because MSI wants it to stand out as supporting its USB Flashback function. That’s right. MSI adds a CPU-free, DRAM-free firmware upgrading feature just in case you try to install a newer-model CPU that requires a firmware upgrade to boot.
MSI outlines the two CPU-driven PCIe x16 slots with aluminum braces that, in turn, are supported by the plastic beneath. These may help prevent the slot from opening up in the middle (losing contact with the card). But they do little to prevent a heavy card from ripping the slot off the board during the rough handling that occasionally occurs when shipping a complete system. Flipping the board, I only found one extra attachment point per slot.
As with the other boards in today’s round-up, those two slots share 16 lanes in either a x16-x0 or x8-x8 configuration via automatic switches that detect the second card. The third x16-length slot is tied via four lanes to the Z170 PCH, supporting CrossFire but not three-way SLI.
All four PCIe x1 slots are open ended, but using them forces the four-lane slot to a single lane. This probably doesn’t matter to you if you’re using a bunch of single-slot graphics cards to drive displays in 2D mode though.
The top board by both price and features in today’s comparison, MSI’s Z170A Gaming M7 has two PCIe x4 M.2 slots. Though both slots support PCIe 3.0 x4 connections, total bandwidth is limited by the chipset’s 32 Gb/s DMI interface. SATA mode is also possible, again limited by the DMI when combined with other PCH-supported devices. All of these limitations are traceable back to Intel; there’s little MSI can do about them.
Two USB 3.0 front-panel headers are lined up along the front edge, one facing upward above all the cards and the other facing forward behind the top card. Of course, you could call these USB 3.1 Gen 1 if you preferred, but their bandwidth is still limited to USB 3.0’s 5 Gb/s.
Referred to as Game Boost, the red button in the Z170A Gaming 7’s lower-front corner includes a dial with eight different overclocks. By skipping a few numbers, MSI is able to tell people that these go to 11. Presets range from 4.3GHz at 1.25V (level 1) to 5GHz at 1.45V (level 11) skipping levels 3, 5, 7 and 9. Other on-board controls include the Flashback button for USB firmware updates, a “Slow Mode” switch to drop the CPU to a more stable frequency when using LN2 (to avoid “cold bug” conditions under light load) and a switch to enable MSI’s “Gaming Hotkey” keyboard mapping function.
MSI slides its front-panel audio connector forward slightly from the bottom-rear corner, but probably not enough to avoid the rare (but dreaded) problem of poorly designed case cables. The company also adds labeling stickers and a thicker case badge to a Z170A Gaming M7 installation kit that has but four SATA cables and a flexible SLI bridge.
