Introduction

Specifications

Specifications CPU SUPPORT: 6th Gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, and Intel Pentium and Celeron processors for Socket LGA1151 POWER DESIGN: CPU Power: 10+1 phase

Memory Power: 2 phase CHIPSET: Intel Z170 Chipset INTEGRATED GRAPHICS: Dependent on installed CPU MEMORY: 4 x DIMM, Max. 64 GB; Support 3866 MHz+(OC) BIOS: 2 x 128Mb AMI UEFI BIOS SLOTS: 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots

3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot

2 x M.2 slot HDD CONNECTIVITY: 6 x SATA 6 Gb/s port

2 x M.2 (Support up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gb/s)

1 x U.2 port (PCIe 3.0 x4 NMVe) NETWORKING: 1 x Intel I219 Gigabit LAN REAR PORTS: 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port

4 x USB 2.0 ports

1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 port

1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port

2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports

1 x DVI-D port

1 x HDMI port

1 x LAN (RJ45) port

1 x Optical S/PDIF Out connector

5 x OFC audio jacks AUDIO: Realtek ALC1150 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC FAN HEADERS: 5 x 4-pin FORM FACTOR: ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm EXCLUSIVE FEATURES: Supports DDR4-3866+(OC) Memory

DDR4 Boost: Give your DDR4 memory a performance boost

USB 3.1 Gen2 2X FASTER: USB 3.1 Gen2 offers performance twice as fast as a regular USB 3.0 connection

TITANIUM BACKPLATE: For the biggest and heaviest graphics cards and CPU coolers.

Twin Turbo M.2 64Gb/s + Turbo U.2 32Gb/s + USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A+c + SATA 6Gb/s

GAMING LAN with LAN Protect, powered by Intel: The best online gaming experience with lowest latency

Audio Boost 3: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality

Nahimic Audio Enhancer: Immersive sound quality that pushes the limits of reality

Game Boost: This one goes up to eleven; 8 levels of easy overclocking

GAMING Hotkey: Assign macros, launch your favorite games or do real-time overclocking using a single button

Designed for overclocking: with OC Essentials and OC Engine 2

XSplit Gamecaster v2.5: 1 year free premium license to show off your skills and achievements to the world

SteelSeries Certified: Optimized for SteelSeries gaming gear

Military Class 5: The latest evolution in high quality components featuring the brand new Titanium Chokes

MULTI-GPU with Steel Armor: Steel Armor PCI-E slots. Supports NVIDIA SLI & AMD Crossfire

Click BIOS 5: Award-winning brand new Click BIOS 5 with high resolution scalable font

GAMING CERTIFIED: 24-hour on- and offline game testing by eSports players for the best gaming experience

USB Speed Up: For up to 30% performance improvement on USB devices.

M.2 Genie: Make setting the RAID easy for only 6 steps.

We're back with another MSI board review, but this time, it is with something truly different. This time, we have MSI's Z170A MPOWER GAMING TITANIUM with us. While this is yet another board with a mouthful of a name, it is again one whose name nicely describes exactly what you're going to get from this silvery PCB. Yes, I said silver, but maybe I meant TITANIUM?Within the past few years, MSI has undergone a distinct change in the products they produce for us, and that change has been a great one. There is a true focus in MSI's designs, and in such a way that you cannot deny that MSI is listening to its users and making sure they develop products they know their end users will enjoy. MPOWER for overclocking hard. GAMING is pretty self-explanatory. TITANIUM because it's built to be tougher than steel. Those are three things that don't roll into the same product to me, at least not in ways that have been hugely successful. I digress, though, and am definitely nit-picking. Yet if you're going to pay top dollar for a motherboard, you want to know it's going to work and work well, right?You all have asked for something other than black, blue, and green PCBs. We've got some boards that depart from that, but MSI's Z170A MPOWER GAMING TITANIUM throws all those past aesthetics to the wind, and tosses a metallic finish on top of a white PCB with little bits of black here and there. There are dual M.2 slots which support RAID, USB 3.1 Gen2, and a host of other high-performance features, including DDR4 BOOST, Audio Boost, and GAME Boost, all tied together by a set of components built to withstand whatever overclock you want to throw at them to then stay at those overclocked limits. This is THE board for the discriminate gamer who wants Intel's Z170 and Skylake CPUs.