MSI Z170A Gaming M7 LGA 1151 Motherboard Review @ [H]

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 LGA 1151 Motherboard Review - MSI has changed gears as of late vowing to be the number one motherboard manufacturer in the "gaming" segment. While a "gaming" motherboard MSI is still focused on overclocking with this model. We look at the Z170A Gaming M7 to see if it brings MSI one step closer or a step away from that very goal.

Good review guys. Seems like a solid mb for a good price.

Looks like a nice board, only gripe is lack of USB ports. Ran into this with previous MSI board.

No need for 2 HDMI ports and a display port.

Kyle, will you be testing the other MSI boards like the M5?

I looked at this and decided to go with my Gigabyte Z170 G7 gaming board primary because the the sound processor, and it does sound better than by old PCI-Express Fatality Sound card.

I'm willing to bet that someone at MSI is a Spinal Tap fan, hence the 1-11 markings on the GameBoost knob.

Doing a 6700k build for a friend with one of these next week, very excited.

Cr4ckm0nk3y said:

Kyle, will you be testing the other MSI boards like the M5?

Click to expand...

Next MSI board is the Z170A SLI PLUS.

I've got my hands on the board, it's pretty great... but I haven't powered it on yet.

The only thing I really hate is that the front panel USB 3.1 (w/quick charge) port is pointing straight up, unlike the the other USB 3.0 port which has an angular port.

Also not a fan of how the IO cover is attached, it leverages the holes you'd normally use for screwing into stand offs, so you can't use the standoffs as-is on either end of the IO area which seems a bit flimsy. You can probably remove the nuts and screw the cover and mobo into standoffs, I'll try that when I put the board back into the case but i'll be a PITA with the led strip rammed in there.

I took the opportunity to mod the cover a bit while I had it off to match some of the case lighting I've been working on.
Not nearly as bright+white/orange in person:

Yes, remove the hardware and screw it down to the case for sure. That is what I have done with the ones I have installed.

Great review. Only thing I'd like a little more feedback on is the audio. If anyone owns it and can comment on it I'd really appreciate it.

Excellent review and lots of great information.
Can't wait to try one of these out!

Sorry for the necro but I just purchased and built with this board. It's a pretty sweet board but I wanted to note I also did experience the issue where any memory speed above 3000 seemed to be unstable with the SA on auto. I was chasing around some instability and after reading this review decided to downclock my mem to 3000 and bingo, issues gone. The default for SA on auto now appears to be 1.25v also which is weird. This is on bios 1.E. The memory is Corsair vengeance led 3200 8G x2. The XMP detected the right timings but the memory was just not stable above 3000. Anyways.. Now that I have a stable baseline I am going to poke around some more.