MSI Z170A SLI Plus LGA 1151 Motherboard Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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MSI Z170A SLI Plus LGA 1151 Motherboard Review - Sometimes less is more. That’s the approach MSI has taken with the MSI Z170A SLI Plus. Sure, ridiculously overpriced and feature packed motherboards are nice to drool but sometimes you want just the right tool for the job. The MSI Z170A SLI Plus is poised to be everything you need and nothing you don’t.
 
Lovely review.

Thank you for showing the back of the PCI Express slots. I notice that the two secondary x16 slots are both electrically x8. Does that mean that you can run x8/x0/x8? Say for two triple-wide or quad-wide cards. I can see that there's a 3-slot gap between the two reinforced slots but you might want a decent air gap as well.

This motherboard is on Nofan's fit list for the CR-95; if you happen to have one to hand, can you please advise exactly how much space is there between that cooler and a GPU when fitted in the first x16 slot? I have approx 2mm on my current board with my Titan Xs.

Is the RAM limit of 64 GB because 16 GB DIMMs were the biggest at the time of writing the manual or will 32+ GB DIMMs not work?
 
Looks like a very nice board.

Reminds me of the ASUS ROG Hero boards which are
very similar in their simplicity.
 
...so you don't have to sit there like an idiot clicking the keyboard to make sure you get into the BIOS
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Little things that make me not just like but love your articles :D
 
You can build a killer gaming machine for around $1500. i5 6600k $259, Motherboard $140, $100 water cooling, $65 240gb SSD, $70 8gb DDR4 memory, $100 psu, $600 980 Ti, $100 case, $50 Windows 7

Damn not bad at all. I love simple well reviewed motherboards like this

MSI is in my top 3. Asus is 1 and not sure who 2 would be.
 
SixFootDuo said:
You can build a killer gaming machine for around $1500. i5 6600k $259, Motherboard $140, $100 water cooling, $65 240gb SSD, $70 8gb DDR4 memory, $100 psu, $600 980 Ti, $100 case, $50 Windows 7

Damn not bad at all. I love simple well reviewed motherboards like this

MSI is in my top 3. Asus is 1 and not sure who 2 would be.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why people buy the cheaper CPU and more expensive GPU. Why not go for the 6700k; and 970 TI? (or even just 6600k and 970 to drop the pricepoint)

GPU is much easier to upgrade later; easy to leapfrog them and stay in price/performance sweet spot .
 
Worminater said:
I'm not sure why people buy the cheaper CPU and more expensive GPU. Why not go for the 6700k; and 970 TI? (or even just 6600k and 970 to drop the pricepoint)

GPU is much easier to upgrade later; easy to leapfrog them and stay in price/performance sweet spot .
Click to expand...

Because almost every modern 3D game on the planet is GPU limited.
 
I have this board, but mine seems to be the only bad one they've ever shipped. Two CPU's and three RAM kits says it won't do anything but out of the box "auto" settings. Even running XMP causes an infinite POST loop.
 
LigTasm said:
I have this board, but mine seems to be the only bad one they've ever shipped. Two CPU's and three RAM kits says it won't do anything but out of the box "auto" settings. Even running XMP causes an infinite POST loop.
Click to expand...

Stupid question....got the latest BIOS on it?
 
Great review...this may be a serious contender for me, but just not a huge fan of only 4 regular-sized USB slots in the back. But other than that, it's what I look for in a motherboard - price especially!

Quick question though: I may be reading this wrong, but I got confused by the following:

Page 1:
"The expansion slot area is well implemented. There are three PCIe x16 gen 3.0 slots supporting configurations of x16x0, x8x8, or x8x8x4 modes. There are also three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Frankly, there isn’t a good place for an M.2 slot on any desktop motherboard. The placement above the primary PEG slot does still allow for the use of PCIe x1 cards but it might be susceptible to the extra heat that comes from the GPU. So while I don’t think there are many if any good places for M.2 slots, this one may be worse than some alternatives."

and Page 7, Conclusion (The Bottom Line section):
"It has a perfectly located M.2 slot if you want to step up to the newest in SSD technology for loading big game levels."

Am I reading that wrong? Thanks!
 
Well I can confirm I got a bad board. I got in a Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 which is about the same price as the MSI and similarly featured, if took the 3000mhz XMP profile and a 4400mhz overclock with zero hassle, right into Windows.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm speaking in very general terms in that part of the article. I don't think there is any spot you can put the M.2 slot where you aren't subject to the heat generated by the GPUs to some extent. I personally think the Rampage V Extreme probably did it best with the slot running behind the SATA ports and being close to where the fans usually are on the GPUs. This to me represents the best case scenario for both U.2 adapter cabling and heat. That's just a theory though. Until I get an actual M.2 drive and try the placement in a chassis, I won't be 100% certain on that.
Click to expand...


You say, "this one may be worse than some alternatives." I think that MSI has shown the absolute best alternative and see no issues with it at all. As long as those drives are getting a tiny bit of airflow, they are fine from throttling. The problem is when those are located directly under a very hot GPU and get zero air flow. So that all said, I am not sure how this could worse than any on-board alternative on the market currently.
 
Worminater said:
I'm not sure why people buy the cheaper CPU and more expensive GPU. Why not go for the 6700k; and 970 TI? (or even just 6600k and 970 to drop the pricepoint)

GPU is much easier to upgrade later; easy to leapfrog them and stay in price/performance sweet spot .
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if you have a Core i7 2500K @ 4.5GHz or a Core i7 6700K at 4.8GHz. The GTX 980Ti will always be faster than a GTX 970, regardless of the system chosen from those two CPU examples. GPU limitations (as Kyle stated) are far more relevant to actual gaming performance than your CPU is. This is why people are still sticking with Core i7 2600K's that are highly overclocked, despite the Core i7 6700K being up to 40% faster in non-gaming tasks.

I think you do reach a point of diminishing returns at lower resolutions to an extent, but a higher end video card will always perform better today, and much better tomorrow than a lower or mid-range card would. The GTX 970 is already showing its limitations in games due to a lack of VRAM. It's basically a non-starter for 4k in some games. Given how the thing was designed, I don't think it will be a card that stands the test of time well. Cards like the 8800GTX and the original TITAN stood the test of time because they were at the top of their respective performance piles in their day, and had more RAM than was needed when they were first released.

As far as I'm concerned, the sweet spot for GPUs is usually the highest end card you can afford. Not always mind you. I don't think the TITAN X or the 8800Ultra were ever good buys compared to their slightly less expensive counterparts.
 
electech98 said:
Great review...this may be a serious contender for me, but just not a huge fan of only 4 regular-sized USB slots in the back. But other than that, it's what I look for in a motherboard - price especially!

Quick question though: I may be reading this wrong, but I got confused by the following:

Page 1:
"The expansion slot area is well implemented. There are three PCIe x16 gen 3.0 slots supporting configurations of x16x0, x8x8, or x8x8x4 modes. There are also three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Frankly, there isn’t a good place for an M.2 slot on any desktop motherboard. The placement above the primary PEG slot does still allow for the use of PCIe x1 cards but it might be susceptible to the extra heat that comes from the GPU. So while I don’t think there are many if any good places for M.2 slots, this one may be worse than some alternatives."

and Page 7, Conclusion (The Bottom Line section):
"It has a perfectly located M.2 slot if you want to step up to the newest in SSD technology for loading big game levels."

Am I reading that wrong? Thanks!
Click to expand...

You always get two opinions with the HardOCP motherboard reviews. Kyle and I both work with each motherboard. Normally our experiences and opinions line up for the most part. On occasion we can have radically different experiences with the same motherboard or disparate opinions on the layout or design of a motherboard.
 
Great review as usual. Well I was set on the Asus Z170 Deluxe for my upgrade but now Im rethinking.I am going to buy the Samsung 950 Pro M2 so I am going to sleep on this MSI board. I'll reread the review again also. Thanks Dan and Kyle
 
Dan_D said:
Yes, in my opinon it is worse than at least one alternative than I can think of. The Rampage V Extreme has what I consider to be the best placement of an M.2 slot. While the location on the Z170A SLI Plus is better than what most motherboards do as far as M.2 placement, its not my favorite alternative to the standard "in between the GPU slot" method usually employed. Sandwiched between two GPUs is worse than being above just one GPU, but that's not the best way to do it. I stand by that statement, despite acknowledging that I should have worded that part of the article a little bit differently.
Click to expand...

The ONE board you mention is also a 2 year old EATX board with an X99 chipset. Not sure I can really throw this $140 mobo in the same boat with that, but I can see your point on location.

That all said, the Z170A SLI Plus motherboard has the best M.2 placement than I have seen on any Z87/97/170 chipset motherboard. At least that I can recall. And surely anything that I have reviewed recently.

The fact is as long as the SSD is not UNDER a GPU, you are about 100X better off no matter if it is in PCIe slot 1 position or out by the RAM like the RVE is. Anywhere it can breath is excellent placement.
 
I personally really like the slot above the GPU, I chose the board partially for that reason (and the UD3 I replaced it with). I have an SM951 with some small heatsinks applied to it and they do not fit underneath of a graphics card if the slot is located under the x16.
 
Good stuff in the subsystems page. Frankly, with the negligible* real-world performance difference between boards nowadays, going a level deepe... to the stuff that isn't published on a spec sheet... is really interesting. I'm not even in the market for Z170 but found myself running DPC tests on my own rig after reading up.

*for my purposes
 
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Picking one of these up, going to return the MSI M7 Gaming :confused:.

Each have gold ratings also I'm only planning on running at medium overclocks (6600k). So I couldn't see an extra 0.1ghz and/or debug LED being valued more over $80?
 
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SixFootDuo said:
You can build a killer gaming machine for around $1500. i5 6600k $259, Motherboard $140, $100 water cooling, $65 240gb SSD, $70 8gb DDR4 memory, $100 psu, $600 980 Ti, $100 case, $50 Windows 7

Damn not bad at all. I love simple well reviewed motherboards like this

MSI is in my top 3. Asus is 1 and not sure who 2 would be.
Click to expand...
I've got this board coming. I went with the 6600 (non-K) for now and figure later on I can pick up a i7-6700K when the price comes down some.
 
Considering this board (have 6700k on the way). I have the Intel SSD 750 PCIe NVMe (won it in a raffle) and will be running GTX 680s in SLI for now. I believe this will utilize the full potential of the hardware I have, but if I decide to add on a m.2 drive later would performance be impacted?
 
chillstatus said:
Considering this board (have 6700k on the way). I have the Intel SSD 750 PCIe NVMe (won it in a raffle) and will be running GTX 680s in SLI for now. I believe this will utilize the full potential of the hardware I have, but if I decide to add on a m.2 drive later would performance be impacted?
Click to expand...

You'll be fine.
 
Nice review and I agree about this motherboard. Its such a good step up from the PC Mate that it makes that board not worth it. I have considered this board many many times over and decided to go a different rout with the Gigabyte Gaming 5, got it for $150.

Dan, have you ever considered reviewing a workstation/server motherboard for both professional and gaming use?
 
chillstatus said:
Board is currently on sale at Newegg for $109.99 and $2.99 shipping. Just picked one up.
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WTF! I just ordered it last night for 139.99 :mad:


****Update***

So I called them to ask what time the sale was issued in correspondence with my purchase, Apparently it was issued at midnight, I made my purchase last night around 7pm the day before.

The Customer Service Rep, gladly credited my account the difference without any question! Been a customer of theirs since 2003 and this is why.

Newegg, you rock!! Thank you!
 
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Mad[H]atter said:
Did the same, thanks. Will go nicely with the 6700k I caught on sale a week or so ago. :)
Click to expand...

What cooler are you going with? I also just ordered a Fractal Design Define S and G.Skill TridentZ 3200 2x8GB CAS 14. All that's left is to pick a cooler. I'm leaning towards Noctua NH-D15, but considering the Arctic 240 AIO (have never used AIO or water before).
 
The Arctic 240 is looking nice for the money. Cool, quiet, and under $80 at NCIXUS. I was just holding out for a coupon or sale, because I'm that guy :p

Also have to make sure your case can fit the push/pull configuration it uses. I believe the Design S can in the front intake area, but double check before you buy if you go this route.
 
chillstatus said:
What cooler are you going with? I also just ordered a Fractal Design Define S and G.Skill TridentZ 3200 2x8GB CAS 14. All that's left is to pick a cooler. I'm leaning towards Noctua NH-D15, but considering the Arctic 240 AIO (have never used AIO or water before).
Click to expand...

I was going to get a Arctic Freezer 120 but after reading some reviews of the hoses popping out of the pump and ruining people's PC's I opted for the Noctua NH-U12S instead. I just didn't want to risk it, the less chances of catastrophic failure the better.
 
Krenum said:
I was going to get a Arctic Freezer 120 but after reading some reviews of the hoses popping out of the pump and ruining people's PC's I opted for the Noctua NH-U12S instead. I just didn't want to risk it, the less chances of catastrophic failure the better.
Click to expand...

Where are these reports, I'd like to check them out before I decide on the 240 or not, thanks!
 
Mad[H]atter said:
Where are these reports, I'd like to check them out before I decide on the 240 or not, thanks!
Click to expand...
Amazon.com: braulio's review of ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 240, High Performanc...

Proably 90% of the time it'll be ok. But seeing that image of a hose popping out of the pump with coolant all over the components ruining everything was enough to scare me away from it. Especially since I can't afford to order a new system if it does happen.


Anyway,

Got this MSI board for $109.00 on a Newegg deal and it is performing well with my 6700K & 16GB of Ripjaw V (Silver) RAM. Very happy with the build & minimal layout of the board. Haven't overclocked yet though.

Using latest 1.4 Bios
Currently Running 6700K @ Stock /w 4200ghz TB
XMP Profile 16GB @ 3200mhz

Thank you for the review on it.
 
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I went with a Noctua NH-D15. Haven't finished the build yet due to some case standoff screw stripping issues, but hoping to resolve that soon.
 
Krenum said:
Amazon.com: braulio's review of ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 240, High Performanc...

Proably 90% of the time it'll be ok. But seeing that image of a hose popping out of the pump with coolant all over the components ruining everything was enough to scare me away from it. Especially since I can't afford to order a new system if it does happen.
Click to expand...
One bad post from some unknown is all it takes to scare you away, then you should be afraid of every brand of cooler on the market.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
FYI anyone who has issues with Intel 750 series PCIe SSD being detected with XMP enabled, I had to have MSI sent me beta bios version 1.61 to resolve my issue. Now a happy camper running my G.Skill TridentZ at 3200 CAS 14.
 
Did something happen to this article? I now see the title for the article as "MSI Z170A SLI Plus -Done!"??

And Kyle's closing comments are missing. I also thought this had received a gold award, but that looks to be absent now as well. I navigated to the article from the "Motherboards - Chipsets" link in the nav.

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