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MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX Motherboard Revealed

KieranThePCGuy
By KieranThePCGuy
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Source: http://thepcenthusiast.com/msi-z97-mpower-max-overclocking-motherboard-revealed/

 

MSI-Z97-MPOWER-MAX-Motherboard.jpg

 

 

The MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX, features an LGA socket 1150 supporting 4th Gen Intel Haswell, Haswell Refresh, Devil’s Canyon and 5th Gen Broadwell processors. It might also feature a 20 Phase DigiALL Power Design (although I’m not sure about this yet), but the heatsink that is cooling the MOSFETs, Super Ferrite Choke (SFC) and other capacitors, is water-cooling ready. I can’t confirm yet whether it draws its power from two 8Pin power connector or 8+4 Pin power for its CPU, since the other 8Pin power is near the PCIE slots already. Probably the other 8Pin is for Multi-GPU configuration.

This Z97 motherboard features 4x DDR3 DIMM slots which will most likely support memory speeds of up to 3000+MHz (OC). It has “Easy Button 3″ composed of a power button, reset, OC switch, a Plus and Minus buttons. There is also the V-Checkpoints 2 for system and voltage monitoring, and a Clear CMOS button located at the rear I/O panel.

The MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX features 2 BIOS chips (Multi BIOS 2), a GO2BIOS button and a Debug LED located at the lower portion of the board. There are 8x SATA 6GBps ports, it doesn’t seem to have any SATA Express port, but it has an M.2 PCIE port for NGFF SSD which should be sufficient enough if you are planning to use a high speed / high performance NGFF SSD.

Looking at the lower portion of the MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX, it has 3x PCIE 3.0 x16 slots supporting 3-Way SLI and CrossFire multi-GPU configurations, and 4x PCIE 3.0 x1 slots for add-in cards. It also features Audio Boost audio core with EMI Shielding. There is a LED path coming from the rear audio ports down to the audio core, separating the audio components from the rest of the components. The board also has a built-in WiFi component located at the rear I/O panel, and probably it has Bluetooth 4.0 as well.

The picture above doesn’t show the Delid Die Guard lock, probably it’s a separate peace of tool included in its accessories. So far that’s all I can tell about this board. I’m still looking for an image of the Z97 XPOWER AC, hopefully it will be as interesting as the MPOWER MAX.

The MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX is expected to be officially launched on May 10 (or after), hopefully together with XPOWER AC, and the rest of the Z97 lineup. More MSI motherboards based on Intel 9 Series chipset will be revealed in the following months after.

 

Here is a reveal of the MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX motherboard. I personally think that it looks great, especially the "M" on the heatsink for the chipset. It has its traditonal black/yellow theme to match its "Lightning" GPU's. It's watercooling ready in regards to the MOSFET and the SFC's, allowing you to add these to your watercooling loop. Looks like a lot of room for expansion too, including a connection for the M.2 standard of SSD's; however no connection for SATA Express.

 

Would add more but currently tired so will add more if I need too. Just wanted to post this will the fellow LTT community! What do you guys think of the board? Yay or Nay?

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damn, dat colour

"Sulit" (adj.) something that is worth it

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Wait. How can a motherboard support a 22nm CPU and a 14nm CPU? To me that sounds like BS. 

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Love it

System: 5930K, MSI X99 SLI PLUS, GTX 780Ti (SLI),  840 EVO, Fractal R4 (Full Custom Loop)  (IP)

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how retarded is this 6pin pcie power placement? I've always wondered why they do this shit...

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pretty cool

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Wait. How can a motherboard support a 22nm CPU and a 14nm CPU? To me that sounds like BS. 

They are on the same platform, LGA1150, but still sounds fishy.

 

 

This board is sexy but I am disappointed that it does not support 4way SLI/CFX. That would have been nice.

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I don't like yellow... at all, but let me tell you, their M Power line-up has always been sexy! 

 

This new one is no exception.

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They are on the same platform, LGA1150, but still sounds fishy.

 

 

This board is sexy but I am disappointed that it does not support 4way SLI/CFX. That would have been nice.

Im guessing that MSi will make a line of the Mpower motherboards and the top tier will be the X-series board with quad PCI-E lanes. Just like how they did it with the Z87 Mpower boards

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They are on the same platform, LGA1150, but still sounds fishy.

Yeah i knew that but new die size  motherboard. Linus also said it once on the WAN show that you will need another mainboard for broadwell even tho it's the same socket. 

Also why would anybody run 4 way SLI/Xfire? 2 way already has enough problems. 

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Yeah i knew that but new die size  motherboard. Linus also said it once on the WAN show that you will need another mainboard for broadwell even tho it's the same socket. 

Also why would anybody run 4 way SLI/Xfire? 2 way already has enough problems. 

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Very classy. they might as well just bundle it with Metro Last Light.

 

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Wait. How can a motherboard support a 22nm CPU and a 14nm CPU? To me that sounds like BS. 

 

Z77 motherboards support 32nm Sandy Bridge and 22nm Ivy Bridge.  A transistor shrink makes changes on a microscopic scale, it won't break the physical socket compatibility, especially since they designed the socket knowing ahead of time that they would put 14nm CPUs in it eventually.

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Z77 motherboards support 32nm Sandy Bridge and 22nm Ivy Bridge.

That's a point... So why was Linus saying that you would need a new moterboard? He said it once on the wan show. ''Same socket new motherboard anyways.'' 

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That's a point... So why was Linus saying that you would need a new moterboard? He said it once on the wan show. ''Same socket new motherboard anyways.'' 

 

It might be just a general chipset/platform incompatibility.  I think the power delivery components located on the Haswell CPUs was causing problems, so Intel may have moved those back to the motherboard, in which case all Z87 motherboards would be missing those components, located on the Haswell chips but not the Broadwell chips.  I don't remember if this is true or not though, I haven't really looked into it.

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That's a point... So why was Linus saying that you would need a new moterboard? He said it once on the wan show. ''Same socket new motherboard anyways.'' 

I think what he means by that is that Z87 motherboard WILL NOT support the new CPUs, while Z97 will support the current 1150 cpus and future 1150 cpus.

 

It's kind of like AMDs FM2/FM2+. FM2+ supports FM2 CPUs but FM2 doesn't support FM2+ CPUs

 

I'm trying to word this so it doesn't look convoluted but I think I failed there...

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I think what he means by that is that Z87 motherboard WILL NOT support the new CPUs, while Z97 will support the current 1150 cpus and future 1150 cpus.

 

It's kind of like AMDs FM2/FM2+. FM2+ supports FM2 CPUs but FM2 doesn't support FM2+ CPUs

 

I'm trying to word this so it doesn't look convoluted but I think I failed there...

 

That is what he was saying.  Current LGA 1150 motherboards will not take the new processors.

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Wait. How can a motherboard support a 22nm CPU and a 14nm CPU? To me that sounds like BS. 

 

 

It might be just a general chipset/platform incompatibility.  I think the power delivery components located on the Haswell CPUs was causing problems, so Intel may have moved those back to the motherboard, in which case all Z87 motherboards would be missing those components, located on the Haswell chips but not the Broadwell chips.  I don't remember if this is true or not though, I haven't really looked into it.

 

I remember the possibility of the voltage regulation being moved off chip, however I think if that were the case we would see MUCH bulkier heat sinks on these Z97 mobos. Plus the Mini-ITX Z97 mobos released definitely do not have a big enough sink to manage that

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X - CPU Cooler: Deepcool Castle 240EX - Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC

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Doesn't look as good as the previous ones. The M on the chipset heatsink ruins it.

In case the moderators do not ban me as requested, this is a notice that I have left and am not coming back.

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Love it now all we need to see is the benchmarks for the new CPU's. hopefully there will be a reason to upgrade this year.

(sneezes) "Sorry I'm allergic to bullshit"

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The design makes me want to push a devil's canyon CPU past 5GHz.

144Hz goodness

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Wooooo more useless integrated barb mosfet waterblock that no one will use :D

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Wooooo more useless integrated barb mosfet waterblock that no one will use :D

i will -.- 

i really love the new chipset heatsink design. also, 3was SLI? so a PLX chip?

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