MSI X99S XPOWER AC MotherBoard

[KillerTech]

Now if you are not familiar with MSI's XPower motherboards then you should be. MSI has two classes of motherboards geared towards extreme overclocking, that is the XPower and the MPower. Now the M and XPower have been around for some time featured for the Intel chipsets Z87 and Z97 and its first extreme platform X99 and soon the Z170 platform as well. At the point MSI scrapped the black and yellow colour scheme I lost interest for Skylake. For that exact reason today I am reviewing the MSI X99S XPower AC Motherboard one of the highest end motherboards in MSI’s X99 lineup.

 

Prices:

USD: $460

GBP: £300

Euros: €410

 

So first, we have the box and as far as boxes go this one is awesome; you can check out my full unboxing and first look at everything in the box including the board itself, below.

 

 

The board looks absolutely awesome with its black and yellow colour scheme. All of the onboard buttons light up red and yellow along with the XPower logo and the audio boost chip. Something as well that stood out on boot, was the digital red numbers on the top right that display the CPU temperature as well as the boot code in case your awesome new build doesn’t boot!

Besides looking awesome, the XPower board also performs with a crap ton of new features allowing it to do so.

 

- DDR4 RAM (as with all X99 boards)

- 4-WAY MULTI-GPU (allowing for 4-way SLI and CrossFire)

- M.2 Gen3 X4 (faster transfer speeds up to 32GB/s)

- 12 Phase CPU digital power (better overclocking with stable power delivery)

- Enhanced PWM cooling (better on-board cooling)

- OC Essentials (on-board switches including a profile switch and CPU temp)

- Intel WI-FI AC module (Wireless internet and Bluetooth antennas)

 

Now as I have only just installed it I have not started testing the overclocking ability of this board yet however I have entered the bios and was very impressed with how easy it is to navigate and use, especially when you take in to consideration the massive amount of settings and features you can access.

 

Conclusion

Now the final thing to consider is was this board worth the price and in my opinion, yes the amount of features and accessories you get, make the board well worth it. Whether I manage to use all of the new features and accessories is another thing all together.

So depending on what you plan to use this board for determines whether you will get your money’s worth or not.

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

Nice Review!

 

Can I ask how the bios is like?

Ppl say MSI is the AMD of intel motherboards

[Raudi_]

OCSocket or is that still only the X99A XPower?

[Elfuego]

OCSocket or is that still only the X99A XPower?

 

Only Asus has OC Socket To my knowledge

[Raudi_]

Only Asus has OC Socket To my knowledge

Nope,

Asus

Gigabyte

AsRock

MSI

They all have an OC Socket type set up. But only on select boards

[PineappleHolidays]

Nice Review!

 

Can I ask how the bios is like?

Ppl say MSI is the AMD of intel motherboards

I've had a few MSI motherboards,

 

 

the only problems I've had have been the stupid pci spacing that plagues almost all X99 motherboards except asus and asrock

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

I've had a few MSI motherboards,

 

 

the only problems I've had have been the stupid pci spacing that plagues almost all X99 motherboards except asus and asrock

Asrock does plauge up their boards but the they don't on their higher end.But like their high end board are like $150

[Elfuego]

Nope,

Asus

Gigabyte

AsRock

MSI

They all have an OC Socket type set up. But only on select boards

 

Fair does; when I got my Rampage V no-one else really had any. Its an excellent board; if a little expensive. I still havent had time to properly push my CPU and the board though.

[KillerTech]

Nice Review!

 

Can I ask how the bios is like?

Ppl say MSI is the AMD of intel motherboards

Thanks.   About the bios so far I have had no problems with using it for the basics setting up my hard drive configuration, changing fan speeds and installing windows however I don't think I will find out the true good and bad until I start overclocking but seems good so far. A long way off AMD standers.    

[NumLock21]

Nope,

Asus

Gigabyte

AsRock

MSI

They all have an OC Socket type set up. But only on select boards

Asus has it on all of their X99 boards. Rest has it on selected models, but they're not that heavily marketed, so you really can't tell if it has it or not. Asrock says they have it. Gigabyte has it on the X99 SOC Champion, but it's not mentioned on its site. MSI doesn't have OC socket.

[FatPenguin]

love the video! maybe get some lights shining down on you to get rid of the shadows behind you. Subbed.

[KillerTech]

love the video! maybe get some lights shining down on you to get rid of the shadows behind you. Subbed.

Thanks I am in the middle of moving to a much bigger room I am going to have a dedicated recording set so I will look at proper lighting when I move in.

[Jumper118]

i think you should have done a bit more research before doing this video. you didn't seem to know what half the things were 

[KillerTech]

i think you should have done a bit more research before doing this video. you didn't seem to know what half the things were 

Yea well if I had done any more research It would have took the meaning out of FIRST LOOK besides I think I did ok when you consider that board has a insane amount of accessory's.   

[Jumper118]

Yea well if I had done any more research It would have took the meaning out of FIRST LOOK besides I think I did ok when you consider that board has a insane amount of accessory's.   

not really. you should do research before buying any board otherwise you could end up with a crap one. see what parts it comes with and if they will be useful. 

[KillerTech]

not really. you should do research before buying any board otherwise you could end up with a crap one. see what parts it comes with and if they will be useful. 

I did lots of research on this motherboard however at the time a couple of things escaped my mind that's all.  

[Lays]

Asus has it on all of their X99 boards. Rest has it on selected models, but they're not that heavily marketed, so you really can't tell if it has it or not. Asrock says they have it. Gigabyte has it on the X99 SOC Champion, but it's not mentioned on its site. MSI doesn't have OC socket.

 

 

There are some MSI x99 boards that do have the OC socket, I think it's the USB 3.1 X power board. @KingCry was going to buy one.

[NumLock21]

There are some MSI x99 boards that do have the OC socket, I think it's the USB 3.1 X power board. @KingCry was going to buy one.

Msi oc socket is not the same as the oc socket from others. Instead of having extra pins, their oc socket means, you can mount a ln2, just like the x socket found on the asus rampage v extreme.