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- Date:
- Monday , January 06, 2014
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
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MSI Z87M GAMING Intel LGA 1150 Motherboard Review
We take a look at another offering in MSI’s "GAMING" series. This time the M-ATX form factor Z87M GAMING caught our eye. Is this a case of good things come in small packages? Based on our experiences with the rest of the series, this is one you won’t want to miss if you’re looking for an M-ATX based motherboard.
Introduction
MSI is one of the larger motherboard manufacturers on the planet. Like its competition, MSI has diversified its offerings to cater to a wide variety of price points and customers. The gaming crowd is known for being particularly fickle with needs that are different from other enthusiasts and users. To that end MSI has created its "GAMING" line specifically for PC gaming enthusiasts. In a way these motherboards can often be viewed as a "ROG Lite" as these aren’t necessarily direct competitors to ASUS’ ROG line. The feature set has a similar focus but a very different price point. MSI’s GAMING motherboards are practically budget offerings by comparison.
This is not to say these are simply cut rate copies or anything like that. Indeed ASUS even saw the value of creating less expensive versions of its ROG motherboards for other price points. The MAXIMUS VI Hero is an example of that. MSI still has its BIG Bang / XPOWER motherboards as the upper echelon offerings. Though MSI’s focus isn’t necessarily gaming-focused alone, those motherboards have the ingredients one looks for when shopping for the basis of a high powered gaming rig with multiple graphics cards and top notch overclockability. The MSI Gaming series motherboards are more like a non-nonsense, no frills approach to getting the job done for enthusiasts. Top notch overclocking is very much part of the makeup, but the feature set is leaner and meaner in an effort to reduce costs and thus the price point.
The MSI Z87M GAMING is an M-ATX based motherboard using Intel’s Z87 Express chipset and as a result supports all the features included with that chipset. This includes Intel’s Smart Connect technology, Rapid Response Technology, PCI-Express 3.0, 2.0, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0, integrated graphics, and more. The 6+2 phase power system is all digitally controlled with Super Ferrite chokes, dark caps providing low equivalent series resistance or ESR.
The gaming oriented focus of the feature set includes a few things designed to benefit the gamer specifically. These include the BIGFOOT Networks Killer NIC e2205, USB audio power providing 5v signaling for USB audio devices, Texas Instruments OPA1652 audio amplifier for headphones, high quality audio capacitors, filtered signaling, and gold plated audio jacks. Sound Blaster Cinema software is also included, and of course MSI’s Gaming PS/2 port.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The MSI Z87M GAMING comes with few accessories and ships in a standard type of motherboard box with a dragon motif as box art. Our sample arrived damage free with all accessories accounted for. These accessories include: User guide, driver disc, quick install guide, door hanger, case badge, 4x SATA cables, M-Connectors, SLI bridge, and an I/O shield.
Board Layout
The layout of the Z87M GAMING is extremely good despite the lack of PCB real estate to work with in this form factor. I have no major complaints about the layout. One minor complaint I can make is with regard to the CMOS battery location being less than ideal. In fairness I’m not sure where you could locate it that would be much better due to form factor.
The CPU socket area is clean. The MOSFET cooling is actually quite substantial for a motherboard of this size. The cooler is a heat pipe design covering both sets of power phases. Despite the size of this cooling hardware, clearance shouldn’t be an issue for most cooling systems.
The Z87M GAMING supports up to 32GB of DDR3 memory. The slots aren’t color coded, and are of the single sided locking variety. Naturally I can complain about the location of the DRAM slots, but this isn’t something I can blame on MSI but rather Intel. Lower clearance modules may be necessary to avoid CPU cooling clearance issues with some configurations. So choose your cooling options and or RAM modules carefully.
The chipset is located in the bottom left corner of the motherboard. It is cooled using a passive heat sink sporting a dragon logo. The motherboard’s six SATA 6Gb/s ports are directly in front of it.
The expansion slot area doesn’t have a lot going on due to the motherboard’s smaller form factor. Dual PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (8x8) and dual PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots are all you get. These are appropriately laid out for multiple video cards so you can’t ask for more than that.
The expansion slot area is packed with connectivity options. 1x PS/2 keyboard or mouse port, 1x clear CMOS button, 6x USB 3.0 ports, 1x RJ-45 port, 2 eSATA ports, 6x mini-stereo jacks, 2x HDMI ports, 1x optical output and 1x DisplayPort.