MSI Z97 MPower MAX AC LGA 1150 Motherboard Review

Today we take a look at MSI’s latest entry into its "OC" series motherboards. The MSI Z97 MPower MAX AC is specifically designed with the computer hardware overclocking enthusiast in mind. This new Z97 Intel Express Chipset MSI motherboard sports a solid feature set with a host of overclocking tools that allow many avenues of attack.

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Subsystem Testing

NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel Core i7 4770K (3.5GHz) and 4x 4GB Corsair Dominator Platinum (2400MHz DDR3 10-12-12-31@1.65v) memory modules running at DDR3 1600MHz speeds (stock testing, up to 2400MHz overclocked) were used. The CPU was cooled with a Koolance Exos 2.5 and CPU-370 water block.

Sound Hardware

When it comes to sound hardware, the implementation is a familiar one. The isolated PCB design with light path is virtually identical to the implementation we saw on Z87 based ASUS Republic of Gamers motherboards. Like those, the MSI Z97 MPower MAX has a Realtek ALC1150 audio CODEC, isolated PCB design, audio specific capacitors and a head phone amplifier.

The following specifications were taken from the manufacturer’s website:

• Realtek® ALC1150 Codec

- 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio

- Supports S/PDIF output

- Supports S/PDIF Input

As I’ve had a lot of hands-on time with the ASUS motherboards from the ROG series I have to say that the implementation of the audio hardware from MSI is virtually identical. I couldn’t tell the difference between this and what I experienced on those ASUS motherboards. That’s not a bad thing of course. The audio sounded good with a nice range. It didn’t sound base heavy, lacking in mid range sound like the second OP-AMP included with the G1 Sniper I reviewed recently did. This was a very crisp and balanced solution.

Audio – Subjective Listening

For subjective listening you want to listen to something that covers a range of sound types. For this portion of the review I went withFive Finger Death Punch’s American Capitalist CD.

CD audio was flawless as usual.

Audio – Microphone Port Testing

The onboard audio MIC-IN port was tested using a Logitech Internet Chat Headset. Spoken words were recorded from the Windows Sound Recorder found under the Accessories folder in the start menu within Windows. The recording was using the highest quality settings available in the control panel for the audio device being used to record.

With the microphone boost option disabled or enabled the recording sample was audible. Granted the sample was louder with the microphone boost option enabled. There was a slight hint of background noise in the sample which was more noticeable in the "microphone boost enabled" version of the recording. That’s not at all unexpected.

DPC Latency

Deferred procedure call latency or DPC testing is something that we’ve been asked about and this is the first article we’ve done which integrates that type of testing. For those who may not know what DPC is I’ll explain. Deferred procedure calls are a function within Windows that allows higher priority tasks such as device drivers to defer lower priority tasks for execution at later times. It’s an interrupt and reassignment of sorts performed by the operating system.

DPC latency varies from board model to model and brand to brand. DPC issues show up in the form of audio dropouts and streaming video issues. Naturally this is something that the enthusiast would want to avoid. Fortunately there is a nice tool for checking this which doesn’t even require and installer. I used the DPC Latency Checker and let it run for 10 minutes to graph the results.

I thought it necessary to look at some systems which I wouldn’t have suspected of having any DPC latency issues around my house to get some baseline numbers for comparison. The utility graphs out the data nicely and tells you what your latency results mean in terms of the real world problems you might encounter with the current system configuration. I went with my own personal machine which uses the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

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Our baseline system has an absolute maximum DPC latency of 174µs. This means that you shouldn’t experience any drop out issues with audio or video on this system.

Z97 MPower MAX AC

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With an absolute maximum DPC latency of only 80µs and an average of around 40µs the Z97 MPower MAX AC is literally the best motherboard we’ve tested to date in regard to DPC latency. It has less than half the absolute latency of our control system and shames most of the motherboards we’ve tested in the past.

Drive Performance

To test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 connections, we used an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected first to the USB port. USB 3.0 functionality was tested using a Super Talent USB 3.0 SuperCrypt 32GB Flash Drive. SATA drive tests were performed using Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX hard drives on all SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in RAID 0 16k block size configurations on all applicable controllers. Testing was also conducted using the same model SATA drives in a stand-alone SATA configuration on all applicable controllers. All drive benchmarks were done using the freely available CrystalDiskMark 3.0 program, run with both 50MB and 100MB sized test sets.

Given that boards are now supporting UASP and various USB 3.0 boost methods on many models, we’ve updated our testing methodology to include a UASP test. The USB 3.0 implementation that some manufacturers are using does allow for a performance boost with non-UASP compliant hardware as you’ll see using what these companies call "turbo" mode. Granted the difference isn’t as pronounced as it is when enabling UASP on a device that supports it. The USB 3.0 Flash drive tests are essentially the same as these have always been since we started doing these tests, but with the added turbo mode test to showcase the feature in action. The USB 3.0 SSD UASP Enabled / Disabled tests are utilizing a Corsair Force GT 60GB SATA 3 SSD plugged into a Thermaltake BlacX 5G docking port which uses a USB 3.0 connection. This device was selected due to having UASP compatible firmware.

When it comes to storage the Z97 MPower MAX AC plays it very safe. Rather than embracing SATA Express in a market currently without devices MSI chose to simply stick with good old SATA 6Gb/s ports. Eight are provided. Six are attached to the Intel chipset and the other two ports are courtesy of an embedded ASM1061 controller. The secondary controller is a non-RAID solution so plan accordingly. Fortunately there is an M.2 slot though it shares bandwidth with the Intel SATA ports meaning you’ll lose one when you use an M.2 device. There is also no Thunderbolt II support on the Z97 MPower MAX AC. USB 3.0 is provided in an abundance thanks to a mixture of multiplexed USB ports off the Intel controller. This is thanks to an ASMedia 1074 controller. An ASM1042 controller ups the ante even further providing an extra two ports.

50MB Test Set

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In the 50MB sequential read tests the Intel Z97 controller produced the best result in AHCI standalone mode. The ASM1061 was a fair bit off performance-wise but eclipsed the Z97 controller in RAID0. USB 3.0 and 2.0 performance was predictable offering no surprises. In the 50MB sequential write test the the Z97 controller and ASM1061 had virtually identical performance being more limited by the write speed of their attached devices. The RAID 0 test scaled almost perfectly thus doubling performance. USB 2.0 and 3.0 performance was again within expectations.

100MB Test Set

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In the 100MB sequential read test the AHCI results were almost matched. The Z97 RAID 0 test again nearly doubled the performance of the standalone tests. USB performance was again solid. In the sequential write test we saw almost carbon copy results when compared to the 50MB sequential write test. AHCI results were comparable and the RAID 0 controller scaled almost 100%. USB 2.0 and 3.0 performance was in the precise range we predicted. The overall test results give us one undeniable conclusion: Everything was working as it should.

Network Utilization Tests

LAN Speed Test software was used with Windows Task Manager to determine the performance levels of the onboard network interface. LAN Speed Test was used to measure bandwidth and transfer speeds, while Windows Task Manager monitored CPU utilization on the test system. For the testing, a 800MB file test was used with the default packet configuration for the application. The test was run three times with the middle result chosen. Results were captured for the low, medium and high transfer rates. The test was performed using a plenum rated category 5e crossover cable to bypass any traffic, routing or other transfer issues and possible packet loss or corruption that can be caused by a router/switch or hub. The cables were connected between two test machines, one using the onboard NIC(s) of the board being reviewed and the other is an Intel EXPI9400PT 10/100/1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet adapter installed into a test machine using an Intel D5400XS motherboard.

Wireless network testing, if applicable was performed using an AdHoc connection between the review system and my own machine based on equipped with an Atheros AR9002WB-1NG wireless adapter which is integrated into my ASUS Rampage III Black Edition motherboard. The control panel used all the default settings save for the AdHoc 11N setting which was enabled on both systems.

There are two networking solutions included with the Z97 MPower MAX AC. One is the integrated gigabit Ethernet controller and the other is the wireless controller. The former is an Intel i218v and the latter is a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual band (2.4GHz, 5GHz) controller.

LAN1

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The average write speed for this controller was 32.62MB/s and the average read speed was 43.90MB/s. In contrast the maximum write speed was 41.44MB/s and the read speed was 44.11MB/s. Our minimums were 28.91MB/s (write) and 43.70MB/s (read). CPU usage wasn’t terribly spiky but did occasionally exceed the 1% the controller averaged during the write test. In the read (upload) test the controller had larger deviations in CPU usage but generally always settled back down to around 3%.

WLAN

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Keep in mind that there are many variables effecting wireless performance. The write speed average was 5.21MB/s with the read or upload speed reaching 6.7MB/s. The maximum speeds were 6.3MB/s (write) and 6.99MB/s (read). In contrast our minimum performance metrics were 4.48MB/s (write) and 6.5MB/s (read). CPU usage did spike on occasion on core 0 but usually sat at virtually undetectable levels in the write test. Our read test showed similar results generally hovering around the 1% mark.

Benchmark Test Systems

The following system configurations were used for the Sandra memory benchmark graph, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:

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SiSoft Sandra

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Note that all results above were obtained running the installed memory in dual channel mode with one exception The ASUS X79 Deluxe test was run in quad-channel mode.

The memory bandwidth results were almost perfectly aligned with the rest of the test systems.

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As we’ve seen lately, the Sandra CPU tests favor the newer motherboards.

Hyper Pi

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In this test both MSI systems perform virtually the same. General performance was slightly higher than that of the ASUS Z87 Deluxe, but not by much.

wPrime

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Unfortunately the Z97 MPower MAX AC lags a bit here. While an odd result from what we are used to seeing, this test was performed multiple times with near identical results.