MSI Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM (LGA 1151) Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing 

The MSI Z170A XPOWER Gaming Titanium Edition is widely available, so finding a retailer near you shouldn’t be an issue. In the UK, OverclockersUK is currently advertising at £229.99 and Newegg.com currently has this listed for $299.99 for US residents.

Overview

What a board! The performance isn’t what we expect, but this isn’t aimed at the general user, this is designed to be used and abused by those who really know how to utilise all of the features and a large enough power supply to really push the power and overclocking limits.

It is without a doubt that this board will turn heads thanks to the unique silver PCB. It takes some serious gonads to release such a unique motherboard, but MSI seem to be at the forefront of unique considering the X99 GODLIKE was a metal-clad monster. I have my reservations on the heat sinks, though, I feel that these will get scratched really easy if you slip with the CPU heat sink or similar.

Something I’ve noticed with the Z170 range is that each new motherboard has power saving features enabled as standard, this means that the CPU will only hit the 42 multiplier on a single core and thus the overall performance is less. Once that was corrected, the performance provided some of the best scores seen out of the motherboards we’ve tested. Overclocking was as easy as ever with the MSI BIOS simplifying the entire process, although I think that the Overclocking section could be split up into CPU, Memory and Voltages as one large list can be daunting to look at.

I struggled to see what the benefit of the OC Dashboard offered to the rest of the motherboard, but then I remembered that this motherboard isn’t necessarily aimed at the traditional consumer. The OC Dashboard is designed specifically for LN2 overclocking where the key physical features aren’t within a dangerous range for possible spillage. The discharge button is extremely helpful, especially if you have zero patience and want to rip the computer apart without really paying attention to how long you have to wait after unplugging the system.

Pros

• Unique colour
• OC Dashboard is a nice high-end overclocking feature
• Excellent performance
• Other

Cons

• No WiFi for such a premium motherboard
• Some features aren’t needed for general consumer

Neutral

• Unique color scheme is refreshing, but could put some off

“The most unique Z170 motherboard has landed in the XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM, but be warned it isn’t for the faint-hearted and requires some knowledge to really reap the benefits.“

Thank you MSI for providing us with this sample.