MSI Z87-G43 (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review

Ryan Martin / 11 years ago

Test System And Methodology

When reviewing Intel Z87 motherboards we use the following pre-defined test system – only the motherboard varies between reviews. We only compare results where consistent components have been used however the CPU will also vary between motherboard comparisons of different sockets as well as the motherboard.

Z87 Motherboard Test System

Motherboard – Varies by review
Processor – Intel Core i7 4770K at Stock With Turbo Disabled
RAM – 16GB (2 X 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 1866MHz at 9-10-9-27
Graphics Card – XFX HD 7970 (Stock Clocks)
CPU Cooler – Corsair H100i with Quiet Fan Profile and Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste
Power Supply – Corsair HX1050W
Main Storage Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD over SATA III interface
Additional Storage Drive – Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD over SATA III interface
Chassis – Lian Li T60 Test Bench
Display – Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp @ 1080p
Operating System – Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

We would like to thank Asus, Intel, AMD, Corsair, Kingston, Lian Li, Dell, Noctua and all our other partners who supplied us with test equipment and hardware. Their generosity makes our testing possible and without them we wouldn’t be able to produce the reviews we do, so thank you!

For the testing procedures we use a variety of professional software and free to use programs which you can see below. The full details of each test will be available preceding the graphs if you are interested in the details for purposes of result replication or further enquiry.

Software used: