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Trio of Z87 OC Motherboards Tested

Motherboards/Intel S1150 by leeghoofd @ 2013-07-26

Today we will be looking at 3 high end Overclock optimized mainboards for Intel's 4th generation processors. Madshrimps received the Z87-OC Formula sample from ASRock, the Gigabyte Z87X-OC and MSI's Z87 XPOWER flagship. Three boards, although all listed in total different price categories, targeted specifically at the enthusiast crowd. Fully equipped to squeeze the last MHz out of your Haswell. Due to the specific nature of these particular boards we have adapted the review method slightly to go more into the efficiency aspect instead of listing all of the onboard features/chips.

MSI Z87 XPOWER:

Our last musketeer for this review is MSI's XPOWER mainboard. Alike the ASRock an EATX form black PCB, made out of 8 layers. MSI has got 3 offerings for their overclocking lineup: the MPOWER, MPOWER MAX and today's reviewed XPOWER. The XPOWER utilises a PLX chip to maximize the GPU configurations to 4-way SLI/CROSSFIRE. The other two MPOWERs feature max two-way SLI and triple Crossfire. All board support the Killer NIC, which in theory should reduce the lag during online gaming experiences. However this also increases the cost of the boards and what the purpose is on a OC targeted motherboard lineup leaves me puzzled.

MSI wins the battle for the most Phases: a whopping 32 in total consisting of DRmos 4, Hi-C CAPS, super Ferrite chokes and dark caps. on the XPOWER. The MPOWER has a more comon 16 Phase and the MPOWER MAX tops at 20 phases. This makes the CPU area way more crowded then the other two competitors, thus more time consuming insulation work has to be performed.

The XPOWER board leaves no option open for power delivery. Two 8 pins for the CPU power department and a 6 pin PEG for enhanced GPU power delivery.

The XPOWER heatsink is enormous in size and weight. While the attention to detail is excellent, the heatsink that cools down the PLX chip makes it quite hard to unlock the top PCIe GPU as it blocks access to the PCIe clip.

The same overdimensioned Z87 chipset heatsink alike the GB board. Is it really a requirement or just to top of the looks ?As this is the flagship of the X series we get 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports, from which six are controlled by the Z87 Intel chipset and the rest via the ASmedia ASM1061 chipset. The MSI XPOWER als is also equipped to plug in a mSATA SSD.

The back I/O panel includes a PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 (black) and 8 USB 3.0 ports (blue). VGA output via two HDMI and one display port. The 7.1 channel output is secured by a Realtek ALC1150 Codec powered chipset. As mentioned before the Killer E2205 NIC fast ethernet supports 10/100/1000Mbit.

The MSI crew worked really hard on this board to make it stand out of the crowd, with lighting effects everywhere.

Included accessoires in the box are:

driver CD and manual
OCing guide
8 SATA cables
USB3.0 bracket
3x SLI bridge connectors
Wifi module and antennea
Steelseries Mousemat
4 Voltage measurement cables

Comment from Teemto @ 2013/07/26

Really like the editor's note

Comment from NordWolfe @ 2013/08/03

Finally somebody with the balls to tell it like it is. Now I would just like somebody to call-out Intel, for their woeful/unacceptable manufacturing quality control on their CPUs, and AMD, for their incompetence that permits these abuses from their rivals. At least, so it seems, AMD is now hiring the right people for their CPU division. Hope this pays off quickly so that Intel loses it’s arrogance, and total lack of respect for it’s customers. For that to happen we need many more true reviewers, such as yourself, and not Corporate Whores, such as we see in most sites, and youtube channels.
I salute your courage, integrity, and the knowledge you have on your mission.
Cheers.

Comment from leeghoofd @ 2013/08/04

Thx guys for the feedback. It's not what the manufacturers or people from the PR team want to read, but at least it's the truth based on hard facts... apreciated that my hard works is applauded

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