MSI Z97 XPOWER AC Motherboard Review

[section_title title=”Conclusion”]

Conclusion

It would appear as if the MSI Z97 XPOWER AC brings a lot to the table, but that is most certainly not without its drawback – the price of ~£260. It is tough to recommend a motherboard which limits you to four cores when you could easily get a medium to high-end X99 motherboard, such as the GIGABYTE X99 SOC Champion as a high-end but cheap board, which unlocks the potential to use an eight-cored, 16 threaded monster known as the Intel Core i7-5960X. However, on the flip side of that coin, yes it does offer great overclocking performance, yes it does have a visually stunning livery, and yes it does also happen to perform rather well. Although it is the cheaper of the highest end motherboards on the Z97 platform, it is still a costly option to opt for.

If you are absolutely dead-set on getting an MSI ‘LIGHTNING’ styled theme going in your chassis, and money is no object, then of course this is the motherboard for you. I personally like the black and yellow combination as it is something different from the usual red and black combination that used to be all the rage not all too long ago. The yellow and black theme has become a thing of the past with the newer generation of MSI motherboards, but they’ve gone down a different road which may be even better. This is not a review for one such motherboard, though, and therefore it isn’t all too relevant at this point in time.

MSI used to be a company which was a little small compared to the giants such as ASUS and GIGABYTE, but they have really started to make a name for themselves since the Z87 days; I foresee that this shall be something to set the standard on which they will only continue to improve on their previous designs in future releases. There used to be horror stories all over the ‘net with regards to the VRM circuitry going up with a puff of smoke or out with a big bang, but thankfully those days are behind us as MSI have started to use more of the higher quality components than ever before. MSI devised their Military Grade components which basically certifies them to be of the highest quality at the time of production.

The performance of the motherboard does not warrant its price in my mind. It is one of the most expensive boards ever made/sold for Haswell and Devil’s Canyon, but the performance often ends up in the middle and behind motherboards which cost as much as (almost) 1/3 of the price. The unfortunate thing is that this motherboard is designed for extreme users who are most likely going to use liquid nitrogen (LN2) to get the absolute most out of the CPU, RAM and GPU(s). When the performance is lagging behind far cheaper and ‘inferior’ boards, you’ve got to wonder if it would be the same at higher frequencies with different cooling methods. Unfortunately, if the story on air is anything to go by, the story on LN2 won’t be any different. They have been used to set a few records in the past, but the cheaper options are vastly more popular purely for the performance alone – we aren’t afraid to kill expensive hardware, you know.

With all of that being said and done, it is time to award the motherboard. So, here goes. For the price, it’s not going to win any contests here, it’s just too expensive for what it really is. Sorry MSI, this one’s too highly priced. If it hit top of the charts in practically every test, then perhaps the price would be a little more justified, but it doesn’t. Whilst the performance is good, it’s not the best. The design and overall aesthetics of the ‘board are great, and there’s only one thing I’d like to see in a different location – the PCI-E lane switch that allows you to turn lanes on and off. Besides that really small issue, it’s a full five stars in that area.