The MSI Z170A Gaming M7 Review: The Step Up to Skylake
by Ian Cutress on September 21, 2015 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gaming
- MSI
- Skylake
- Z170
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 Conclusion
Of the motherboards we received for review before the launch of Skylake, we had a reasonable mix of the regular price bands, from $160 to $250, and even up at the top for $500. These more mid-range price bands are typically where most motherboard manufacturers duke it out for sales, despite the fact that the bulk of sales is usually below this. At $160-$300, it allows the manufacturers to stretch in terms of technical prowess and their view of the market.
The MSI Z170A Gaming M7 comes in at $230, arguably at the higher end of most people's budgets but enough to satisfy the enthusiast space. From a hardware perspective, the M7 focuses on its key marketing points towards gaming, such as the Killer E2400 network port, Nahimic audio software, easy overclocking functionality and new easier to use BIOS interface for new users. Other features come in as well - metallic guards to strengthen the PCIe slots when heavy graphics cards are in place, USB 10Gbps ports in 3.1-A and 3.1-C, dual M.2 slots that run at PCIe 3.0 x4 mode and SATAe connectivity.
Negative points off the bat start with the Nahimic audio software. It completely cuts out the EQ, even when you uninstall it - a big no-no from anyone who genuinely likes to customize their sound quality. Most of the features the Nahimic software provides are essentially EQ adjustments anyway, leaving me to wonder why MSI is paying through the nose for license fees (and passing that cost to the buyer) rather than doing basic modifications to the Realtek software that comes free with the codec. Additional to this, even with the Nahimic implementation disabled, audio performance in our tests did not set the world alight. Power consumption at load (at stock) was a little high as a result of the motherboard applying more voltage to the processor than expected. This might be related to the MultiCore Enhancement used.
Also to note is that our overclock testing, perhaps due to the beta BIOS versions we were using at the time, seem to be behind some other products. But because a review is a snapshot in time, we perhaps shouldn't hold it against the board unless other MSI motherboards in the future perform similarly. Also, at $230, one might have expected either a second network port (wireless or wired) or at least an Intel network controller. For most users that care about the network controller, Killer comes across more of a marketing checkbox compared to the control normally attributed to the Intel network ports.
Where the MSI Z170A Gaming M7 wins comes down to our BIOS implementing MultiCore Enhancement by default, resulting in a better stock performance. As a result, all our base processor tests but the MSI ahead. The new EZ mode in the BIOS is a good design worth playing around with, as well as MSI having the best driver/software update software for motherboards we've ever seen. This becomes more useful given that later BIOSes should become available as time goes on.
At the end of the day, MSI might struggle to sell this for $230 MSRP. The market will have other motherboards to play with that offer more features with less marketing buzz (Killer/Nahimic) at the same price or lower, perhaps pushing users towards the Gaming M5 and below. There are some take home positives, such as the new easy overclock tool and the drive towards catering for their intended market, though pushing it in to a higher than expected price band may drop it off some build lists sooner than MSI would have hoped for. As we test more motherboards, we should be able to develop a taste for the ecosystem as a whole and understand how each of the motherboard manufacturers are approaching the Skylake platform.
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reininop - Monday, September 21, 2015 - link
What kind of hangs are you having? I'm having my own issues with an Asus Deluxe. I've had everything from USB driver issues, to what appear to be CPU failures, to corrupted MBR's that magically uncorrupt. I haven't noticed any issues with the sound on mine.PPalmgren - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
I'll be playing a game, and with the GPU and processor well within reasonable loads and temps, I'll get a freeze with a ~half second sound loop, usually loud as hell. In about 5 seconds the comp will straight up crash. Because AI Suite doesn't install, and I'm unfamiliar with most monitoring software, I've had to resort to using the windows monitor for error messages to hopefully track down the issue. All of my errors point towards the sound drivers.DanNeely - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
If your system is failing it a way that generates a memory dump before restarting, take a look at Who Crashed. It does basic analytics on the dump and can report the driver responsible, the error code, and possibly what the code means (not sure how extensive the latter is; in my case it only happened for errors that meant my OC was just barely too high for long term stability).http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed
PPalmgren - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I didn't have a memory dump so the last one I saw with this tool is over 6 months old. I'll keep fighting the good fight.fluxtatic - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
In your shoes, I'd uninstall the sound drivers and grab the reference drivers from the OEM site (RealTek, I would guess) - as an added bonus, you'll probably gain the ability to use loopback recording, which MS and OEMs tend to disable.fluxtatic - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
And check for BIOS updates - I had some strange issues with my Asus M5A97 Evo a while back and the latest BIOS got everything back to right.PPalmgren - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Thanks for the help, I'll give that a shot with the sound drivers. I see Realtek fortunately keeps it nice and narrow down to two codec selections, one for AC97 and one for HD. I'm guessing the one on this board is Realtek HD Audio, but I wonder if there's some way to find out for sure which module is being used. It has a little cover on it with ASUS's branding so you can't read the chip directly. The only thing I was able to find with a reference was a single Tom's forum post.reininop - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
I doubt it's your audio. The audio loop is common on black screen crashes, which sounds like what you are having. The blue screen windows crashes are the only ones that will generate a minidump for whocrashed to analyze.Are you overclocking at all? I've dropped mine down to stock frequencies (RAM still at XMP speeds) and my random crashes seem to have stopped. When I stress test either the OC CPU or OC GPU independent of one another, they both pass all tests. When they run together, they apparently fail. I'm beginning to think my 12V rail is not performing to spec.
PPalmgren - Friday, September 25, 2015 - link
I'm currently running at 100% stock, even using default memory timings, and just had a crash in those setting last night playing Dota 2 which is a fairly tame game. GPU fan speeds were around 70% with temps in the 70's when playing (980 ti).Last night, after the crash, I made the move over to the default realtek drivers instead of the ASUS stuff. I'll play for a couple days and see if I get a crash again. Oddly, the crashes tend to almost always happen around 11 PM.
reininop - Saturday, September 26, 2015 - link
Well, just to update you a bit about my own. Stock settings didn't stop my crashes either. Temps are good, RAM is good. PSU retested good.... Took two steps back in video drivers and currently running good but not all that hopeful.