MSI Z87 XPower Review: Our First Z87 with PLX8747
by Ian Cutress on August 12, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- PLX
- Z87
MSI Z87 XPower Conclusion
The motherboard industry is cruel. Manufacturers will judge the success of a product based on sales regardless of the purpose, and as such having a pure OC-oriented board is a big no-no. If you have to have a motherboard based on overclocking, it must also have features that will cause users to buy it for day-to-day use. We see this among all the manufacturers, even those that have tried a pure-OC board in the past. Despite what success extreme overclockers have had with it, it does not sell. As a result, users who buy these combination OC/daily motherboards end up with some features they will never use, and overclockers are sourced with potential areas of instability (and increased cost).
This is where the MSI Z87 XPower comes in. MSI have tried to make it, at its core, an overclocking motherboard. It comes with some of the obvious overclocking paraphernalia – OC buttons, an obscene amount of power phases, appropriate VRM cooling and voltage check points. However, it still comes with a WiFi solution, a Killer NIC, ALC1150 audio, additional SATA/USB hubs – these are all things useful to a 24/7 system but not necessarily to an extreme overclocker.
Perhaps the two are not mutually exclusive – running a 24/7 with an extreme water setup for example. But as shown in our overclock testing, motherboards have gotten to the point where 24/7 clocks are more limited by the processor than the motherboard. So what about longevity, doesn’t 32 phases help? Sure, that is a stance that could be argued, although every 12-plus power phase setup relies on multiplexing, meaning that at least 1/8 of all phases are on at any one time. One could also argue that having 32 phases rather than 16 means 2x more elements that could go wrong.
Clearly I do get requests to look at motherboards for their intended market specifically and in this case extreme overclockers. Although for these users (of which I am one) price is almost no object, the amount of additional ‘fluff’ is – anything that could cause instability might be a big issue. Also, these users prefer easy to use/understand overclocking controls, which MSI needs to focus on big time. So even if I look at it from an OC standpoint, I have to ask what the additional controllers are for, and all roads point to 24/7 use, meaning I have to consider it from that perspective as well. Without those 24/7 features, the motherboard will not sell in the volume expected, and an OC board will never be the ultimate focus of the engineering of the company.
Aside from whether this motherboard is right for the industry, the motherboard does come at a large cost - $440 at the time of writing. This is a large ask, and MSI believe that 32 phases, 802.11n 2.4 GHz WiFi, a Killer NIC, 10 SATA ports, mSATA, 12 USB 3.0 ports, Audio Boost, a PLX chip for better tri-GPU performance and plenty of goodies in the box are sufficient to request this value.
As mentioned in the review, the 2.4 GHz WiFi solution is not a good idea for a Halo product, and users in this price range might request an Intel NIC rather than a Killer – perhaps the option of both might be best. The extended form factor is nice to see from a multi-GPU perspective, although this means that the audio traces are extended up to the rear jacks.
The BIOS needs maturing, especially to help stability and that 25 second POST time we got in our Win7/dual-GPU test. CPU performance is on par with other motherboards as well as our 24/7 overclocking on our i7-4770K, which essentially means there are other motherboards out there that will offer the same performance.
At this price point, I do feel the MSI is missing something other than a simple element of finesse. There needs to be a specific MSI feature that no-one else has. Any other manufacturer can order up 32 phases, a Killer NIC, bypassed PLX, OC buttons, voltage check points, and so on. In an industry where being good is no longer good enough, it is the unique engineering elements that help promote a brand, along with a killer product - and MSI needs one.
Addendum:
Since I started writing this review, MSI forwarded the following information:
- The structure of the BIOS is in development, and when it is finalized it should be easier to navigate the overclocking options
- The motherboard is new to the market, it will adjust to an appropriate price over time
- The WiFi solution will be upgraded to 802.11ac 5 GHz sometime in September. This will take the form of a new XPower SKU, although names are currently undecided.
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DanNeely - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
You will. Most commonly they're 10 expansion slots high (the size of the first generation of extra large/tall mobos). Newegg carries 11 ten, 7 eleven, and 1 twelve slot tall cases vs 333 seven and 74 eight slot tall models.peterwhitehouse - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
I think the form factor description is totally wrong surely it should be XL-ATX and not E-ATX?DanNeely - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
That or HP-ATX; the other taller than normal board bucket. EATX is still 7 slots tall but somewhat wider to give room for two CPU sockets and ram banks in the top area.Nfarce - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Every time I see a Haswell tested and overclocked I cringe looking at the thermals. Even with an H70 this thing hits 85C at 4.7GHz. My 2500K stays at 4.8 on 1.39V at 60C in summer ambients on an ND-D14. Would like to upgrade to an i7 for video editing as well as a gaming, all-in-one system, but can't see that kind of heat happening. Maybe Ivy is the way to go for the last of the great overclocking chipsets?Death666Angel - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Have you listened to the Podcast #22 with Dustin Slavos? Anand and him discuss Haswell OCing very in depth, you should check it out.As it stands now, yes, you are thermally limited with Haswell. You currently get a little less OC headroom than with Ivy Bridge, but the IPC increase means you are still ~5% ahead in average work loads. When yields mature, you might see OC parity or even an increase, in which case Haswell will be about 10%+ better, sometimes more if the program takes advantage of the new features with Haswell. If you are to upgrade to a completely new system, get Haswell or Ivy-Bridge-E which should do better in the OCing department since it will likely use solder to connect the die and the IHS. I personally don't see the appeal to do an upgrade from one generation to the next these days, unless money isn't an issue.
But, 85°C is not an issue for the CPU. If the system isn't louder because of Haswell, anything under 90°C should be okay. And unless the two system were identical, you can't compare your 60°C to the 85°C, the cooler are different, you have different fans, different care fans and different positioning, difference socket placement..... :)
Nfarce - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
"But, 85°C is not an issue for the CPU. If the system isn't louder because of Haswell, anything under 90°C should be okay. And unless the two system were identical, you can't compare your 60°C to the 85°C, the cooler are different, you have different fans, different care fans and different positioning, difference socket placement..... :)"I understand all of that of course. However, my summer temps - I live in the south of the US where it's hot nearly half the year - and my air conditioner bill would not like something cranking out 180F+ degrees. It's already hot enough in the room blowing 140F out the back with the Sandy rig combined with the 140F coming from GPUs. Bottom line - Haswell, while faster clock for clock than the Ivy which itself is faster clock for clock than Sandy, is not the "next level" I was hoping for. Finally, as stated, the only reason I'm looking to upgrade to i7 from i5 is to speed up my video editing and rendering time, which I'm doing more and more of these days.
basroil - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Nfarce, it doesn't matter if you put 90W of heat into your apartment at 180F or at just 90F, your room temperature increases the same amount! In fact, those massive coolers actually draw so much more power that you'll actually increase temperatures. Don't spout nonsense like that, it's beyond ridiculous. If you care for cooler temperatures, go for the system that uses the fewest Watt average (including idle time), and that system will surely not include this mobo!ggathagan - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
"$440 is a big ask from MSI, which is placated some by the inclusion of a mouse mat and goodies in the box.""Two thumbs up from MSI on the self-branded additions to the box."
Seriously Ian?!
$440 should buy me an amazingly solid board that will do what its manufacturer claims it will.
Anything less is unacceptable and simply encourages board makers to continue this trend of cranking out their top tier products before they are actually ready for everyday use.
Spare me the marketing material, the out-dated 2.4GhZ wireless the useless 'Killer' NIC and spend your time/money on producing a satisfactory motherboard!
C.C. - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Dumb ass spammer..If she only makes $62 an hr, yet brought in $20,900 in a month..that "few hours" she worked totals 337 hours..If you are going to waste your time typing spam messages that everyone here is smart enough not to follow, then you *SHOULD* be smart enough to use a friggin' calculator Bahahah...On topic, ggathagan you are exactly right! $3 worth of useless marketing fluff doesn't really make you want run out and buy this board over others that are half price but perform just as well..For $440, this thing should come with a full set of custom waterblocks for the VRMs/chipset, and ship with a stable BIOS for God's sake! I really liked the platform offerings of Z87 on paper, but I am glad I held onto my 3770k @ 4.8Ghz..
Every Z87 board seems to have their own slew of issues, from BIOS issues to XMP issues etc etc..My $115 ASRock Z77 Extreme4 has been rock solid from June 1st of 2012..It runs 24/7 @ 100% load (F@H), and is the BEST MB I have ever owned under $150..
I used to buy nothing but higher end boards ($200-250), and am super glad I took a chance on this "mainstream" performance board! I sure hope Ivy-E brings some updated X79 boards (native USB 3, more SATA 6 ports, better Audio) so I have something to be excited about!
b3nzint - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
If u going to 4 way crossfire / sli or even 3 way, then where u put your sas card or any other pci xpress card? cause theres no pci xpress slot left available. This kinda boards is all about having multiple gpu but still got everything else.