MSI Z170 GAMING M Series Skylake motherboards pictured

by Mark Tyson on 22 July 2015, 12:10

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), MSI

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MSI has been publishing teaser images of its upcoming Intel Z170 chipset based motherboards. Last week it published some teaser images of the striking monochrome Z170 Krait, which it has now followed up with snaps showing a trio of GAMING M branded boards. Those considering a new performance computer build based around an LGA1151 socket Intel Skylake CPU accompanied by DDR4 memory may be interested in these motherboards.

The three upcoming GAMING M Z170 motherboards pictured by MSI are the Z170A Gaming M5, the Z170A Gaming M7, and the Z170A Gaming M9 ACK. From various pictures of the boards and looking at close-ups and further details we can garner that the three boards share the following common specifications:

  • Multiphase VRM
  • Support for two high-end graphics cards
  • Two USB 3.1 connectors (1 x Type-A, 1 x Type-C)
  • Two M.2. slots
  • Ten SATA ports
  • AudioBoost III isolated circuit 7.1 sound
  • Killer networking

The Z170A Gaming M7 builds upon this base specification with 14-phase CPU VRM and a 'Game Boost' rotary control to provide 11 preset levels of CPU and memory overclocking. MSI's Z170A Gaming M9 ACK sits atop of the range with additional support for a VRM that can be liquid cooled, more overclocking capabilities and the special 'Reactive Armour' backplate. The closer shot of the armour shows that you will also get dedicated gaming input peripheral connectors.

When can you buy one of MSI's new Z170 motherboards? In a Facebook post reply the firm tells a fan that "the mobo will be available after Aug 5th". That coincides with the start of Gamescom, Cologne. This is the event where we expect the Skylake Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K processors and the first crop of 100-Series motherboards to be showcased by Intel.



HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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Ooh that's handy, fits right into my time frame for my 3 yearly PC upgrade, will definitely take a proper look once released
Not as sexy looking as the gigabyte ones, but the real benefit here is that they are not gigabyte ones.
I really hate all the ridiculous marketing applied to ‘gaming’ gear.

'Reactive Armour'?! C'monnnnnnnn. It's a heat shield.
I still don't understand what makes a motherboard “gaming”……and in recent times it has become even more silly to market a mobo as a gamers board.
shaithis
I still don't understand what makes a motherboard “gaming”……and in recent times it has become even more silly to market a mobo as a gamers board.
A valid point, any board that runs in a reliable manner could be described as such; the differences seem to rely mostly on the bling.

All the cases I have ever had have been windowless so I just pick whichever has my favored feature set at the time, mind you the only board I have had fail on me was an Intel branded workstation board.