Conclusion
...the MSI Z170A Gaming M7 is a complete package of striking aesthetics, solid performance and abundant features.MSI's Z170A Gaming M7 comes with an MSRP of £180 which is reasonable for a near-flagship status gaming motherboard. There is one potential sticking point for prospective buyers which is that the Z170A Gaming M5 costs £150 yet only loses out a negligible number of features compared to the M7 model.
Specifically the M5 lacks the hardware Gaming Hotkey, the Gaming Boost switch, drops a single power phase for the CPU's integrated graphics and omits one USB 2.0 port as well as the associated USB flashback function of that port. Is that enough to compensate for a £30 reduction?
In the grand scheme of things most buyers would be happy to sacrifice those features for some extra funds to allocate towards a better GPU or some other system component.
The M7 still has its place for PC gamers demanding a better solution though it will be a clear case of diminishing returns for the more value minded. The M7 is, according to MSI, likely to be a favourite among professional overclockers and technical media and thus BIOS updates for increased performance will be more common to the M7 than the M5.
M7, too, features extra audio capacitors, heatpipes in the heatsinks as well as a few other minor technicalities that make it a more expensive product. The flagship argument does fall a little flat when considering MSI does offer two better boards than Gaming M7 - the Gaming M9 ACK and XPower Gaming Titanium Edition.
MSI has carefully crafted an attractive new range of motherboards for the Z170 launch and the Gaming M7 showcases this point well. The MSI Z170A Gaming M7 is a complete package of striking aesthetics, solid performance and abundant features that delivers the basis for a compelling high-end gaming system. Prospective buyers still have to contemplate whether they are better served by the M5 variant, but both motherboards are still worthy considerations for any new Intel Skylake build.
Premium feel and aesthetics
Well-equipped storage options
Brimming with extra features
HEXUS.awards
MSI Z170A Gaming M7
HEXUS.where2buy
The MSI Z170A Gaming M7 is available from Scan.co.uk*
HEXUS.right2reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.
Related Reading
5 Asus shares its Intel Z690 motherboard guide
And rivals such as Gigabyte, MSI and EVGA outline their Z690 chipset offerings.
1 Asus ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming Wi-Fi motherboard images leak
Mini-ITX board uses daughterboards to pack in features but maintain its diminutive footprint.
21 Diagrams of 12VHPWR 600W connectors for GPUs spotted
Power connector is part of the PCIe 5.0 standard and rumoured for the RTX 3090 Ti.
