HWM Singapore — May 2017

MSI Z270 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM

AT A GLANCE

POWER PHASES

16-phase

PCIE SLOTS

4x PCIe 3.0 x16; 2x

PCIe3.0 x1

STORAGE

8x SATA 6Gbps; 3x

M.2;1x U.2

PRICE

$639

MSI’s Titanium series of motherboards

have been quite a refreshing departure

from the staid black of its competitors,

and the Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium is

no di΍ erent.

It also retains the series’ traditional

focus on overclocking and even comes

with a dedicated OC Dashboard panel

with useful hardware buttons for

adjusting the BCLK or CPU clock ratio that

you can mount on the motherboard or

outside your case.

The board starts things o΍ with a

16-phase power design, with 10 phases

dedicated to the CPU alone. As it turns

out, this was the only board here that

matched the ASUS ROG Maximus IX

Formula in terms of overclocking prowess.

For those chasing after extreme

overclocks, there’s an additional 4-pin

CPU header to supplement the power

supplied by the standard 8-pin header.

They can also avail themselves of voltage

readout points at the top right for closer

monitoring.

Storage connectivity hasn’t been

neglected, and the board boasts a good

mix comprising eight SATA 6Gbps, three

M.2 sockets, and a single U.2 port. There

are no SATA Express ports, but you’re not

likely to miss them.

One of the M.2 sockets also comes

with something MSI calls M.2 Shield, a

new protective shielding that aims to

prevent M.2 drives from overheating.

This is located between the second and

third PCIe slots, so the drive will remain

accessible even with two cards.

You’ll ȴ nd a total of four PCIe 3.0 x16

slots here, but there’s only support for

up to 2-way SLI and 4-way CrossFire. That

said, we had some issues installing a GPU

into the ȴ rst slot when a large cooler like

the Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8

was installed, so you’ll probably want to

double check the measurements before

going for extra large air coolers.

A handy Game Boost knob is located

at the bottom right, and it allows you to

increase the CPU clock speeds without

having to enter the BIOS. Serious

overclockers will likely want to do things

manually, but it’s still a nifty way to get a

quick and convenient overclock.

The VR Boost chip supposedly helps
supply a cleaner signal over USB to
VR headsets.

The OC Dashboard provides useful
hardware buttons for overclocking.
Strong overclocking
features and
performance.

No Thunderbolt 3.

MAY 2017 | +:0 71