14 DAY TRIAL // There are small, low-end motherboards, there are regular, mid-range motherboards, there are also high-end motherboards, but then there are those that put all others to shame. MSI intends for the Z97 MPOWER MAX to be one of that last type.
Even without official photos of the product, it's easy enough to see why Micro-Star International would feel that way.
The folks at Hardware.Info were able to get ahold of a prototype board, which they photographed and leaked to the web.
An actual sheet of specifications does not exist anywhere yet, nowhere accessible to the common man in any event.
Fortunately, most of the core traits can be deduced from what the product looks like. Many are pretty obvious after all, to those who know what to look for.
So, on that note, you might be able to spot the M.2 PCI solid state drive interface (located near the PCI Express expansion slots).
You should also see the eight SATA III ports (SATA 6.0 Gbps), which you will connect HDDs, SSDs, SSHDs and/or HHDs to, if you buy it (and them).
There are four DDR3 DIMM memory slots as well, plus three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, four PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots, and the Z97 chipset.
Then there's the 12-phase power delivery module, which gets energy from an 8-pin and 4-pin connector, plus the V-Check Point 2 and OC switches (right next to the DDR3 DIMM slots).
Clearly, MSI intends for buyers to go wild with overclocking if they are so inclined. The liquid nitrogen will have to come from their own pocket money, but the motherboard provides pretty much everything necessary for ludicrous clock tweaking.
That said, we can't say exactly how well-cooled the Z97 MPOWER MAX is or what its input/ouput capabilities will be, because the prototype from Hardware.Info lacked heatsinks and some I/O connectors.
We can, however, talk about other things, like the Delid Die Guard, which protects the CPU and printed circuit board if you remove the heatspreader from the CPU.
It sounds like a minor thing, but it really isn't for professional overclockers. Since we heard that Intel used an arguably low-quality paste for the IHS (integrated heatsink), it was clear that OC enthusiasts would be even more determined to perform their OC feats without the top-plate that the chips ship with. The photo below shows the Delid Die Guard holding the CPU in place even after the IHS was taken away.
