14 DAY TRIAL // They say that yellow is the color of cowards, but the hue used by MSI on its Z97 AC motherboard collection, boxes and all, does have a vague sheen of gold, so maybe it doesn't fall under that stereotype. The spec sheets definitely don't.
This is the range of overclocking-centric Micro-Star International motherboards based on the new Intel Z97 chipset.
Since Intel's fourth generation Haswell CPUs will ship from this month onwards, the mainboards are coming out en masse.
Fortunately, MSI's overclocking Z97 motherboard collection isn't as overwhelmingly extensive as the MSI Z97 Gaming Series. Which is to say, there are only three MSI Z97 AC motherboards instead of a dozen.
First off, the flagship product, called Z97 XPower AC, has 3-way and 4-way multi-GPU setup support (with overclocking!) and a PEX8747 bridge chip from PLX (it's what lets all four PCI Express 3.0 slots work in x16 mode).
Then, there's the overriding single PCI-Express 3.0 x16, which wires the add-on card directly to the CPU's root complex, bypassing the bridge chip. Basically, it's an efficient way to distribute resources while working at full power.
Meanwhile, a 16-phase VRM powers the CPU, while 24-pin ATX and 6-pin PCIe ports provide stable energy to everything else. Ten SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, an M.2 SSD slot, 12 USB 3.0 ports, 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet and AudioBoost technology complete the ensemble.
Well, those and the OC-friendly features that made these boards qualify as their own product line in the first place: redundant BIOS, OC/voltage fine-tuning buttons, water cooling channel for the CPU VRM, etc. The price should be around $400 / €400.
The second MSI Z97 AC motherboard, called Z97 MPower MAX AC, has a 12-phase VRM (gets energy from 8-pin EPS and 4-pin CPU power connectors) and the same coolant channel through the VRM heatsinks. No PCI Bridge chip is used though, so the three PCI Express 3.0 slots work in x8/x4/x4 mode when all are in use.
Also, the SATA port number is eight, while USB 3.0 connectors number only 10. Most everything else is the same though. The price should be roughly $300 / €300, or thereabouts.
That leaves the Z97 MPower MAX, which costs just under $200 / €200 and lacks 802.11 ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, liquid-cooled VRM heatsinks, and onboard OC fine-tuning buttons. Otherwise, it's the same as the Z97 MPower MAX AC, PCI Express ports and all.
