MSI Z97 MPower Max AC Review: Overclocking for $260
by Ian Cutress on May 20, 2014 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- Z97
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
- Thank you to OCZ for providing us with PSUs and SSDs.
- Thank you to G.Skill and ADATA for providing us with memory kits.
- Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU, Corsair H80i CLC and DRAM.
- Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD HD7970 GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
- Thank you to MSI for providing us with the NVIDIA GTX 770 Lightning GPUs.
- Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with PSUs and RK-9100 keyboards.
- Thank you to ASRock for providing us with some IO testing kit.
Test Setup
| Test Setup | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K ES 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboard | MSI Z97 MPower Max AC |
| Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermalright TRUE Copper |
| Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
| Memory | G.Skill RipjawsZ 4x4 GB DDR3-1600 9-11-9 Kit |
| Memory Settings | 1600 9-11-9-27 1T tRFC 240 |
| Video Cards |
MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost) ASUS HD7970 3GB (Reference) |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.12 NVIDIA Drivers 335.23 |
| Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit SP1 |
| USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a single MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
Idle power consumption was fairly reasonable, although the load power consumption was higher than the other Z97 motherboards we have tested, although not by much.
Windows 7 POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
Normally I prefer a POST time of 12 seconds or less, so while the MSI motherboard almost achieved that (13.09s), when the extra features were disabled it did offer a sub 9-second POST time. This seems to be a common feature with Z97 motherboards.
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Nintendo Maniac 64 - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Can I just say that it still feels weird to see AnandTech benching Dolphin? I mean, I know that I was the guy that sent the email about the benchmark, but emulation just seemed like one of those more "hush hush" things you just didn't talk much about...Also, you've been misspelling "boost" as "post" in every single article with the Dolphin benchmark - "provided a significant post to emulator performance". You may want to fix your typo from wherever you're copy & pasting that text from, not just fixing it in the article.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Hi NM64, yeah that typo is a carry over from my custom review template. I've fixed in the original now. It's good to have an emulation in general, as not all emulation is perhaps licensed games.silenceisgolden - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Thank goodness MSI is listening to feedback about connectivity. I wouldn't want a thing changed about this motherboard, and if I wasn't waiting for the new -E line I would upgrade to this. It really is refreshing to see a brand not get caught in the SATA Express hype, cater to old PCI, and realize that USB3 is here in full.Galatian - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
I beg to disagree but to each their own. Personally I feel somewhat letdown by Z97. We have M.2 and SATA Express ports but they are already outdated because they don't use 4 x PCIe 2.0 lanes as they could. Instead they opt out for multiple SATA and USB ports. Realistically: How many of those ports does one need? Me as a gamer I have one SSD in my case and a keyboard, mouse and xbox controller receiver connected to USB. That's all.Morawka - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
the problem is not enough lanes in haswell and Z87/Z97. 2X SLI is already running at 8X 8X. Besides, what they are currently using on this board is enough to saturate what the M.2 SSD's are capable of.reininop - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Well, from the perspective of another gamer, that also uses his system as a all-purpose system as well, I have a keyboard, mouse, printer, xbox wireless receiver, wireless adapter, headphones, charger for my phone, charger for headphones, extension to monitor usb ports, and maybe one other thing. I'm sure there are others with even more needs.Morawka - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Metro Last Light Inspired Box?theduckofdeath - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - link
I was thinking the same :3r3loaded - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
Is Asus coming out with a Maximus VII Formula? It'd be great to compare that with this board as MSI have a very strong competitor here. Either way, it bodes well for the Haswell-E equivalent of this board.Galatian - Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - link
ASUS hasn't introduce their entire line-up for Z97 yet. They are probably waiting for the Devil Canyon chips.