Hot on the heels of other manufacturers MSI have revealed a front-running overclocking board for the launch of Haswell/Z87, the Z87 MPOWER, and it's certainly a striking piece of kit. Sporting the black and yellow colour scheme first seen on enthusiast-level graphics cards with a TwinFrozr IV cooler, it is a member of a burgeoning performance range which seeks to promote overclocking and stability as paramount.
OC Certified
OC Certified is a military class burn-in test for motherboards. Running Prime95 for over 24 hours with a highly overclocked CPU is already a stressing endeavor, but removing all airflow from the motherboard ensures that only the best motherboards survive. If an MPOWER can survive this, it can survive any overclocking situation.
The MSI Z87 MPOWER motherboards are equipped with all the necessary features to make sure you get the most out of your system. From the Enhanced PWM and Thermal Design that give you the best stability to all the easy features that ensure that you don't have to perform a lot of tricks to get great stability in your quest for performance.
Military Class 4 Components
Military Class 4 is the next step in high quality components. The Hi-c Cap, Super Ferrite Choke and Solid CAPs will make sure that your PC runs more stable under extreme conditions.
Hi-c CAP
A Hi-c CAP is a very small, but super-efficient capacitor. Besides ensuring enough spacing around a CPU socket to install large coolers, it also allows for 93% energy efficiency. Thanks to Hi-c CAP`s MSI motherboards are the most energy efficient in the market.
Dark CAP
With their aluminum core design, Dark CAP's have been a staple in high-end motherboard design and provides lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as well as its over-10-year lifespan.
Super Ferrite Choke
Super Ferrite Choke uses a Ferrite core that is Super-Permeable. This allows the Super Ferrite Choke to run at a 35 degree Celsius lower temperature, have a 30% higher current capacity, a 20% improvement in power efficiency and better overclocking power stability.
Military Class Essentials
The core of Military Class 4 is based on the essentials which increase your stability in the toughest conditions. The humidity protection and high temperature protection ensure your system can survive each environment, no matter how harsh. The new structure of the PCB limits EMI radiation. On top of that the all the connectors have ESD protection in order to prevent short circuit.
OC Certified is a military class burn-in test for motherboards. Running Prime95 for over 24 hours with a highly overclocked CPU is already a stressing endeavor, but removing all airflow from the motherboard ensures that only the best motherboards survive. If an MPOWER can survive this, it can survive any overclocking situation.
The MSI Z87 MPOWER motherboards are equipped with all the necessary features to make sure you get the most out of your system. From the Enhanced PWM and Thermal Design that give you the best stability to all the easy features that ensure that you don't have to perform a lot of tricks to get great stability in your quest for performance.
Military Class 4 Components
Military Class 4 is the next step in high quality components. The Hi-c Cap, Super Ferrite Choke and Solid CAPs will make sure that your PC runs more stable under extreme conditions.
Hi-c CAP
A Hi-c CAP is a very small, but super-efficient capacitor. Besides ensuring enough spacing around a CPU socket to install large coolers, it also allows for 93% energy efficiency. Thanks to Hi-c CAP`s MSI motherboards are the most energy efficient in the market.
Dark CAP
With their aluminum core design, Dark CAP's have been a staple in high-end motherboard design and provides lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as well as its over-10-year lifespan.
Super Ferrite Choke
Super Ferrite Choke uses a Ferrite core that is Super-Permeable. This allows the Super Ferrite Choke to run at a 35 degree Celsius lower temperature, have a 30% higher current capacity, a 20% improvement in power efficiency and better overclocking power stability.
Military Class Essentials
The core of Military Class 4 is based on the essentials which increase your stability in the toughest conditions. The humidity protection and high temperature protection ensure your system can survive each environment, no matter how harsh. The new structure of the PCB limits EMI radiation. On top of that the all the connectors have ESD protection in order to prevent short circuit.
At first glance it will appear to be superficially similar to other Z87 boards based on Intel's reference design - this time MSI have chosen a layout with three x16 slots, indicating support for up to three graphics cards although two in x8/x8 are optimal. Three additional PCI-E x1 cards are also supported, which should provide plenty of additional component flexibility, and the whole platform remains within ATX spec.
From a styling and cooling perspective MSI have obviously spent some time on the PCH and VRM cooling, incorporating a superpipe (wide heatpipe) design into the former to better dissipate heat as well as substantial heatsinks. Unlike certain other enthusiasts 'boards (which shall remain nameless) they've also kept it clear of gimmicks such as shapes based on firearms, no doubt a relief to many. Watercooling enthusiasts should also note that the heatsinks use metal screws rather than push-pin arrangements.
Other quality of life features for overclockers such as on-board power, reset and overclock tweaking are also present which will makes things easy for power users. Coupled to this is a 'boot straight to BIOS' button so you don't have to get the timing perfect on hitting the correct key on your keyboard - an excellent feature. If your overclocked system is also your day-to-day PC then the MPOWER Z87 has a few other tricks up its sleeve: overclocking can be performed in software as well as UEFI, whilst more functionality such as on-board 802.11ac WIFI and AudioBoost make it as at home in the office as anywhere else.
MSI have an extensive landing page exploring the Z87 MPOWER's features, including software and specific component choices, in much more detail. For more information it's an excellent place to start.
