MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX Review

MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX

Test Setup

Speaking of colour-schemes, there is currently some limited edition Natus Vincere branded Kingston RAM and SSDs on the market. If the yellow and black sets a warmth in your heart, or you fancy designing your system to look like a wasp or a JCB then you’re guaranteed to find exactly what you need. There is no denying it’s a gorgeous arrangement.

MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX 

MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX
Intel Core i7-4770K
Club3D HD7970 Royal Ace
Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz
Corsair AX1200i
Corsair Neutron GTX
Corsair H100i
Windows 7 x64 

Overclocking

The OC Genie seems to be toned back on this particular model. Whereas the Z77 motherboards would happily overclock the CPU to around 4.3GHz, with the Core i7-4770K we only have 4GHz. Not poor, but hardly a boost over the stock speed. 

Manually overclocking provides the biggest benefits as always, and we got a rock-solid 4.9GHz at 1.26v which will be the speed we’ll test at today.

MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX     MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX  

As we all know by now the biggest limiting factor on the i7-4770K is undoubtedly heat. Almost any motherboard can push the CPU to its limit and the MPOWER MAX is no exception. However, if you’ve got a great cooling option such as a full water-loop then there is loads of potential to be unlocked. We obtained the always important 5GHz, although our temperatures were too high to run this as our bench clock it’s always nice to know that the motherboard wont be the limiting element.

MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX