MSI Z87 XPOWER Pro Reviews

Cool stuff abounds in MSI's Z87 XPower, yet the lack of two Ethernet controllers is at best offset by the higher-priced single gigabit chip, and its integrated overclocking features are perhaps offset by the use of a lower-cost wireless solution. That means its larger voltage regulator bears the entire burden of its $70 price premium over the Z87 Extreme9/ac, without consideration for the cheaper board’s Thunderbolt capability. Given the board’s focus, we think it'd fare best in a competition of overclocking platforms designed with extreme cooling in mind.

The MSI Z87 XPower is MSI’s flagship enthusiast and overclocking motherboard. We have seen flagship motherboards in the past reach into the $800 territory, so the current $409.99 price with Free Prime Shipping is fairly easy to swallow if you are in the niche of the market that would even consider a motherboard like this to purchase. MSI did an incredible engineering job on the XPower. We can surely say that MSI once again focusing on its motherboard stack after being somewhat lackluster for the last couple of years. Certainly the marketing effort was there in the past, but MSI is simply building a better motherboard in this product cycle.

The MSI Z87 is not a budget option, but if it's within your budget and you want all the options it offers, you're unlikely to experience buyer's remorse. That said, its out-of-the-box settings don't make for a huge advantage over cheaper rivals: this is a motherboard that will reward your expertise, not just your spending power. The only issue is that, if you've got the spending power, you could well be better off building something based on Intel's LGA2011 platform. Which in the end makes the XPower's existence a rather tricky one to truly justify, even if you can stomach the price.

With their Z87 line of boards, MSI took a divergent route from their Z77 line and built upon the success of the original MPower board. This led to a tiered delivery approach with the Z87 XPower taking the pole position. They kept to the signature yellow and black color scheme, adding an enhanced heat pipe cooling system and an overhauled power delivery system to the mix. The Z87 XPower upped the ante here, designing the board with a full 32-phases of military spec'd digital awesomeness. The board has looks to match with a glowing logo in its VRM heat pipe, an on-board MSI glowing logo, and a glowing audio chipset cooler (as well as the glowing separator line between the audio PCB and main PCB). To offer all the features that MSI wished to pack into the Z87 XPower, they increased both the length and width of the board forcing it into the XL-ATX zone. This sizing should not be a factor for most higher end cases, but definitely something to be aware of. When you first go to install the board, you will notice the weight of it. The bulk of the weight is due in no small part to the solid heat sinks MSI laid to rest on the VRMs and PCIe bridge chip. The dense heat sinks are very effective in cooling the power and bridge chips, lending credence to MSI's non-traditional approach with their design.