MSI’s Z270 and H270 motherboard lineup has been leaked ahead of their launch in January 2017. The board lineup includes next-generation GAMING, Tomahawk, Bazooka and Pro series products which will be aimed at enthusiasts and gamers.
MSI Z270 Gaming M7 Motherboard
The MSI Z270 Gaming 7 motherboard comes with a very aggressive design with a black and red color scheme. There is a 12 phase PWM supply that features top-of-the-line components. The LGA 1151 socket is featured on this motherboard to support 6th and 7th generation Intel Core processors.
The entire PWM section along with the I/O port is shielded by a cover. VRMs are cooled by heatsinks that are interconnected via heatpipe. MSI Z270 Gaming 7 houses four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting dual channel memory with speeds rated beyond 4000 MHz in OC mode. All DIMM slots are shielded by a MSI’s steel armor which will increase durability with less PCB bending when installing DIMMs.
Expansion slots include three PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots which are shielded by the same metallic cover, three PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots and three M.2 slots. The expansion slots have covers which mark their positioning on the board. This is an interesting design which we haven’t seen before. The PCH is covered by a large heatsink. Bear in mind that all heatsinks and covers will feature Mystic Light RGB LEDs. MSI will ship the board with their latest M.2 shields that adds a protection and cooling layer on top of an M.2 device.
Storage ports include 6 SATA III and a Turbo U.2 port for NVMe SSDs. There’s also a right angled USB 3.0 connector, a diagnostic panel and couple of other goodies packed into the I/O panel.
MSI Z270 Gaming M5 Motherboard
The MSI Z270 Gaming 5 motherboard also features a very aggressive design with full black color scheme. The motherboard features Mystic Light RGB LEDs that allow it to display colors through the various LEDs scattered around the board. The same tech is featured inside the Gaming M7 and Gaming M9. There is a 10+1 phase PWM supply that features top-of-the-line components such as black solid-state capacitors. Power is supplied through a single 8-pin connector. The LGA 1151 socket on this motherboard supports 6th and 7th generation Intel Core processors.
The entire PWM section along with the I/O port is shielded by a cover. VRMs are cooled by heatsinks that do not contain any heatpipes like the M7, but the plastic is interconnected. MSI Z270 Gaming 5 houses four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting dual channel memory with speeds rated beyond 4000 MHz in OC mode. All DIMM slots are shielded by MSI’s steel armor which increases durability with less PCB bending when installing DIMMs.
Expansion slots include three PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots which are shielded by the same metallic cover, three PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots and a single M.2 slot. MSI will ship the board with their latest M.2 shields that adds a protection and cooling layer on top of a M.2 device. Expansion slots on the Gaming M5 are also marked down with a number scheme to make installation easy.
The PCH is covered by a large heatsink which comes embedded with Mystic Aura lighting which allows the user to set the colors according to their preferences. Storage ports include 6 SATA III and a Turbo U.2 port for NVMe SSDs. There’s also a right angled USB 3.0 connector, a diagnostic panel and couple of other goodies. The I/O panel includes two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, dual USB 3.1 (Type-A, Type-C), HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, a Lightning USB port, an Ethernet port and a 7.1 channel audio jack.
See the rest of the line up at wccftech
