Any thoughts on MSI M POWER Z97 boards for SLI gaming please?
I've never used an MSI board before but am attracted to their "M POWER" boards, such as this one:
http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/Z97_MPOWER_MAX_AC.html
Would this be suitable to pair with an i7, two GTX 970s in SLI, and a 120hz+ monitor for high FPS gaming?
There are also several variants of their Z97 M POWER board and I'm not entirely sure of the difference or their worth.
From this page I can see that the AC version has heatsinks but will this really matter?
Any thoughts are welcomed.
Re: Any thoughts on MSI M POWER Z97 boards for SLI gaming please?
I don't see why not! I quite like the MPower "yellow,black" colour scheme. Sadly a bit out of reach for myself.
The "AC" version you see has a combo heatsink/waterblock. So should you run a custom WC loop you already have blocks installed for your VRM's.
Re: Any thoughts on MSI M POWER Z97 boards for SLI gaming please?
That motherboard is fine for what you want.
The M series is sufficient and I wouldn't over think it since generally along as it has the correct chipset and sockets it should be okay.
They both have heatsinks but the AC version is compatible with water cooling, which firstly, you should be experienced with to take advantage of. And secondly, seems a bit unnecessary to me.
Re: Any thoughts on MSI M POWER Z97 boards for SLI gaming please?
Do you really need such a expensive board though? You will not get a better overclock because with Haswell it's the cpu that's the limiting factor. There is no longer any need to buy a expensive board to get a decent overclock. My 4670k does the same overclock with the same settings in my wifes Gigabyte B85M-D3H as it does in my Asus Hero VI. The Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 or the Asus Z97 Pro Gamer will do the job just as well as the MSI and being much cheaper free's money up to be spent elsewhere.
Another thing to consider is that if this is a complete new build we are only 2-3 weeks away from Skylakes release which comes on a new socket, Z170 chipset and ddr4.