MSI’s Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition is possibly the best-looking motherboard we’ve ever seen, sporting a striking light grey colour scheme across the PCB.
The layout is superb too. There are four 16x PCI-E slots and three 1x PCI-E slots, with ample space underneath slots 1-3 for a 3-way graphics setup using decent-sized coolers, and slots 1 and 3 are reinforced with steel. Meanwhile, the use of right-angled SATA connectors means your SATA cables won’t get in the way of longer graphics cards.
There are also two M.2 slots, although they’re positioned between the 16x PCI-E slots, so access will be blocked when cards are installed. You’re restricted to 2280 cards too, but the good news is that you can create an M.2 RAID array for super-fast storage transfer rates. There’s plenty of space around the 24-pin and 8+4 pin power connectors too. The on-board 6-pin PCI-E power connector for the top graphics card slot won’t be obscured by a card either, although there’s a fan header next to it which might get in the way.
Then there’s the OC dashboard, which uses a special header to give you on-board overclocking tools, enabling you to take the base clock and multiplier up and down. It may not be used by everyone, but it’s a handy extra if you want to overclock your board and don’t want to faff around in the EFI. However, the voltage readouts aren’t essential unless you’re really into competitive overclocking.
You also get a generous count of eight SATA 6Gbps ports, with two SATA Express ports next to them.
Meanwhile, power and reset buttons sit in the lower right, along with a clear-CMOS button, and there’s a multi-BIOS switch and POST readout towards the lower left. Also of interest is the complete discharge button, which erases every single setting, including ones left intact by a clear-CMOS operation.
MSI also has its own system for easy BIOS updating without needing a CPU installed. It’s called FlashB1, and it works using a dedicated USB port on the I/O panel and a button at the top.
The EFI follows most usual conventions, with a splash screen clearly displaying the main system information and quick access to the most useful functions such as the boot order. The hardware monitor tab gives you custom curves to control the speed of each fan, and it has a physical board diagram too, displaying the components connected at any time. Rounding it off is a set of five favourites menus, used for frequently accessed settings, and the overclocking features are held together in one menu.
As one of the pricier boards on test, we were hoping for great overclocking performance, and the MSI managed to overclock our CPU to 4.8GHz at 1.32V. That’s a good result in terms of voltage, but we couldn’t get a stable 4.9GHz frequency, with the board failing even when using vcores well above 1.4V. All of this places it just below the Asus ROG boards in terms of overclocking performance. The Xpower Gaming TE also performed solidly, sitting only just below the two ROG boards in lots of our tests.
The Z170A Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition might be comparatively expensive, but it offers a fantastic layout, loads of enthusiast features, solid performance and great looks.
VERDICT
Dashing good looks, a great layout and loads of features make the Xpower Gaming TE a cracking premium motherboard.
SPECIFICATIONS
Chipset Intel Z170
CPU socket Intel LGA1151
Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3600 MHz - OC)
Expansion slots Four 16x PCI-E 3, three 1x PCI-E
Sound Realtek ALC1500
Networking Intel Gigabit LAN
Overclocking Base clock 75–655.25MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; max voltages: CPU 2.155V, RAM 2.2V
Ports 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 2 x SATA Express, 2 x M.2, 3 x USB 2, 4 x USB 3, 2 x USB 3.1, 1 x Gigabit LAN, 8-channel ‘Nahimic’ surround audio out, line in, mic, optical, S/PDIF out
IGP display outputs 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244