Much like the other less expensive Z170 motherboards on test, the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro only omits a few of the main features found on its bigger siblings. What’s more, the Z170A Gaming Pro looks better than your average budget board. The black and red theme so loved by many PC component manufacturers is used to full effect here. The chunky VRM and chipset heatsinks are red on the top, while the rest of the board is a mix of black and grey.
There’s a red lighting kit too, with a section at the side lighting up to show the MSI logo and a few more LEDs dotted around the board. When powered down, this side section doesn’t look half as good though – it’s basically a yellow strip along the side of the board.
Meanwhile, three 16x PCI-E slots and three 1x PCI-E slots provide a good set of expansion options, with the two main 16x slots reinforced with steel. One of the 1x PCI-E slots is sensibly placed right at the top to ensure it won’t be obstructed by other components, while there’s an extra slot’s worth of space for extra airflow between the two main graphics slots. It looks fine, and there’s even a PCI slot, which could be handy if you have any aging PCI gear you still want to use.
The SATA Express ports are cut down to just one for this board, although that isn’t a big deal considering the lack of SATA Express devices. There are also six standard SATA 6Gbps ports to the right and bottom of the board. Unfortunately, they aren’t right-angled, making for messier cabling and the potential for SATA cables to obstruct a second graphics card. The M.2 slot is sensibly placed above the top 16x PCI-E slot though. At the back, you get the standard pair of USB 2 ports at the top, next to a PS/2 port and two USB 3.1 type-A ports and four more USB 3 ports.
Aside from the lack of right-angled SATA ports, the layout is pretty good – ample space is provided around the fan headers and power connectors. Nothing is missing in the EFI either. In fact, the EFI looks almost identical to the system on the pricier MSI motherboards. That’s good, since the excellent MSI Click BIOS 5 system is easy to navigate and has all the extras too, with the ever-useful Board Explorer (which highlights each part on a photo of the board), fan monitor and USB BIOS update features included, and it lists any changes on exit.
Unfortunately we didn’t get too far when we tried overclocking our Skylake CPU. With the load line calibration set as high as it could go (level 4), we only managed to squeeze 4.6GHz from the Z170A Gaming Pro, with a 1.32V vcore. Higher speeds and voltages either failed or resulted in thermal throttling, putting the Z170A Gaming Pro at the bottom of the pack for overclocking, although its overall stock performance is still generally very good. One exception, though, is M.2 read performance, which was still fast, but significantly slower than every other board on test. The audio quality, while still reasonable, was also beaten by most of the competition.
The MSI Z170A Gaming Pro has a lot to offer, with plenty of expansion options and a great EFI at a decent price. However, it’s up against stiff competition in this price bracket, and both the ASRock Extreme4 and Asus Z170 Pro Gaming offer superior overclocking abilities and better value for similar money.
VERDICT
A good EFI and decent expansion options, but there’s serious competition at this price, and the Z170A Gaming Pro falls short on overclocking abilities.
SPECIFICATIONS
Chipset Intel Z170
CPU socket Intel LGA1151
Memory support 4 slots, max 64GB DDR4 (3600MHz - OC)
Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E, three 1x PCI-E, one PCI
Sound Realtek ALC1150
Networking Intel Gigabit Ethernet
Overclocking Base clock 98–341MHz, CPU multiplier 8–83x; Max voltages, CPU 2.155V, RAM 2.2V
Ports 1 x PS/2, 1 x SATA Express, 6 x SATA 6Gbps, 1 x M.2, 2 x USB 2, 4 x USB 3, 2 x USB 3.1 (type-A), 1 x LAN, 8-channel surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out
IGP display outputs 1 x DVI, 1 x DisplayPort