MSI Launches Flagship LGA1150 Motherboard: Z87 XPOWER

MSI has officially revealed its new flagship Z87 motherboard, the Z87 XPOWER. The motherboard features the LGA1150 socket, which is fueled by a staggering 32-phase digital-PWM VRM design. The VRM circuitry draws its spike through not one, but two 8-pin EPS connectors -- which may say something about the motherboard's overclocking potential.

The motherboard also has support for up to 64 GB of DDR3-3000+ memory in a dual-channel configuration. It also supports up to four graphics cards in a 4-way SLI or CrossFireX configuration. To feed the cards enough lanes, MSI has opted to equip the board with a PLX PEX8747 PCIe 3.0 bridge chip, allowing for eight PCIe 3.0 lanes per graphics when all the slots are populated. Say, though, that you wish to use only one graphics card, one of the PCIe x16 slots is directly linked to the CPU, bypassing the bridge chip to prevent any possible latency issues. Storage is taken care of by six SATA3 ports driven by the Z87 chipset (one of which is sacrificed upon populating the integrated mSATA slot) and another four through an ASMedia ASM1061 controller.

Rear I/O connectivity is handled by a legacy PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet (driven by a Killer E2205 NIC), and 7.1 channel HD audio accompanied by an optical SPDIF TOSLINK output. Connectors for the antenna of the 802.11n WiFi adapter are also found on the rear I/O. Internally, the motherboard also has four USB 2.0 ports through internal headers as well as another four USB 3.0 ports.

MSI gave no word on when the board would be available through retail channels, nor did it inform us of its MSRP.