MSI's Z87 MPower Motherboard Revealed & Unboxed

By Tarun Iyer
published

French hardware website 59Hardware has unboxed and revealed the MSI Z87 MPower motherboard, the company’s upcoming high-end offering for Intel’s 4th Generation “Haswell” processors.

Based on the supplied images, the Z87 MPower will feature four memory DIMMs, three PCIe 3.0 x16 and four PCIe 2.0 x1 connectors, and an integrated WiFi / Bluetooth module with two antennas. With regard to I/O connectors, the motherboard features six USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 connector, eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports and a single Ethernet port. Also featured are 6 channel HD audio outputs, SPDIF out, a DisplayPort and two HDMI ouputs.

Finally, the Z87 MPower features five connectors for PWM fans (2 x CPU and 3 x Case), an internal USB 3.0 connector, and draws power from a standard 24-pin ATX classic and two 8-pin ATX connectors.

Further information on technical specifications, pricing and availability will be available in June.

Tarun Iyer
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • unknown9122
    Now that is a snazzy motherboard.
    Reply
  • Affiliated
    That's quite an impressive motherboard.
    Reply
  • Love MSI the last few years. This may be my next board, from a MSI Z68.
    Reply
  • swordrage
    Now that's an interesting heat sink design. I hope that is not a cover to hide the actual thing.
    Reply
  • SvRommelvS
    Two HDMI ports, is one HDMI-In?
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    There's no point to having so many PCI-e 2.0 slots if your GPUs are going to cover them up.
    Reply
  • ronch79
    As the cost of WiFi ASICs get cheaper and mobo makers increasingly include it with their boards, I foresee a future where PCIe Wifi cards will become less and less appealing, kinda like the way sound cards started off as such and now only a few people buy them because all boards have on-board sound which is good enough for most folks.
    Reply
  • claptrap22
    That does look quite impressive, both aesthetically and technically. Built my machine with a Z77a-GD80 and have had no complaints. Would definitely consider this for another build or for a friend's build.
    Reply
  • thundervore
    This looks great, its too bad I just finished building a Ivy bridge rig using a Z77 UD5H and a 3770K CPU. I would love a Hanswell rig but if memory servs right its best to wait for the "tick" to upgrade. Either way my Ivy Bridge rig will last me for the next 5 years, similar to how my Q6600 IP35 rig lasted (now repurposed to a Windows Home Server V1).
    As for the board, they are still not saying if all 3 USB ports runs off the south bridge, if the sata ports are all SATA6 and runs off the south bridge as well. I also rather have an Intel NIC than a Killer NIC, personal preference.
    Reply