Even though most Z170 motherboards came out a while ago, manufacturers are still adding new versions from time to time. Today, MSI introduced the Z170A SLI Plus.
The company claimed that the motherboard shares some DNA with the X99A SLI Plus, so hopefully it will be just as good. The Z170A SLI Plus is an ATX board aimed at providing a strong two-way multi-GPU offering, with all the extra gadgets you'll need to build a killer system, but with more subdued looks.
MSI didn't provide a spec sheet, but we do know that the board comes with a heap of features. These include 10 GB/s SuperSpeed+ USB Type-C, Audio Boost technology, Click BIOS 5, and two armored PCI-Express ports. This armor is a strengthening steel cover over the slots, which is supposed to increase the weight they can handle and help with static discharge (even as graphics cards become smaller and lighter).
Additionally, MSI fitted the board with some interesting storage options. Next to a Turbo M.2 slot, the board also has support for SATA-Express and Turbo U.2 storage, which allows you to connect an NVMe SSD for up to 32 Gb/s of storage throughput.
Physically, MSI opted to stick with a very conservative appearance. The board has an all-black design, so the flashiest part of the board is the black anodized heatsinks.
Overall, we've got a very straightforward board on our hands here. It's essentially a gaming board, but without the flashy gaming looks. If you're not digging the black and red design, but want something with a more lavish feature set, this board may be worth considering.
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Niels Broekhuijsen has been with Tom's Hardware since 2012, and works as a Contributing Editor on the news team. He covers mostly hardware, components, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Outside of work, he likes to travel, cook, and fix things that are broken.
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