MSI Announces Ten New 200-Series Gaming Motherboards

MSI announced ten new motherboards based on Intel’s 200-series chipsets that are targeted at gamers.

MSI’s Z270 flagship is the XPower Gaming Titanium. This board has four steel-reinforced PCI-E x16 slots that can support up to a four-way SLI or crossfire multi-GPU configuration. The RAM slots on this board are also reinforced with steel, and they can support RAM XMP profiles that operate at up to 4,133MHz.

MSI didn’t go into detail about what audio codec this motherboard supports, but it does support the company’s Audio Boost 4 and Nahimic 2 audio technologies. It also has EMI shielding to reduce noise.

The Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium also comes equipped with three M.2 Key M ports, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C ports, and two Intel Gigabit NICs. This is the only 200-series motherboard that MSI opted to use two NICs on at this time.

To target the Mini-ITX form factor, MSI also announced the Z270I Gaming Pro Carbon AC. This compact board also has steel reinforced PCI-E and RAM slots, and it supports MSI’s Mystic Light RGB LED technology. MSI integrated a dual-band Intel 8265 802.11ac NIC onto this board to give you easy internet access.

For storage devices, the Z270I Gaming Pro Carbon AC supports four SATA-III ports and a single M.2 Key M slot.

All of these motherboards should be released on January 5. There is no word on pricing at this time.

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MSI 200-Series Motherboards
Model/SpecForm FactorMemory SupportColorPCI-ENetworkingAudioPorts
Z270 XPower Gaming TitaniumATX4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 4,133MHzWhite2 x PCI-E x14 x PCI-E x16Intel i210-V Gigabit LANIntel i219-V Gigabit LAN-Audio Boost 4-Nahimic 2-8 x SATA-III-3 x M.2 Key M-U.2-2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270 Gaming M7ATX4 x DDR4 DIMM Up To 4,133MHzBlack-3 x PCI-E x1-3 x PCI-E x16Killer E2500 Gigabit LAN-Audio Boost 4 Pro-Nahimic 2-6 x SATA-III-3 x M.2 Key M-U.2-3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270 Gaming M5ATX4 x DDR4 DIMM Up To 3,866MHzBlack-3 x PCI-E x1-3 x  PCI-E x16Killer E2500 Gigabit LAN-Audio Boost 4-Nahimic 2-6 x SATA-III-2 x M.2 Key M-U.2-3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270 Sli PlusATX4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3,800MHzBlack-3 x PCI-E x1-3 x PCI-E x16Intel i219-VAudio Boost 46 x SATA-III2 x M.2 Key M3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270 Gaming Pro CarbonATX4 x DDR4 DIMM Up To 3,800MHzBlack-3 x PCI-E x1-3 x PCI-E x16Intel i219-V Gigabit LAN-Audio Boost 4-Nahimic 2-6 x SATA-III-2 x M.2 Key M-3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270 TomahawkATX4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3,800MHzBlack-3 x PCI-E x1-3 x PCI-E x16Intel i219-V Gigabit LANAudio Boost-6 x SATA-III-2 x M.2 Key M-3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270 Krait GamingATX4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 3,200MHzBlack And White-3 x PCI-E x1-3 x PCI-E 3.0Intel i219-V Gigabit LAN-Audio Boost 4-Nahimic 2-6 x SATA-III-2 x M.2 Key M-3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
Z270I Gaming Pro Carbon ACMini-ITX4 x DDR4 DIMMs Up To 4,000MHzBlack-1 x PCI-E x16-Intel i219-V Gigabit LAN-Intel 8265 Dual-Band 802.11ac Wi-Fi NIC-Audio Boost 4-Nahimic 2-4 x SATA-III-1 x M.2 Key M-3.1 Gen 2 (Type-C + Type-A)
H270M Mortar ArcticMicro-ATX4 x DDR4 DIMM Up To 2,400MHzWhite-2 x PCI-E x1-2 x PCI-E x16Intel i219-V Gigabit LANAudio Boost-6x SATA-III-1 x M.2 Key M-USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Type-C + Type-A)
B250M MortarMicro-ATX4 x DDR4 DIMM Up To 2,400MHzBlack And Grey-2 x PCI-E x1-2 x PCI-E x16Intel i219-V Gigabit LANAudio Boost-6 x SATA-III-1 x M.2 Key M-USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Type-C + Type-A)
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
  • DookieDraws
    I have seen some very nice looking 200-Series motherboards from all the big motherboard manufacturers. Big improvement in looks over the previous generations. My ASUS Z87-Pro looks like a cat's turd compared to these sexy new boards. I am truly impressed. Hell, I'd be willing to upgrade to Kaby Lake just to get one of these great looking motherboards!

    Well done, motherboard design dudes! :P
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    I can completely understand that sentiment. I'm still using an Ivy Bridge i7-3770k. Performance wise I have no desire to upgrade, but my motherboard looks rather lackluster compared to these. I've wanted one of these boards with the more powerful audio hardware for a while now, and the steel reinforced PCI-E and RAM slots just look excellent even if they aren't that practical on the RAM. My board is also getting a bit glitchy. Would upgrade, but the CPU still works perfectly, so I guess I'mma stick with it at least until the board kicks the bucket.
    Reply
  • uglyduckling81
    Was actually thinking I wish someone would make a full featured board but cut $50 off the price and not bother with all the aesthetic shit. Give me plain and functional for a cheap price.
    Reply
  • problematiq
    19099686 said:
    I can completely understand that sentiment. I'm still using an Ivy Bridge i7-3770k. Performance wise I have no desire to upgrade, but my motherboard looks rather lackluster compared to these. I've wanted one of these boards with the more powerful audio hardware for a while now, and the steel reinforced PCI-E and RAM slots just look excellent even if they aren't that practical on the RAM. My board is also getting a bit glitchy. Would upgrade, but the CPU still works perfectly, so I guess I'mma stick with it at least until the board kicks the bucket.

    I'm still running a 3770k as well. I just upgrade my graphics card every once and a while and I'm good. I think the motivating factor of my next upgrade will be if I run out of PCI-E slots and want to use an M.2 SSD.
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    That's getting to be the case more and more these days. CPU performance is increasing at a slower rate than ever before, but the rest of the industry is moving ahead just as fast as always. M.2 support would be nice too, on that front I'm not concerned with it until prices drop more.

    @uglyduckling81: I can understand that point too. I'm sort of in the middle. I care more about function than anything else, but I w ant it to look nice too. I don't particularly like all of the RGB LEDs on everything though.
    Reply
  • robodan918
    Asus is still winning with 2 M.2 M-key slots
    2x 1TB 960 Pro in RAID0 would be heaven
    Reply
  • problematiq
    19102881 said:
    Asus is still winning with 2 M.2 M-key slots
    2x 1TB 960 Pro in RAID0 would be heaven

    Still limited to 4 lanes of DMI 3.0 between the CPU and the chipset though, so don't get too carried away else you will create a bottleneck.
    Reply
  • iamKRP
    Can Skylake processors be used with these boards?
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    19105122 said:
    Can Skylake processors be used with these boards?

    Yes, all 200-series motherboards support Skylake and Kaby Lake processors. There are a few exceptions that won't work on these, such as the Skylake Xeon CPUs, but everything else will work fine.
    Reply