Unboxing MSI Z97 Mpower Max AC Overclocking Motherboard

Question

Intel Z97 chipset based motherboards is already out and I’m glad that Intel decided it to make the CPU socket the same LGA 1150 as before. Backward compatibility for the current CPUs and at the same time will have support for the upcoming Haswell Refresh and Broadwell (14nm) processors. More importantly, the chipset has three new features and these are:
•SATA Express – PCIe M.2 support. Can deliver data speeds up to 10Gb/s
•Boot Guard – serves as a shield against low-level malware attacks using Intel device protection system
•Upgraded Intel Smart Response and Raid start technologies. Now with Dynamic Cache Sharing
Few? yes, but don’t get disappointed about it yet, as I heard that the Z97 will be good at high memory frequencies and has better CPU overclocking.
That’s it for the review and thank you … just kidding hehehe. The main gist of this short review is on MSI’s Z97 MPower Max AC and it’s such a good looking motherboard. It has new features, heat sink design and OC essential tools which will be further discussed later on. Before that, let us take a look at the packaging first.
Black and Yellow ~~black and yellow…box is same as the Z87 Mpower Max before except for the OC Series logo design.
Flipping the front cover will give you some short info on Military Class 4 components (Hi-c Cap, Dark Cap, SFC, OC PCB), Guard-Pro (Circuit Protection, Humidity Protection, High Temperature Protection, ESD Protection, EMI Protection & Eco Power), OC Essentials (tools for overclocking), Enhanced Thermal Solution, Enhanced Power and Enhanced BIOS. Then to your right is a clear plastic window which will give you a sneak peek on the actual unit. Drools…
The Z97 Mpower Max AC is OC certified as it passed the Prime95 24-hour burn-in stress test with a liquid-cooled overclocked CPU.  This is to ensure the board’s overclocking stability.
I/O overview is also shown here and Intel’s Wi-Fi AC module.
Specifications:
•CPU
Supports 4th and 5th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, and Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® Processors for Socket LGA1150
•Chipset
Intel® Z97 Express Chipset
•Memory
4x DDR3 DIMMs 1066/1333/1600/1866*/2000*/2133*/2200*/2400*/2600*/2666*/2800*/3000*/3100*/3200*/3300*(OC) DRAM, 32GB Max
•LAN
Intel I218-V Gigabit LAN controller
•Audio
Realtek® ALC1150 Codec
•Video
3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4 modes)
•Peripheral Interfaces
6x SATA 6Gb/s ports from Z97 with RAID Support
2x SATA 6Gb/s ports from ASMedia ASM1061
6x USB 2.0 ports (2 Rear / 4 Front)
12x USB 3.0 ports (8 Rear / 4 Front)
The package is full of bundles and some new stuff included
•Z97 Mpower Max AC Overview Map
•Z97 MPower Max User Guide
•Software & Application User Guide
•Overclocking Guide
•Quick Installation Guide
•OC Door Message Hanger
•SATA Cable Label Stickers
•MSI OC Badge
Closer look on MSI’s new OC case badge
•WiFi and Bluetooth Antenna
•Intel Wifi/Bluetooth Module
•MSI SLI Bridge
•IO Backplate
•M-Connector for Easy Header Installation
•V-Check Points Cable
MSI so extravagant with the bundles!!! Keep ‘em coming
•6x SATA 6GB/s Data Cables
•E-SATA PCI Expansion Bracket
What you will notice right away is the new water cooling heat sink for the VRM area. Enthusiasts will like this very much as they don’t have to worry on buying water blocks for this section. But even on stock, the heat sink is efficient to cool down the VRM chips. It is composed of heat pipe and ceramic materials.
PCB is matte black and is using dark solid capacitors. Layout is clean and organized especially on the area of the multi graphics card slots. OC button tools are placed on the upper right area of the board for easy access. The 8pin and 4pin power connectors on the upper left area are used to supply power to the CPU and it also helps achieve higher overclock potential and stability to the processor.
MSI also included an integrated Clock Generator chip called OC Engine (located below the CPU socket). Having this will support more BCLK adjustments from 100 / 125 / 167 MHz straps. The more flexible the strap is, the more doors for maximum OC potential.
12Phase DigitAll power design. Powerful enough to break OC world records and dominate benchmarks.
You also have the Military Class 4 components SFC chokes and Hi-c caps surrounding the CPU socket.
On the area in between the two heat sinks connected by a heat pipe is an additional 6pin power. It provides more juice and stability in multi-graphics card configuration.
The first two buttons on the left are the Base Clock Control Buttons. These buttons are used to increase or decrease the base clock frequency in real-time. At the bottom, you have the Discharge button and it allows you to fully discharge the motherboard and even removes information from the Z97 PCH. Next you have the Reset and Power buttons and lastly the most valuable button of them all – OC Genie for auto overclock.
To the farthest right is a switch. This is the OC Genie Mode switch which provides two overclocking modes. First mode is the Gear 1, the default automatic overclocking setting while Gear 2 is a higher auto overclock tweak than Gear 1. This goes hand in hand with the OC Genie Button.
V-Check Points is now version 2 with 2 extra ground connectors, allowing overclockers to use 3 multi-meters at the same time. You can check the VCCIN, DDR, Core,IGP, Ring Bus and System Agent voltage on the fly.
Audio Boost is also been upgraded. It has Dual Amps now and is using better Nippon Chemi-con filtering capacitors.
Here comes one of the major features of having Z97 chipset based motherboard, SATA Express. M.2 slot transfers data through a PCI Express 2.0 x2 interface which can reach up to 10 Gb/s speed. That is 67% much faster than your regular SATA 3 solutions.
Two more switches are to be found at the bottom of the board. First one is the Multi-BIOS Switch. This model has two built-in BIOS ROMs labeled as A and B (Default is BIOS ROM A). If one crashed, you can shift to the other for booting or perhaps use the other one for test purpose of new BIOS available in the net.  You can also use this feature to fix corrupted BIOS. Next switch is the Slow Mode Booting and mostly used during LN2 or extreme overclocking situations.  What it does is it will temporary decrease the CPU Ratio to 8x and after successfully booting to Windows you can flick the switch back again to apply your high overclock frequency settings.
Done with the switches and now for the small black button called Go2BIOS. Pressing this button before turning on your computer or right after a system restart, will go straight to your board’s BIOS.
The ever reliable Debug Code LED indicator is available in this model. This can be used greatly for troubleshooting boot up and hardware problems. Check out the User Manual Guide for the corresponding POST Code errors.
SATA ports 8 and 7 on the left are controlled by ASMedia ASM1061 while the rest are from the Intel Z97 chipset.  There also 2x USB 3.0 internal headers available and also controlled by Intel Z97.
•PS2 Combo Port
•2x USB 2.0
•Empty space for Intel’s WIFI/Bluetooth AC Module
•6x USB 3.0 by ASMedia ASM1074
•1x Intel I218-V Gigabit LAN Controller
•1x S/PDIF Audio Output by Realtek ALC1150
•1x HDMI Port
•1x DisplayPort
•2x USB 3.0 by ASMedia ASM1042
•6x Analog Gold Plated Audio Ports by Realtek ALC1150
This is it for now and I don’t still have the right parts to run the motherboard to its max potential. I will update you guys as soon as I get my hands on the stuff I needed. Benchmarks and overclocking results will be made.
Long live MSI OC Series!!!

Answer 1

It is interesting MSI chose not to incorporate dedicated SATA Express port(s). Some manufacturers even incorporated that on it's Z87's.
Quote
Few? yes, but don’t get disappointed about it yet, as I heard that the Z97 will be good at high memory frequencies and has better CPU overclocking.
If Intel didn't increase the useable RAM bandwidth with Devil's Canyon, those higher RAM frequencies are going to do nothing! With a VRM still in the CPU, even with the improved TIM, it remains to be seen how much of a better OC'er Devil's Canyon will be on conventional cooling solutions. Anything above Z97 Gaming 7 or 9 is kind of overkill for an average non exotic cooling pc user. If anything like the Z87 Power Max I got to work with, most of those OC settings on these class boards was a total waste. Z97 better OC'er for normal users? Time will tell.