Cooling

Unlike the Z87-G45 Gaming, there aren’t any dragons or similar on the MPower, MSI went with a more basic design that is pure functionality. This isn’t a complaint at all; it’s nice to see that the MPower is all about its functionality. Ironically this actually gives the MPower a really cool look, especially with the yellow trimming they used. The main heatsink around the CPU socket that cools the PWM forms a large C shape. It is a little tighter around the cooling mounting holes on the left side than some of the other boards tested, but there is still room to get your fingers down in there if needed. Overall this is a very beefy heatsink and I can now see why MSI was talking up the cooling on the back of the box.

image 20

image 19

Down lower, the chipset cooling has even more yellow trimming. The heatsink is low profile to make sure we have clearance for long video cards on the PCI Express sockets as well. What really sets it off though is the yellow MSI logo in the heatsink that glows when the board is powered up.

image 14

 

Log in to comment

garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31321 05 Jun 2013 19:00
Today we take a look at MSI's MPower motherboard as we continue out Haswell launch.
Satansoul's Avatar
Satansoul replied the topic: #31325 06 Jun 2013 02:58
Nice looking board. Also like how you colored the specs table, looks nice!
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31326 06 Jun 2013 03:06
Thanks I really appreciate the feedback.
lonkny replied the topic: #31387 08 Jun 2013 22:52
Thanks for the informative review! One page that confuses me is the USB3/SATA3 page ... the chart states SATA Read speeds of 268MB/sec as compared to the other MSI & Asus boards around 430+... In your description, you state that this is due to Asus' USB 3 Turboboost technology, but we are talking about SATA here... In other reviews, the SATA Read speed for the MPower is in line with other boards:

www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/zardon/ms...990-2933mhz-ddr3/21/

I think it may be that the headings are backwards - are the first sets of numbers for USB and the 2nd set for SATA? Please clarify, thanks!
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31389 08 Jun 2013 23:43
yeah that was a mixup in the inputting. The results from USB 3.0 and SATA were flipped. I corrected it on my copy but missed it on the site. Thank you for pointing it out, its all fixed now
lonkny replied the topic: #31393 09 Jun 2013 07:27
Thanks, makes much more sense now... I think I may pull the trigger on this board... especially liking the mSATA, bluetooth and other gimmicky features LOL - seems like the other Z87 boards in this price range all perform about the same with very similar feature sets, so it really comes down to incidentals...
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31395 09 Jun 2013 10:02
If you get it, come back and let us know how you like it and toss up a few pictures. Its a great board. I really hope I can find a good reason to use it in a build this year.

We have 1947 guests and no members online

supportus