Wednesday, March 6th 2013
MSI Z87A Gaming Series Motherboard Prototype Pictured
MSI displayed its upcoming Z87A Gaming Series motherboard. The company is yet to begin work on cosmetic details such as PCB color, heatsinks, component color scheme, etc., but a bulk of its development is complete. To begin with, the board uses a strong 16-phase VRM to power the CPU, which draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory; and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots in x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4 configurations, depending on how they're populated. Four x1 slots make for the rest of its all-PCIe expansion slot area.
Storage connectivity on the Z87A Gaming Series includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s slots, two of which are driven by a third-party controller. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, eight USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel, two by header), dual-HDMI and DisplayPort display outputs; effectively make for the rest of the board. The same exact PCB could be used to create two SKUs, the Z87A Gaming Series, and the Z87A-GD65. Apart from a swankier color scheme and heatsink design, the Gaming Series variant could feature a few additional overclocking features.
Source:
Lab501.ro
Storage connectivity on the Z87A Gaming Series includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s slots, two of which are driven by a third-party controller. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, eight USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel, two by header), dual-HDMI and DisplayPort display outputs; effectively make for the rest of the board. The same exact PCB could be used to create two SKUs, the Z87A Gaming Series, and the Z87A-GD65. Apart from a swankier color scheme and heatsink design, the Gaming Series variant could feature a few additional overclocking features.
40 Comments on MSI Z87A Gaming Series Motherboard Prototype Pictured
Also, I think having "prototype" (because that's what it is) in the headline would help with useless posts...
Best looking board posted so far, no PCI!
meh
no likely MSI, bad luck has made me turn away from them and there are plenty of better brands.
My last MSI board was an AM2, on top of which I had the king of the hill Athlon X2 6400+ "BE"... which was a load of crap (the BE part, not the CPU itself)... but I guess none of that was MSI fault either, I should have gotten the 5000+ BE if OC was really what I was after. Either way, loved it's features and the Dual GBit LAN on it.
OK so maybe I just should have said they are junk and not put luck in there at all.
I had a z77 board that I RMAed after RMA after bios change after beta bios after this that and the next that wouldn't keep the system stable and worth a damn to me.
its ok though I have learned from my mistakes and I will never by a MSI board again, simple really.
I sold it and run a Asus Max. board that was a little more money but totally worth it and has not failed to amaze me.
Ya AsRock as really gotten the a lot of bad reports... why, they are "new", they had issues for a while... but from what I hear there new boards are above the rest or at least equal and they are cheaper ...lot cheaper.
especially if that blue connector is what i think it is :wtf:
Then I saw the dual CPU 8-Pins and thought 5GHz + here we come.
Now we just need right angled 24/8pin.
Isn't this VRM a little overkill I though Haswell doesn't need this much?
I realize they have yet to add color to the PCB, but maybe they should leave it that way :P