GAMING M7 designed to work with Intel’s 6th Generation of processors – Skylake. We therefore have a new socket; LGA1151 but we also have cooling mounting holes for LGA115X so if you have a cooler that has been used on another socket such as LGA1150/55 then it will work fine here too. Around this socket there are dual CPU fan headers for cooling solutions which have twin cooling fans.
As can be expected, MSI are using an all-digital design for the power delivery with 8-phases for the CPU. Around the socket and indeed the motherboard in general MSI are using Military Class 5 components which include the new Titanium Chokes for even greater durability.
Next to the socket GAMING M7 has a total of four memory slots which require DDR4 memory. These slots are ready for dual-channel DDR4 and Intel XMP – supporting up to 3600MHz and 64GB.
Furthermore, MSI also include DDR4 Boost with GAMING M7 which isolates the signal between the CPU and memory slots for clean delivery and uninterrupted performance – similar to audio solutions.
Also in this region there is a hot key switch to allow users to apply advanced commands to the keyboard such as switching the PC on or entering BIOS. There is also an upwards facing USB 3.1 header next to the 24-pin ATX power.
Further along we have two SATA Express connection ports which also double-up to offer four SATA III (6GB/s) ports, meaning there are a total of six SATA ports. Next to these storage ports there is a second USB 3.1 port which is angled in the same orientation as the storage.
Behind the storage ports is a large heatsink which covers the Intel Z170 chip. This heatsink coordinates with the rest of the board very well and features the dragon insignia.
Along the bottom edge of GAMING M7 there are a series of ports and buttons which include:
- GAME BOOST (Overclock on-the-fly – 11 increments)
- Onboard power/reset buttons
- Slow switch – alleviates cold bug issue for extreme overclocks
- Flash BIOS - works with designated USB port, allowing flash of BIOS with just PSU
Moving over to the PCI Express slots there are:
- Four PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots
- Three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots
The uppermost x16 operates at 16x while the middle slot runs at 8x and the lower port just 4x. Adding in more than one graphics card will mean that overall bandwidth will drop to the lowest speed. So, if you’re planning to use just a single graphics card its best to use the top slot.
MSI has equipped the two upper slots with metal covers to supply some additional protection to the board and also provide cooling. Discovering whether the latter is true is difficult to determine but we really like the inclusion of this feature as it certainly helps the board to be more robust.
GAMING M7 also has LED debug along the bottom to assist with problem solving on POST with a diagnostics panel and in between the x1 slots there are two M.2 storage ports. These ports use PCI Express 3.0 X1 for delivery and can support RAID 0 configurations – meaning you can add in two NVMe storage solutions and take advantage of up to 64GB/s!
Our motherboard comes with the third instalment of AUDIO BOOST which comes with EMI shielding, Nahimic Audio Enhancer, dual OPA1652 and Nippon chemicon CAPs. Not to mention, the audio connectors on the rear IO are also gold plated – meaning we’re getting a solid audio solution with this motherboard.
GMAING M7 has a considerable amount of features and ports which have been placed on the rear IO panel of the motherboard. These include:
1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x Clear CMOS button
1 x BIOS Flashback USB port
1 x DisplayPort (Up to 4K resolution @ 24Hz)
2 x HDMI port (Up to 4K resolution @ 24Hz)
1 x Gigabit LAN port (Killer E2400)
2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port
1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C port
8 Channel audio with Optical SPD/IF
