MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard Review

Skylake and the Z170 chipset is here and we are going to take a look at one of MSI’s motherboard offerings for the Z170 chipset. MSI has done an interesting thing with their Gaming Series motherboards. Because other manufacturers have copied their naming scheme they have named their boards Gaming “M” to distinguish them. So today we are checking out the MSI Z170A Gaming M5 motherboard, this naming scheme makes me think of BMW models! The Z170A Gaming M5 sort of sits in the middle of MSI’s Gaming M series with the M3 below it and the M7 and M9 ACK above it. Each of MSI’s new Z170 Gaming motherboards are loaded with features and the Z170A Gaming M5 is no exception with Killer E2400 Gaming networking, USB 3.1 support, dual M.2 slots, MSI’s audio boost 3 audio solution, steel reinforced PCI-Express slots and much more! Let’s take a look and see if this is the Z170 motherboard for you!

Special thanks to MSI for providing us with the Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard to review

Packaging
Taking a look at the retail box for the motherboard we can see that MSI has gone with a red and black design to match their gaming series. On the front of the box there is a photo of the board and a “Enthusiast Gaming” emblem.

MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard

MSI will be segmenting their Z170 Gaming Series motherboards into “Enthusiast Gaming”, “Performance Gaming”, and “Arsenal Gaming” categories. They are explained below:

gaming-seg

Flipping the box over there is an overview of the rear I/O ports and detail on many of the major features of the board.

MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard

Getting everything out of the box as far as accessories go you have 4 SATA cables, cable labels, SLI bridge, I/O shield, MSI case badge, MSI door hanger, quick installation guide, user’s guide, and a drivers and utilities CD.

MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard

For a full unboxing and overview of the MSI Z170A Gaming M5 motherboard be sure to check out the video below.

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