Final Thoughts
MSI’s whole thing with the Pro Series is to bring you Z270 motherboards at a reasonable price, which they definitely have done. Remember this board can be had for only $133! Typically when we see lower-end boards they really lack a lot of features that you want, but not the Pro Series from MSI. Let’s talk about what this board does have.
First you do have support for 2-way graphics (SLI & Crossfire) at x8/x8 speeds. This seems to be the standard going forward as many people are not building 3 and 4-way setups, especially since NVIDIA has really ended support for such setups in their 10-series graphics cards. Both the 2 main PCI-Express slots and RAM slots have steel armor. While this isn’t such a big deal it is great to have as many lower-end boards lack this. MSI has installed a Intel’s 1219-V Ethernet, which is not as good a some higher-end gaming solutions, but is still better than a Realtek solution. This board also has two Turbo M.2 slot, again something you don’t typically see in this price range. While you don’t have RGB LEDs the white LEDs on the backside of the board will give a cool effect inside your case.
Now this board is obviously lacking some things. The audio solution is pretty basic to boards having Creative and other high-end solutions. You have a single Ethernet connection, where many Z270 boards offer two. 2017 is the year of RGB, and there are no RGB LEDs on this board, although you do get an RGB header. Finally the board does lack a super-flashy look like many high-end boards out there.
The board did quite well in our testing. On top of that overclocking was easy as well. We were able to bring our Core i7-7700K up to 4.9 GHz at 1.35V with no problems at all. This is the same overclock we were able to achieve with all other Z270 boards we’ve tested. The Click BIOS 5 is quite easy to navigate and we don’t really have any issues with it.
I think that if you are looking to save some money on a motherboard this board is a great choice. Again, it has everything you would want in a Z270 motherboard, without all the flashy extras you’ll find on a lot of motherboards. And of course you can get it at a great price, currently it is only $133 at our favorite online retailer. Overall ThinkComputers gives the MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Motherboard a 9 out of 10 score and our Good Value Award!
Pros:
– Price
– 2-way graphics support
– Dual Turbo M.2 slots
– Good overclocking performance
– White LEDs under the board
– Easy to use BIOS
Cons:
– No dual LAN
– No RGB LEDs
