MSI Z790 MPOWER :
Let’s start with a trip down memory lane. The older among you may remember the arrival of the very first MPOWER motherboard based on the Z77 chipset. This series was designed for overclocking and featured a yellow and black PCB and radiators. MSI put an end to this series with the MSI MPOWER Z270 Gaming Titanium, which ensured the transition by coming in black and grey. So, after many years, MSI has decided to release a new MPOWER motherboard with our model of the day, the MSI Z790 MPOWER.
The Z790 MPOWER bundle :
A quick look at the MSI Z790 MPOWER bundle to see if it comes with any special accessories. Given that this is a board priced at 269.90 euros, we’re not expecting a substantial bundle. And yet we get an EZ DashBoard. This is a piece of PCB with several functions: a Debug Code LED, a Clear CMOS button, a Reset button and a motherboard power button.
This will be connected to the motherboard via a special cable included in the box. You’ll need to connect the cable to the EZ DashBoard and to the motherboard at the JDASH1, JFP1 and JBAT1 connectors.
Apart from that, the Z790 MPOWER box contains: a quick installation guide, a SATA 6 Gb/s cable, an EZ Dashboard cable, a Wi-Fi antenna set, a pack of EZ M.2 clips (1 set/pack), a pack of M.2 screws and spacers (1 set/pack) and a set of cable stickers.
Architecture:
First a word about the box. It follows the colour code of the ‘MPOWER’ series, with a visual of the motherboard on the front in a cloud of smoke, possibly liquid nitrogen. The more attentive among you will have noticed that most of the information on the box is in Chinese. This is quite logical, since this motherboard was originally intended for the Asian market only.
The MSI Z790 MPOWER is built around Intel’s new Z790 chipset, and this motherboard retains the previous-generation socket, the LGA-1700, as the processor has grown in size since Rocket Lake. The size of our MSI Z790 MPOWER is 243.84 x 243.84 mm, which corresponds to the micro-ATX (mATX) format.
The six-layer PCB looks very similar to that of the MSI MAG B760M Mortar WiFi, the only difference being the memory slots on the MPOWER.
The Z790 chipset supports PCIe 5.0, offering higher storage performance than the previous generation, as well as DDR5 support. We’ll see what happens on today’s sample.
The different heat sinks :
The dominant colours on the PCB are shades of grey to black. If you’re still in any doubt about its overclocking vocation, just look at the various inscriptions on the different heat sinks: ‘ Overclocking ‘, ‘ Frequency ‘, ‘ MHz ‘, ‘ Voltage ‘, ‘ Timing ‘, ‘ Profile ‘ and ‘ Clock ‘. Let’s start with the radiators, of which there are three. Firstly, the two heat sinks on the top of the motherboard, which surround the socket and cover the power stages. These two radiators are independent and are not connected by a heat pipe.
The third is the one covering the chipset, which is low enough to easily accommodate the graphics cards. As you’ll have gathered, there’s no RGB backlighting on this Z790 MPOWER, and we’re tempted to say, ‘so much the better’!
No M.2 5.0 SSD slots:
The card has two slots for M.2 2280/2260/2242 PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs. They both benefit from a ” Shield Frozr ” heat sink and thermal pad.
The socket and PCIe :
The space around the socket is fairly clear and will be easy enough to isolate with rubber for testing under LN2. The power stage is made of 12 + 1 + 1 phases, which we’ll come back to in detail on the next page.
There are three PCIe ports. There is firstly a PCIe 5.0 x16 port, secondly a PCIe 4.0 x4 and finally a PCIe 3.0 x1 port.
Two memory slots and the Patriot Xtreme 5 MPOWER kit:
We’ve said it over and over again, this MSI Z790 MPOWER is primarily intended for memory overclocking, and to facilitate it’s OC potential, it only has two memory slots. In its specification sheet, MSI announces support for DDR5 up to 8000 MT/s and a total of 128 GB.
As we mentioned in the introduction, we’ve received a DDR5 kit from Patriot, the Xtreme 5 MPOWER model, which consists of two 16 GB modules, for a total of 32 GB. It is clocked at 8000 MT/s, with timings of 38-49-49-85, all at a voltage of 1.45 V.
Finally, to power all this, the card has a 24-pin connector and two 8-pin connectors next to the power stages.
