MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO MS-7984 Schematic Circuit Diagram

MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO MS-7984 Schematic Circuit Diagram 

MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO Motherboard

MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Motherboard Overview  

Most motherboards differentiate themselves from the competition by offering massive heatsinks, crazy colors, and, of course, lots of new extra features, but MSI's Z170A Gaming Pro breaks tradition by dedicating a centimeter or so of its whole right-hand side to a strip of multi-color LEDs. They're meant to match your motherboard to the rest of your PC's lighting system, and they can be changed to any color the user wants. Is it, though, all show and no go?

Motherboard Design and Features

One of the best-looking motherboards I've seen so far is the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro. It has a black and red theme, like many others, but it's done as simply as possible, save from the big strip of light along the edge, of course.  It's an unusual idea to go with a break on some of the components because the matching-by-default LEDs may be changed to a different color, causing the red parts to clash. Silver or white would have been a better choice.

You also don't get any sort of cover over the back IO, which I don't mind, but it appears to be the standard based on all the other boards I've recently tested. I'd prefer the money be spent somewhere else because they provide no use other than to look good. Unfortunately, the total feature set reflects that conservative approach. Any motherboard accessories like power switches, LED post monitoring systems, and overclocking buttons are absent, and the audio chip is fairly basic.

There are a few compromises in the design. The strip of LEDs – which are really built into the PCB and light up the whole edge – means that none of the SATA ports are on at a right angle and instead face straight out from the PCB. As a result, wire management will be more difficult, and the cables will eventually drop over the lighting strip.
Fan connections are also scarce near the top of the board, where they're most useful for connecting to top-and front-mounted coolers.

At the very minimum, the single SATA Express port is located on the bottom edge, making it easy to tuck wires away. You also get an M.2 SSD slot, which is positioned such that you can almost reach it without removing a graphics card. There are three x1 PCI-E ports for further expansion cards, as well as an old PCI slot for legacy hardware (great for people still using old sound cards). You can also install up to three graphics cards for up to 3-way Crossfire or Quad-SLI (two cards with dual-GPUs).

MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO Connection Port

Connectivity is another area where this board falls short of the competitors. There are two USB 3.1 ports on the back IO panel (two more through connectors), however, there is no Type-C connector.
On the back panel, you'll find four USB 3.0 ports (plus two more via connectors) and two USB 2.0 ports (four more via connectors). There are no DisplayPort onboard Intel graphics, which won't be a problem for most users because they'll be using a separate graphics card, but it's still a noticeable difference. However, you do receive gold-plated audio connectors as well as an illuminated LAN port!

Although the onboard features are limited, MSI's software allows you to accomplish a lot of things. Even if your keyboard doesn't support these functions, there's a one-button tool for overclocking the CPU, a setting for priority network traffic, and a program for assigning hotkeys and macros to it. The MSI Z170A Gaming Pro isn't a powerhouse, but it's a solid Z170 motherboard with a gorgeous design. It's not for hardcore overclockers, but if you're looking for something fashionable, it can be a good fit.

Performance

The performance of this board reflects all of this modesty in the specification. While a motherboard makes just a little impact on system performance at stock speeds — it's all about overclocking potential – this board came in last in our Cinebench R15 multi-core CPU benchmark. It has a 3DMark score of 10723. FireStrike is also the second-to-last Z170 motherboard I've tested so far. For reference, the best Cinebench and 3DMark scores I've gotten so far are 659 and 10802, respectively. The fact that this board consumes the joint-most power at idle – 40W – while consuming the second least power under load – 278W – adds to the rather describes performance results.

Specifications

CPU
• Socket LGA1151 supports 6th Gen Intel® CoreTM i3/i5/i7 CPUs, as well as Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® processors.

Chipset
• Intel® Z170 Express Chipset

Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots and support up to 64GB
• Dual channel memory diagram or architecture
• Supports Intel® Extreme with Memory Profile (XMP)
• Supports ECC which is un-buffered memory

Onboard Graphics
• 1 x DVI-D port, supports a max resolution of 1920x1200@60Hz
• 1 x HDMI™ port, supports max resolution of 4096x2160@24Hz with 2560x1600@60Hz

Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots
• 1 x PCI slot

Storage
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports and 2 ports used for SATA Express port
• Intel® Z170 Express Chipset
• 1 x M.2 Key M Socket supports with the type of 2280/2260/2242 storage.
• 1 x SATAe port (PCIe 3.0 x2)
• Intel® Smart Response Technology is supported for Intel CoreTM CPUs.
MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO Motherboard


USB
• Intel® Z170 Express Chipset
• ASMedia® ASM1142 Chipset

Back Panel I/O Ports
✔ 2 x USB 2.0 ports
✔ 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port
✔ 2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 ports
✔ 1 x DVI-D port
✔ 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
✔ 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports
✔ 1 x HDMI™ port
✔ 5 x OFC audio jacks
✔ 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector

Internal I/O Connectors
✔ 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connections 
✔ 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 
✔ 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector 
✔ 1 SATAe connection 
✔ 2 USB ports Connectors 2.0 
✔ 1 × USB 3.1 Gen1 cable
✔ 3 x 4-pin system fan connections 
✔ 2 x 4-pin CPU fan connectors
✔ 1 x Audio connector on the front panel 
✔ 2 × Front panel connectors
✔ TPM module connector 
✔ Chassis Intrusion connector 
✔ Clear CMOS jumper

BIOS
• The motherboard BIOS has a "Plug & Play" feature that automatically recognizes the board's peripheral devices and expansion cards.
• The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) feature on the motherboard keeps track of your motherboard specifications.

Audio
• Realtek® ALC1150 Codec
- Supports S/PDIF output
- 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio

MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO MS-7984 Schematic Circuit Diagram

Free Download MSI Z170-A GAMING PRO MS-7984 Schematic Circuit Diagram


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