MSI Z170A SLI Plus Review

Performance Analysis

Stock performance wasn't exactly lighting up out graphs and for the most part the MSI Z170A SLI Plus was fairly mediocre. That said, the difference here between the worst and best results on test was usually small anyway. You might be seeing 10MB/sec or so lower speeds in storage tests and around 10 second extra rendering times over a five-minute scene, but unless you're obsessed with getting the best benchmark scores, there's little of major concern here. The board also had some fairly low power draw numbers at stock speed too, although it was lagging behind again in our game tests.


We haven't tested a Z170 board anywhere close to this price yet with the cheapest being a good £20-30 more expensive. So it wasn't a surprise to see the MSI Z170A SLI Plus at the bottom of our audio performance graphs. Again, the difference here is small, but you'll need to fork out the same amount for a board with significantly better performance here as you would for a discrete sound card such as the Asus Xonar DGX 5.1.

With a 100MHz deficit compared to many other boards on test, the Z170A SLI Plus was unsurprisingly a bit slower once overclocked too, but again, the differences aren't likely to bother most people, even if it was sitting last in many of our graphs again.

Conclusion

There's one key issue to take away with the Z170A SLI Plus and that's its price. It's by far and away one of the cheapest options for a Skylake system out there and yet it manages to include an M.2 port that can offer a home to a speedy Samsung 950 Pro plus a USB 3.1 Type-C port too. It's not a bad overclocker, has an excellent EFI and good layout plus it doesn't look bad either. Performance is a bit average and there aren't many extra features, but if you're just looking for a cheap, overclockable board for your new Skyake system, then the Z170A SLI Plus is a great option.