Stefan Mileschin

MSI, which debuted its socket LGA1151 motherboard lineup with its Gaming series, launched its first mainline LGA1151 board, the Z170A PC Mate. A departure from the MS-7850 common-PCB, which the company used on various Intel 8-series and 9-series chipsets, the Z170A PC Mate features a boarder form, and covers all the platform basics. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and features a 6-phase CPU VRM. The CPU is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, and one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot.

Other expansion slots on the Z170A PC Mate include a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical gen 3.0 x4), wired to the Z170 PCH, three PCI-Express 3.0 x1, and two legacy PCI slots. Storage connectivity includes an M.2 32 Gb/s slot, a SATA-Express 16 Gb/s connector, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Display outputs include one each of DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI 2.0 connectors. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (both type-A and on the rear panel), and six USB 3.0 (four on the rear panel, two by header), and four USB 2.0/1.1 ports by header. 6-channel HD audio with ground-layer isolation, and Realtek gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of it. The MSI Z170A PC Mate is priced at US $120.

http://www.techpowerup.com/215116/ms...therboard.html