WEBVTT 00:00:07.279 --> 00:00:14.639 Welcome to my proper unboxing of the MSI Big Bang M Power. This is a Z77 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:17.760 motherboard that changes the game of overclocking. And I'm actually sort of 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:21.760 on board with what they're doing here. So, has a three-year warranty. It's got 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:26.480 all the usual Z77 features, including support for the latest Intel Core i3, 00:00:23.279 --> 00:00:29.199 i5, and i7 processors on LG 1155, 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:33.200 Windows 7, and Windows 8 compatible. There's that new logo right there. AMD 00:00:31.279 --> 00:00:36.960 Crossfire, NVIDIA SLI are supported. Virtue MVP is also supported, which 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.719 means you've got things like their virtual VSYNC as well as performance 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:43.840 boost. I haven't had that much experience with it being compatible with 00:00:42.239 --> 00:00:47.120 a wide variety of different titles, but hey, if you find it out that it works 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:52.399 for the games that you play, then great enhanced components. So, you got their 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:54.000 driver MOSFETs, you've got their OCPCB, 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:59.280 that's an interesting thing to call it. Solid caps, uh, super far chokes, high-C 00:00:57.199 --> 00:01:03.199 caps. Great. So this is all their usual military class 3 stuff. Hybrid digital 00:01:01.199 --> 00:01:07.600 power. Interesting. Enhanced PWM design with hybrid digital power. Designed for 00:01:05.119 --> 00:01:12.560 overclocking on K SKU CPU. So yes, overclockable CPUs. 8 pin power for the 00:01:10.240 --> 00:01:16.320 CPU with a six pin auxiliary power for video cards. These are useful and I 00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:19.759 prefer a six pin to a Molex just because these days I hardly have any Molexes in 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:24.159 my system and it's hard to like route one up there. Enhanced thermals. Okay. 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:28.880 Twin frozer fourbased design. Interesting. total fan control with all 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:32.000 four pin PWM fan connectors on board. You can customize them in the BIOS or in 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:35.280 Windows and monitor and record all the fan speeds. You got your V check points 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:41.040 so you can actually use a multimeter to check your voltages because softwarebased ones are not useful. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:45.040 Multibios 2. This has saved my bacon at least once before. Easy buttons, onboard 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:51.040 power and reset. Clear SIMOS button on the back and a debug LED. Bluetooth and 00:01:47.759 --> 00:01:52.000 Wi-Fi are included as well as SATA 36 GB 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:56.640 per second. You know what? All this information is stuff that we could see 00:01:54.640 --> 00:02:00.960 by just opening up the board. So, I'm sort of done with the outside of the box 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:05.520 for now. Here's an overclocking guide. Very cool to have something like that 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:10.479 included. Neat stuff. Okay. Next, we've got the IO shield, four SATA 36 Gbit per 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:19.520 second cables, although it doesn't really make a difference. Antenna for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:21.760 presumably. Cool. All right, we got a 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:24.879 flexible black SLI bridge. my very favorite kind and connectors to make 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:30.959 those front panel connectors a little bit easier to do. Driver's disc, uh, 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:33.920 quick installation guide, certificate of 00:02:30.959 --> 00:02:36.720 quality and stability. Now, actually, I'm going to set this aside and we are 00:02:35.519 --> 00:02:40.959 going to talk about it more later. Software and applications users guide, 00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:44.760 motherboard users guide, and V checkpoint cables so that you can 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:50.720 actually, you know, plug something into them. All right, motherboard itself. 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:55.519 Okay, I haven't even gotten into what's good about this board yet, you guys. 00:02:52.160 --> 00:02:57.920 This is a very, very exciting board for 00:02:55.519 --> 00:03:02.400 one particularly important reason, and that is the gorgeous matte black PC. No, 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:05.760 that's not actually it. So, the matte black PCB is good, but let's go let's 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:09.040 talk about what makes this board special. So, this certificate of quality 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:15.280 and stability, we've seen this with products before. However, MSI has really 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:19.840 stepped up their game with the M Power being OC certified. That's the 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:24.959 terminology they're using here. OC certified performance power and PWM 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:30.560 cooling. However, they really take it to the next level. Check this out. Military 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:32.879 class burn-in test. Every single board, 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:37.280 that means this board, the board you buy, the board your friend buys, has 00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:42.799 gone through strict tests to guarantee stable overclocking results. So they 00:03:40.239 --> 00:03:47.200 actually take every board, they install a CPU liquid cooler, which means the PWM 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:54.480 is not getting any particular incidental air flow from their test bench. They 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:56.000 overclock a K series CPU to 4.6 GHz or 00:03:54.480 --> 00:04:00.000 more depending on the CPU. Not every test platform is exactly the same. So a 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:04.159 real overclock, like not, you know, an OCG overclock, like a real overclock. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:08.480 Then they put it in an unrealistically high temperature environment and they 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:12.439 run Prime 95 to beat the snot out of the CPU at that overclock setting for 24 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:17.440 hours plus. Crazy, right? Every single board 00:04:15.519 --> 00:04:24.360 is overclocking validated with an overclocked CPU. The odds of getting a 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.639 dud empower board is basically nil 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:31.680 because every single board is hand tested. That doesn't happen on regular 00:04:28.919 --> 00:04:35.120 motherboards. Very, very cool stuff. really stepping up their game right now, 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:38.560 these MSI guys. All right, so let's cover the layout. There's your LG 1155 00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:42.560 socket. Lots of room around it for big coolers. Eight pin CPU connectors in its 00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:48.000 ideal location at the top left. You got your four uh DDR3 slots supporting dual 00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:50.960 channel memory. You've also got your onboard power connectors. This is my new 00:04:49.919 --> 00:04:54.639 favorite spot for them. There's your OCG, your reset, and your power. Uh 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:59.199 because once you've got a bunch of cards installed, it's kind of hard to reach the ones that are down here or around 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:03.040 here. 24 pin power connector in its ideal location. There's the auxiliary 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:06.960 six pin for your graphics cards as well as your V checkpoints for checking the 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:11.440 voltages. There's your post debug LED. And again, this is my new favorite 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:15.039 location for this. The onboard USB3 headers at a right angle on the right 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:20.800 hand edge of the board. Perfect. SATA 3 6 GB per second. Four SATA 2 3 GB per 00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:24.240 second ports. There's your multibio switch to switch between the two 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:29.199 physical BIOS chips. You've got a couple front USB 2 ports, a couple uh headers, 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:33.120 normal ones, and you've also got a high-owered one for charging things like 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:35.840 an iPad. Okay, you've got aha due to bandwidth allocation limitations. 00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:38.560 Strongly recommended. Okay, so you want to use an Ivy Bridge processor if you're 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:45.520 going to use this bottom slot. Otherwise, these ones will run at PCIe 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:47.759 28x8x with a Sandy Bridge or PCIe 38X8X 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:54.000 with an Ivy Bridge chip. You've got this is a fully PCIe board. So you got four 00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:56.840 PCIe 1X slots and then three PCIe 16X 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:01.520 slots. However, physically they're 16 or 88 4 and this four runs off the chipset. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:05.759 So it's not as good of a four. So basically this is a dual cardboard. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.680 Moving right along to this is actually I think this is the best matte black PCB 00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:13.440 I've yet seen. Slick's giving me the thumbs up because it's so clean. Like 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:16.240 you can hardly even see the traces. It just looks like if I change the angle a 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:21.600 little bit you can see the traces sometimes probably but then other times you can't. It's like very stealthy 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:24.800 looking. Let's have a look at the Twin Furer 4 inspired cooler. So, it's got a 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:30.720 very neat shape to it that actually gives it a lot of surface area even though you can't see a lot of it. And 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:34.160 it's using a nice thick heat pipe. I think MSI's branding for this used to be 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:37.919 super pipe, but I haven't seen them really use that lately. Check it out. 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:42.560 Phase LEDs. So, you can see how many of your 12 power phases are uh are active 00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:46.080 on the CPU at any given time. So, when you're doing something intensive, those are going to crank up to the top. And 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:50.400 when you're not, they're going to stay right down near the bottom, which is kind of neat stuff because when you're 00:06:48.880 --> 00:06:53.600 not consuming a lot of power, fewer power phases being active is actually 00:06:52.080 --> 00:06:57.520 more efficient. So, there you go. You learned something today, unless you already knew that, in which case you 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:04.240 didn't learn something today. All right, let's have a look at the back IO. You got your PS2 port. I still like to see 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:06.080 that. Two USB 2.0 ports, six USB 3.0 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:10.720 ports, your Bluetooth, your Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet is builtin, display 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:14.560 port and HDMI to handle your a or your video out. Remember guys, you can use 00:07:12.479 --> 00:07:17.840 the onboard video here for your video transcoding functionality, and you can 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:22.720 use your dedicated graphics card for gaming. You've got optical audio out as 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:28.319 well as 7.1 audio out. So, thank you for checking out my unboxing of the Z77 M 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:32.720 Power from MSI. And I think Slick's letting the camera fall a little bit 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:35.440 there. And uh don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:41.520 reviews, and other computer videos. And don't forget the most important thing about this board, hand tested. You want 00:07:38.479 --> 00:07:43.960 a board that works 100%. Okay, I can't 00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:50.440 say 100% but 99.99% it will work if you buy one 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:50.440 because it's hand tested.