MSI Z87-G43 review
A superb LGA1150 motherboard for under £80 with great performance and plenty of expansion ports
Specifications
LGA1150, ATX, Intel Z87 chipset, supports: 4th generation Intel Celeron, Pentium, Core i3/i5/i7
On the backplate, you’ll find a good range of ports. It’s a shame there are only two USB3 ports, but two more are available through the board’s internal USB3 header. There’s also six USB2 ports with another four available through internal headers, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a PS/2 combo port and six 3.5mm audio jacks for 7.1 surround sound. Even better, the board’s dual and triple monitor support means you can use all three of its video outputs, and the HDMI output can support a maximum resolution of 4,096×2,160 if you want to use a 4K display.
The MSI Z87-G43 is a superb LGA1150 motherboard at an excellent price. At just under £80, it’s a great choice if you want to build a powerful system on a decent budget, winning a Budget Buy award. If you can stretch a bit further, the Asus Z87-A has even more ports and expansion slots.
Basic Specifications | |
---|---|
Rating | **** |
Processor socket | LGA1150 |
Form factor | ATX |
Size | 244x305mm |
Processor support | 4th generation Intel Celeron, Pentium, Core i3/i5/i7 |
Processor external bus | 100MHz |
Chipset north bridge | Intel Z87 |
Chipset south bridge | Intel Z87 |
Passively-cooled north bridge | yes |
Integrated graphics | No |
Supported memory type | DDR3 |
Maximum memory speed | PC3-24000 |
Memory slots | 4 |
Maximum memory | 64GB |
Dual-channel support | yes |
Buying Information | |
Price | £79 |
Supplier | http://www.ebuyer.com |
Details | www.msi.com |
Internal Ports | |
Power connectors | 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 8-pin ATX |
PCI-E x16 slots | 2 |
Dual graphics architecture | CrossFireX |
PCI-E x4 slots | 0 |
PCI-E x1 slots | 2 |
PCI slots | 3 |
Fan headers | 5 |
Floppy ports | 0 |
IDE ports | 0 |
Serial ATA ports | 0 |
RAID chipset (max disks) | Intel Z87 (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) |
Features | |
Wired network ports | 1x 10/100/1000 |
Sound (ports) | Realtek ALC892 (6x analogue out) |
USB2 ports / headers | 8/6 |
Firewire ports / headers | 0/0 |
Legacy ports | 1x PS/2, parallel header, serial header |
Other ports | VGA, DVI, HDMI |
Cables included | 2x SATA |
Brackets included | none |
Software included | none |
Setup and Overclocking | |
Voltage adjustment | CPU/RAM/Chipset |
CPU clock max adjustment | 300MHz |