MSI Intel Z170A TOMAHAWK ATX Gaming & OC Motherboard

Product Overview Non-Stop Gaming
Equip yourself with the MSI Arsenal GAMING Series motherboards to improve your game. MSI Arsenal GAMING Series motherboards are covered in full black camouflage with LED ambient lights and is packed with gaming features, making them the perfect weapon to dominate the battlefield.

Unmatched Memory Performance and Stability

DDR4 Boost
With traditional memory design the memory signals are often distorted by electromagnetic signals from other components, making the system perform slower or become unstable. MSI introduces DDR4 Boost technology with optimized traces and fully isolated memory circuitry. This design ensures the memory signals stay pure for optimal performance and stability.

XMP LED
An added XMP LED highlights an active Extreme Memory Profile for the best memory speed and stability setting.

GAMING LED Effect
The Arsenal GAMING Series motherboards come with LEDs on the back of the motherboard to let you fully enjoy the gaming side of things. Like war paint, turn them on for the full Arsenal GAMING experience and you are ready to dominate any battlefield.

Heavy Plated Heatsink Design
Heavy plated premium heatsinks truly represent style & performance and make sure your system stays cool during even the longest gaming sessions.

GAMING Heatsink
The GAMING Heatsink is designed for the best performance and awesome looks, confirming you are dealing with a geniune MSI® GAMING motherboard.

GAMING DNA Design
GAMING on the inside, GAMING on the outside. Attention to detail, from red and black look & feel to PCB printing, make the next generation MSI GAMING motherboards stand out once again.

Gaming LAN: Dominate The Game With Lowest Latency
Get ready to crush your enemies on the battlefield with MSI® GAMING LAN, featuring carefully selected components to ensure the best online gaming experience without lag.

GAMING Optimized Bandwidth Management
Dedicated to giving you the best online gaming experience with optimized traffic prioritization and low latency, MSI GAMING LAN Manager automatically classifies and prioritizes the latency-sensitive applications for online games.

MSI GAMING LAN Manager
• Automatically prioritizes games above other applications.
• Allows you to change applications' traffic priority.
• Allows you to customize you to customize bandwidth for each application.

MSI Xtreme Audio DAC: Studio Grade Sound With Audio Boost
With Audio Boost we're delivering the highest sound quality through the use of premium quality audio components. That way, you can enjoy breathtaking, crystal clear sound and music through 8-channel HD Audio or high impendence headphones and truly dominate the game.

• Golden Audio Jacks: With golden audio connectors you get the best possible signal output with less chance of distortion.
• Isolated Audio PCB: Audio Boost acts like a dedicated soundcard by physically isolating the audio circuitry to give you a more clear audio signal.
• Chemi-Con Audio Capacitors: Delivering high fidelity crystal clear sound with exceptional acoustics and realism.
• Front Dedicated Headphone Out: Convienient use of the front panel audio output while retaining high quality amplified sound.
• Separated Audio Layers: Equal and perfect sound quality for left & right channel audio through the use of separated layers in the PCB.
• Anti-Popcorn Noise: Audio Boost protects your ears against annoying loud popping sounds when you plug devices in or out or turn your PC on/off.

Game boost
Overclock your system instantly and generate more FPS in games with 1 push of a button using Game Boost! You can also easily enable XMP using the XMP button in Click BIOS.

Gaming Hotkey
Gaming Hotkey enables more functionality using your own keyboard. Simply assign functions or macros to any key and launch your favorite games, load overclocking profiles or do real-time overclocking with the push of a single button. The possibilities are endless!

• Customize any key on your keyboard.
• Up to 8 steps macro programming.
• User friendly, easy to use application.
• 1 key load up of your favorite game.
• 1 key overclocking.

Total Freedom, Maximum Ease
Easily program your most used commands to be executed with a single keystroke. You are free to choose any key you want.

• Hotkeys: Assign your own keyboard combinations.
• Windows keys: Quick launch any application, folder, mail, browser or more.
• Login Keys: One press to login (program passwords).
• MSI® Smart keys: One press to login (program passwords)Login Keys.

2x Faster MSI USB 3.1 Gen2
Transferring your favorite games, music and movies over USB has never been faster. USB 3.1 enables lightning fast transfer speeds up to 10Gb/s!

• 2X faster than USB 3.0.
• 20X faster than USB 2.0.
• Up to 10Gbps data transfer bandwidth.
• Boost transfer rate for your PC and peripherals.

Front USB 3.1 Gen1
With a cleverly placed USB 3.1 Gen1 front pin header on MSI motherboards, you can connect up to 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 devices directly to the front of your PC Chassis. This way you can easily enjoy fast USB speeds without having to use the hard-to-reach USB ports at the rear.

Double ESD Protection
The front USB 3.1 Gen1 ports on MSI motherboards are protected by a set of protective ICs to prevent damage caused by Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) from plugging/unplugging USB devices.

Push Your SSD Harder With M.2
M.2 doesn’t need any power- or signal-cables and with a very small footprint M.2 is the storage connector of the future replacing traditional HDDs/SSDs.

TURBO U.2 HOST Card - Optional, not included.
The U.2 Host Card delivers performance up to 32 Gb/s and allows support for next gen 2.5-inch SSDs using the U.2 connector. A redriver chip is added to increase data transfer speed.

NVMe Support
Motherboard supports the latest NVMe SSDs.

Enhanced CPU Overcurrent Protection
Onboard overcurrent protection prevents overcurrent and short-circuit damage of the CPU and other components. A red LED near the 24 pin CPU power connector let’s you know that overcurrent protection is activated for easier troubleshooting.

EZ Debug LED: Easy Diagnostic
MSI EZ Debug LED is an easy troubleshooting tool built with 3 LEDs to indicate to CPU / Memory / VGA operation every time you boot up your system. Run into trouble? Use the LEDs to easily identify the item causing problems.

SteelSeries Certified: Get ready to enjoy the best gaming experience with MSI & SteelSeries!
Enthusiast gaming gear brand SteelSeries has officially approved MSI GAMING motherboards as ‘SteelSeries Certified (SSC)’. This certification was built on the performance demands and stability of MSI GAMING motherboards and SteelSeries products. Your SteelSeries keyboard, mouse and other top quality gaming gear work best on MSI GAMING motherboards.

GAMING Certified
Our GAMING motherboards are tested in our gaming lab, internet cafes and together with the world’s best eSports players to make sure you get top performance and reliability in the world’s most popular games. Through 24-hour on- and offline game testing, MSI ensures the onboard network configuration, audio reception and FPS performance are tested and tuned to perfection for you to enjoy the best possible gameplay experience.

Only the motherboards that pass this test receive the GAMING CERTIFIED status and are considered true MSI® GAMING motherboards.

Military Class 4 Components
Dark Choke: Dark Choke uses the special core design and allows the Dark Choke to run at a lower temperature with higher capacity and better power efficiency and stability.
Dark CAP: With their aluminum core design, Dark CAPs has been a staple in high-end motherboard designs and provides lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as well as its over-10-year Lifespan.

Guard-Pro
• Humidity Protection: Reduction in moisture absorption helps prevent "Conductive Anodic Filament". Untreated PCB's can have 10x higher failure rate.
• High Temperature Protection: All key components used in MSI motherboards have all passed military testing ensuring stable operation in the harshest environments.
• Circuit Protection: Carefully selected materials, multiple PCB layers and shielding result in the best circuit protection for our GAMING motherboards.
• ESD Protection: Each and every I/O port is protected against the hazards of Electro Static Discharge.
• EMI Protection: All MSI motherboards comply with strict American FCC regulations and reduce the impact of Electromagnetic Interference.

AMD CrossFire Support: Optimized For Multiple Graphics Cards
This motherboard supports AMD CrossFire. Optimal PCI-Express slot placement allows for better fitting and airflow.

That way, you can enjoy the best graphics at the highest framerate jumping from your screen when running an AMD CrossFire™ setup.

MSI® VGA Armor
With the increased size and weight of modern high end graphics cards, traditional PCI Express slots often show signs of bending or even breaking. Meet VGA Armor, strengthened PCI Express slots using more solder points to make sure you never have to worry about breaking off any of the slots.

MSI® Steel Armor:
Steel Armor has more solder points on the PCB for more strength and protects the PCI-Express signals against electromagnetic interference for a stutter-free gaming experience and higher GPU overclocking.

MSI® VGA Armor with Reinforced, Heavy Soldered Connections is up to 35% Stronger than VGA slots with no Strengthening.

The All New, Award-Winning Click BIOS 5
Explore the greatly improved, award-winning CLICK BIOS 5 and use it to tune your system to maximum performance to get the most out of your games. MSI CLICK BIOS 5 is the next generation UEFI BIOS with optimizations for Windows 10.

Control your system in two modes: EZ mode, for the most used settings and functions. Advanced mode for more detailed settings and fine-tuning options to boost your system’s performance.

• Variety of options to boost your game performance.
• Next gen UEFI BIOS with award winning design.
• High-resolution multi language scalable font.
• Easy to use.
• Advanced overclocking.
• Sharp, hi-res, scalable design.

OBS Streaming Software
Share your gaming achievements with the world! Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is world’s most popular open source software for video recording and live streaming. Show your friends your gaming progress live.

Plenty of plugins:
Add different profiles, each of them with its own settings. Easy to use OBS for anyone, in any situation.

Optimized video quality:
OBS records videos using small file size,but with perfect image and sound quality, without lag.

Easy to share:
Live streaming to your favorite video sharing websites such as Twitch, YouTube, DailyMotion, Hitbox and many more.

Webcam supported:
Live streaming to your favorite video sharing websites such as Twitch, YouTube, DailyMotion, Hitbox and many more.

Multiple profiles:
Live streaming to your favorite video sharing websites such as Twitch, YouTube, DailyMotion, Hitbox and many more.

Overclocking Made Easy
Outperform your competition with the MSI® GAMING APP which allows simultaneous control of both your Motherboard and Graphics Card's overclocking.

Simply select your preferred mode with the click of a button:
• Silent
• Gaming
• OC

On-Screen Speed & Temperatures
Real-time monitor GPU Core, DRAM Frequency, GPU & CPU Temperatures and much more, in game or in other fullscreen applications, customizable to your preference.

CPU-Z MSI GAMING Edition
MSI has worked closely with CPUID to develop this special edition of CPU-Z featuring the famous MSI GAMING dragon. Use CPU-Z to gather information on some of the main devices of your system, such as your CPU speed, Memory speed and timings, motherboard BIOS version and much more.

SSD not fast enough? Try MSI RAMDISK!
Get an unlimited RAMDisk for free (worth $35) with MSI GAMING motherboards. With a RAMDisk you can create a virtual drive from your system memory enabling speeds up to 25x faster than a modern SSD. You can load complete game images, speed up your browser or your page file significantly increasing system performance ! You even increase the lifespan of your SSD by using RAMDisk as it reduces unnecessary read and write operations to your SSD.

• Speed up system performance.
• Speed up games, apps and browser.
• Increase SSD lifespan. Features • Supports 6th Gen Intel® Core™ / Pentium® / Celeron® processors for LGA 1151 socket.
• Supports DDR4-3600(OC).
• DDR4 Boost: Give your DDR4 memory a performance boost.
• GAMING LAN: The best online gaming experience with lowest latency.
• GAMING DNA: LED ambient lights are added to give it an awesome look & feel, ready for battle.
• Audio Boost: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality.
• Military Class 4: Top Quality & Stability.
• Guard-Pro: Improved Protection and Power Efficiency.
• MULTI-GPU with VGA Armor: VGA Armor PCI-E slots. Supports AMD Crossfire™.
• Click BIOS5: Secure and Reliable UEFI BIOS solution.
• EZ Debug LED: Easiest way to troubleshoot.
• Overvoltage Protection:Prevent Unforeseen Damage.
• 4K UHD Support: Ultra-high Definition Visual Experience.
• GAMING CERTIFIED: 24-hour on- and offline game testing by eSports players for the best gaming experience.
• WHQL CERTIFIED. WINDOWS 10 READY.