MSI just passed an incredible milestone of 3 million global fans in 2015. GAMING is the universal language we shared, and we built a stronger connection with all gamers. More than just pursuing hardware performance, we simulate countless gaming scenarios and gamers behaviors to excite gamers as well as power up your games. We play an active role in the global gaming community by sponsoring more than 15 pro gaming teams, gaming events and eSports tournaments worldwide. MSI is more than just a gaming hardware, we are determined to be the dominant player and put it at the forefront of the gaming industry.

Learn more about our 30 years of innovation

GAME IN STYLE

Name: Z170A KRAIT GAMING 3X
Brand: MSI

Each game demands different skills, each gamer selects, customizes and levels their own gaming character. Why stop there? MSI Performance GAMING motherboards allow you to fully customize & personalize your gaming PC to any color you want while delivering top performance for a great gaming experience.

Unmatched memory performance and stability

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.

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

UNIQUE BLACK & WHITE DESIGN

White PCB highlights compliment a unique black & white design, to display when GAMING meets class. Perfect for gamers and case modders who are looking for something different.
DRAGON HEATSINK

The black & white Dragon Heatsink has been redesigned. Thick white PCB highlight adds class to the design, to show you are dealing with a unique motherboard.
BLACK & WHITE HEATSINK DESIGN

Black & white heavy played premium heatsinks make sure your system stays cool during even the longest gaming sessions.

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.

DEDICATED GAMING LAN WITH INTEL^®

Experience a more fluid game with Intel® i219 LAN. Intel® i219 LAN is designed to deliver high performance when gaming, delivering more throughput than other solutions.

Intel® i219 LAN is optimized for championship level online and LAN eSports by reducing CPU overhead and offering exceptionally high TCP and UDP throughput. This way, your CPU can be used more effectively and you can enjoy more FPS when gaming.

Gaming optimized bandwith 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 bandwidth for each application

LAN Protect

Featuring 15KV anti-surge protection to shield your network from lightning strikes and static electricity, LAN Protect is a LAN connector designed to give you the best networking experience.

Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality

With Audio Boost 3, powered by Nahimic Sound Technology, 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 impendance headphones and truly dominate the game.

Nahimic Sound Technology

Offering immersive virtual 7.1 sound in high definition using exclusive stereo equipment.
More on Nahimic

Golden Audio Jacks

With golden audio connectors you get the best possible signal output with less chance of distortion.

High Quality EMI-Shielded HD Audio Processor

Audio Boost 3 is fueled by a EMI-shielded high quality HD audio processor, making sure you enjoy the purest sound quality.

Isolated Audio PCB with LED Line

Audio Boost 3 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.

Dual Headphone Amplifiers

The built-in dual headphone amplifiers rewards your high quality headphone with studio level sound quality up to 600Ω delivered from your gaming PC.

Front Dedicated Headphone Out

Convenient use of the front panel audio output while retaining high quality amplified sound.

WITH NAHIMIC, ENJOY SOUND THAT PUSHES THE LIMITS OF REALITY .

Nahimic sound technology has been approved for its quality and precision in projects undertaken by the military field and the aeronautics industry. It offers immersive virtual 7.1 sound in high definition using exclusive stereo equipment.

Nahimic lifts your gaming experience to a new level, offering you highly sought-after gaming benefits:

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.

*Features may vary according to your platform and model

GAMING HOTKEY

Gaming Hotkey enables more functionality using your own keyboard. Simply assign functions 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 shortcut on your keyboard
User friendly, easy to use application
1 key load up of your favorite game

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.

*Real GAMING Hotkey settings depend on the configuration

Shortcut Hotkeys

Assign your own keyboard special functions

Windows keys

Quick launch any application or folder

Quick launch of mail, browser or more

MSI® Smart keys

One press to login (program passwords)

Login Keys

2X FASTER
MSI USB 3.1 GEN2

Transfer your favorite games, music and movies over USB faster than ever. USB 3.1 Gen2 enables lightning-fast transfer speeds up to 10Gb/s!

Benefits

2X faster than USB 3.1 Gen1
20X faster than USB 2.0
Up to 10Gbps data transfer bandwidth
Boost transfer rate for your PC and peripherals

REVERSIBLE DESIGN

Type-C with reversible design
Get all the performance benefits from USB 3.1 Gen2 combined with the convenience of the USB Type-C connector. This reversible connector allows for effortless connecting of USB devices.

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.

Tired of waiting for your files to finish copying to USB? USB Speed Up is here to help!

This great little tool is very simple to use and automatically detects USB devices connected to the system and when enabled can provide up to 30% of an increase in USB performance, saving a lot of time when transferring data.

USB Speed Up works on all MSI X99 and Z170 and any USB storage device, no matter USB 2.0, USB 3.0 or USB 3.1.

DOWNLOAD HERE

ENHANCED CPU OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION

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

EASY DIAGNOSTIC

MSI EZ Debug LED is an easy troubleshooting tool using 3 LEDs to indicate CPU / Memory / VGA operation every time you boot up your system. Run into trouble? Use the LEDs to easily identify the source of your problem and get back into operation quickly.

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 is based on the performance demands and stability of MSI GAMING motherboards and SteelSeries products. Your SteelSeries headset, mouse and other top quality gaming gear works 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 5 COMPONENTS

Military Class 5 is the latest evolution in high quality components. The Titanium Choke and Dark CAP ensure that your PC runs stable under extreme gaming conditions.

Titanium Choke

Titanium Choke uses a Titanium core that has better ability in thermal and higher temperature tolerance. This allows the Titanium Choke to run at a 220 degree Celsius high temperature, have a 40% higher current capacity, a 30% improvement in power efficiency and better overclocking power 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.

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.

Optimized for multiple graphics cards

SLI /CrossFire support

This motherboard supports SLI / 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 NVIDIA® SLI™ or AMD CrossFire™ setup.

Prevent damage!

Worried about damaging the PCI-Express slot or your graphics card because of the weight?

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.

OthersNo strengthening

MSI® Steel ArmorReinforced, heavy soldered connections

THE ALL NEW, AWARD-WINNING CLICK BIOS 5

LEARN MORE ON OUR UEFI BIOS PAGE

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

OTHERS

Low res, non-scalable

CLICK BIOS 5

Sharp, hi-res, scalable design

GAMING DEVICE PORT

MSI Gaming Device Port is optimized to deliver the best connectivity for high end gaming mice to fully utilize its speed. You can customize your mouse’ DPI to change accuracy and program macro combinations using the easy to use Mouse Master software to perform multiple commands with just one click.

Gaming benefits

More responsive, faster reactions
Customizable mouse settings
Customizable mouse accuracy (DPI)
Program macros for multiple actions in 1 click
Smoother gameplay

Technical benefits

3x more gold than regular connectors
10x longer lifetime when plugging/un-plugging
Prevents oxidation

Download Manual Card Download User Guide

WTFast is the Gamers Private Network ; like a global automated army of IT specialists all working together to optimize your game connection from end to end. WTFast reports rich connection stats for your online game, so you can see exactly what is happening with your game connection.

Built just for MMO gamers
Reduce average ping
Greatly reduce connection flux, spikes and packet loss
MSI Exclusive 2-month premium license

GET 2-MONTH PREMIUM LICENSE FOR FREE

Your Game, Your Stream, Your Fame

How to activate MSI Premium License

XSplit Gamecaster & Broadcaster V2 lets you easily record your gaming moments and broadcast your live gameplay sessions to Twitch, YouTube, UStream and more.

It's simple, easy to use and ideal for sharing your gameplay with friends, family or the world - or for capturing those perfect gaming moments, just for the heck of it.

RECORD & STREAM

Use XSplit Gamecaster to stream all of your gaming activities

VIDEO EDITOR

Edit your recordings and conquer the world

REALTIME NOTES

Draw attention whilst casting with in-game annotations

TriDef SmartCam

Fully automatic chroma key that can work on any background

Adaptive Bitrate

Automatically adjusts your bitrate according to your network conditions

GAME DETECTION

Game Capture Auto Detect allows for automatic streaming when starting a game

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.

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

OBS supports almost any webcam. DirectShow capture device support (webcams, capture cards, etc).
Multiple profiles

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

Allowing developers to create their own unique plugins and complete control of their streaming experience.

OVERCLOCKING MADE EASY

Outperform your competition with the MSI® GAMING APP which allows simultaneous control of both your 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.

a different view
on gaming

MSI Dragon Eye allows you to watch a YouTube video or Twitch Stream while playing a game simultaneously. Simply add a link or stream to the Dragon Eye application and select the size, position, volume and transparency and start gaming. With a few hotkeys you can start/pause your video or set the volume.

DOWNLOAD

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 key information on the main devices of your system, such as your CPU speed, Memory speed and timings, motherboard BIOS version and much more.

Download CPU-Z
MSI GAMING Edition HERE

SSD not fast enough? Try MSI RAMDisk!

Get an unlimited RAMDisk for free (worth $35) with MSI GAMING motherboards. RAMDisk allows you to create a virtual drive from your system memory, enabling speeds up to 25x faster than a modern SSD. You can load complete games, speed up your browser or your page file significantly increasing system performance! You even increase your SSD's lifespan 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

25x Faster

$35 Value

WATER COOLING READY

Clever motherboard design, easy AIO water cooling use

All-in-One optimized design
Custom loop availability

Partners waterblocks available at launch:

Connectivity

Be sure to take full advantage of all the GAMING weapons by connecting your devices to the optimized ports.

Gaming Device Port
USB 3.1 Gen2 Type A
USB 2.0
MSI GAMING LAN
Audio connectors
USB 2.0

DVI Port
USB 3.1 Gen2 Type C
HDMI Port
USB 3.1 Gen1
Optical S/PDIF Out

Only everything in 3D!

TriDef VR enables gamer to play their favorite games in 3D on your HMD(head mounted display). DirectX 9,10 and 11 games have been pre-configured to generate an optimal 3D experience using GenMe’s industry leading 2D-to-3D conversion technology. TriDef VR allows users to tweak their HMD to provide optimal user experience. It is compatible with both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It also offers an unique head tracked, hands-free user interface to allow users to launch games at will while wearing HMD.

Most importantly, MSI offers a 3-month free license to let gamers to fully benefit from the TriDef and get more from their VR.

What’s New?

Bring PC game into VR world - Optimized with 900+ game title
Not just VR, also stereoscopic 3D - More reality and more fun
Various VR HMD supported - Support Both VIVE and Oculus Rift
Easy one step on screen setup - Hand free control all setting via HMD
MSI offer a 3-month free license!

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