MSI Announces Z170A Gaming Motherboard With New USB 3.1 Controller Chip

MSI announces a motherboard for gamers. The Z170A Gaming M6 should, among other things, distinguish itself with a controller chip from Asmedia for USB 3.1, which should ensure higher throughput speeds.

The Z170A Gaming M6 nestles between the M5 and M7 motherboards in MSI’s Gaming series, which are also built around Intel’s Z170 chipset. With the M6, MSI uses the Lighting Asmedia 2142 chip for the first time.

This USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller chip bridges the gap between the PCI interface and two USB 3.1 ports, but unlike the widely used Asmedia 1142 chip, the 2142 pairs with PCI-e 3.0 x2 to support 16Gbit/s throughput. s. This should improve performance, especially when using two USB 3.1 generation 2 accessories at the same time. The Asmedia 1142 controller chip only supports PCI-E 2.0 x2 or PCI-E 3.0 x1, with respective bandwidths of 10Gbit/s and 8Gbit/s.

MSI also equips the Z170A Gaming M6 with a new generation of Killer Networking technology. Rivet Networks’ Killer network cards and chips are supposed to provide low latency and avoid lag, but MSI isn’t detailing the next generation yet. Details about the price and availability of the motherboard are also not yet available.