Mortar B150M MSI Motherboard Review

Some last month Intel recently introduced the sixth-generation processors, Skylake. The birth of the latest Intel processors also dibarengin birth of new Intel chipsets will be embedded into a motherboard that supports Intel Skylake. One chipset that will support the Intel platform is Intel B150 Skylake. Indeed, this chipset is the chipset business class which is usually intended for office users. But thanks to quite complete facilities and features built into the chipset a lot of partner Intel motherboard manufacturers who use you have in the motherboard chipset gaming series.

One partner who does that is MSI motherboard which spawned named MSI B150M Mortar. Sign in series MSI GAMING Arsenal, B150M Mortar does not ditujuk for hardcore gamers. But with the packaged such that it looks like MSI trying to attract the attention of gamers a slim pocket with this motherboard. Curious as to what appearance and performance of the MSI motherboard chipset Intel B150 is this? see our full review below!

Mortar Testing Platform MSI B150M

Processor: Core i7 6700K 

Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A (Intel Z170)

Memory: 8GB DDR4 Fury Kingston HyperX 2133 MHz (Dual Channel)

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

Storage: Kingston HyperX 240 GB SSD Fury

Power Supply: Corsair AX850

CPU Cooler: Corsair H80

Monitor: 1920 × 1080 LCD Monitor

Input: Generic Keyboard and Mouse

OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit

B1500 Intel Chipset Block Diagram

I ntel B150 is a desktop PC platform chipset Intel's new business class which is positioned to use small office or home office (SOHO). B150 motherboard with a chipset that will replace the B85 comes with LGA 1151 socket that supports Intel's sixth-generation, Skylake, ranging from Skylake series Intel Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, up to superior series, Core i7. This chipset also experienced some growth in terms of features. Now the motherboard with Intel chipset B150 brings a number of features, such as; 8 lane PCI Express 3.0, dual channel memory up to 1600MHz DDR3L / DDR4 up to 2133MHz, 6 SATA III 6Gbps ports with one SATA Express, 6 USB 3.0 ports and 6 USB 2.0 ports. Unfortunately, the use of Intel processors coded 'K' (unlocked) on the motherboard chipset B150 would be useless because the tuning support for the components of the processor and memory on this chipset eliminated by Intel.

Specifications:

CPU

• Supports 6th Gen Intel® Core ™ i3 / i5 / i7 processors, and the Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® processors for Socket LGA1151

Chipset

• B150 Intel® Chipset

Main Memory

• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB

- Supports DDR4 2133 MHz

• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory

- ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)

• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) \

Slots

• 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16 / x4) *
• 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
• 1 x M.2 Wi-Fi module slot

* The PCI_E4 slots will only run PCIe 3.0 x2 speed when the PCI_E3 slot is installed a device.

Onboard Graphics

• 1 x HDMI ™ ports, support a maximum resolution of 4096 × 2160 @ 24Hz, 2560 × 1600 @ 60Hz
• 1 x VGA port, supports a maximum resolution of 2048 × 1536 @ 50Hz, 2048 × 1280 @ 60Hz, 1920 × 1200 @ 60Hz
• 1 x DVI-D port, supports a maximum resolution of 1920 × 1200 @ 60Hz

Multi-GPU

• Supports 2-Way AMD® CrossFire ™ Technology

On-Board SATA

• B150 Intel® Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb / s ports
• 1 x Satae port *

* Satae port is backward compatible with SATA.

USB

• B150 Intel® Chipset:

- Gen1 6 x USB 3.1 (SuperSpeed ​​USB) ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB connectors)

- 4 x USB 2.0 (High-speed USB) ports (2 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB connectors)

Audio

• Realtek® ALC892 Codec
• 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
• Supports S / PDIF output

LAN

• 1 x Realtek Gigabit LAN controller RTL8111H

Back Panel I / O Ports

• 1 x PS / 2 keyboard / mouse combo port
• 2 x USB 2.0 ports
• 4 x USB 3.1 ports Gen1
• 1 x VGA port
• 1 x HDMI ™ port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
• 1 x Clear CMOS button
• 1 x Optical S / PDIF OUT connector
• 5 x OFC audio jacks

Internal I / O Connectors

• 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 6 x SATA 6Gb / s connectors
• 1 x USB 3.1 connectors Gen1 (support additional 2 USB3.1 ports Gen1)
• 1 x USB 2.0 connector (supports additional 2 USB 2.0 ports)
• 1 x 4-pin CPU fan connector
• 2 x 4-pin system fan connectors
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
• 1 x Front panel audio connector
• 2 x Front panel connectors
• 1 x TPM module connector
• 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector
• 1 x Serial port connector

Dimension

• 9.6 in. x 9.6 in. (24.4 cm x 24.4 cm) M-ATX Form Factor

Mounting

• 8 mounting holes

Packaging

With the theme of war weapons on the naming, packaging This motherboard also comes with a military theme that is quite impressive. Green color with little military style adequately describe this motherboard is suitable for your weapon. Like most other motherboards packaging, MSI also use the back of the motherboard package to explains the features presented this motherboard. Following the excellent features of this motherboard:

• Military Class 4 Component
• DDR4 Boost
• EZ Debug LED
• LAN GAMING
• GAMING DNA
• Audio Boost

Although it comes with a pretty good package design, package sales in the sales package is not too wah. Only available two sata cable and penuntup IO panel and some documentation as well as the CD Driver. Indeed, all of which are provided are sufficient to make a PC system running well, but considering this motehrboard into series MSI GAMING feels could give more than this. Here's the complete list of the sales package MSI B150M Mortar:

• 2x SATA Cable
• 1x I / O Shield
• 1 Set Driver and Manual book

Motherboard

Mortar B150M MSI comes with MicroATX form-factor. If you look at the all-black color theme for sure you will doubt if the motherboard is included in the ranks of the MSI GAMING series motherboards that are commonly present with typical dark red color scheme MSI GAMING, only the colors black with white accents bit boring. But we think it is reasonable considering it is an affordable variant of a series GAMING them. MSI apparently did not actually leave the DNA product GAMING them, the red color will be represented by an LED that will glow from behind the motherboard when you turn on your system.

For power supply, motherboard relies EPS 8-Pin connector and 24-pin ATX connector. The second connector is located in an ideal position so that you can easily install cable from the power supply while using the casing is quite narrow.

There are four DDR4 DIMM memory slots on the motherboard, so you can maximize the use of RAM memory up to 64 GB DDR4. DDR4 DIMM RAM slots is also equipped with XMP profile feature that allows you to use the XMP profile on a memory chip that supports XMP.

This motherboard comes with Voltage Regulator Module (VRM), 6-Phase Design and on it attached a pair of tiny black heatsink to cool. Nobody heatpipe heatsink that connects the pair, but it is reasonable considering it is not ungglan MSI motherboard series. MicroATX form-factor likely to make the MSI can not apply a large heatsink on the chipset Intel B150 her. Fortunately this heatsink mampui cope with the heat generated by the chipset.

In the IO panel on the back, this motherboard provides an abundant variety of connectors including video output to the Intel HD graphics are fairly comprehensive, ranging from VGA, DVI and HDMI. Unfortunately we do not see the presence of USB 3.1 Gen2 slots on this motherboard at all, but we can understand because it may not necessarily Gen2 USB 3.1 will become the mainstream antramuka next 1-2 years. Part of this motherboard audio port is also a concern MSI, the audio jack port seems gold plated in order to deliver better audio signal.There is also a Clear CMOS button which will allow you to clear CMOS while the motherboard inside the casing.

• 1 x PS / 2 keyboard / mouse combo port
• 2 x USB 2.0 ports
• 4 x USB 3.1 ports Gen1
• 1 x VGA port
• 1 x HDMI ™ port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
• 1 x Clear CMOS button
• 1 x Optical S / PDIF OUT connector
• 5 x OFC audio jacks

To make it more affordable motherboard, MSI does not use the LAN controller of the Killer. But still complete with MSI GAMING LAN Manager that where possible you optimize your LAN network.

For the storage space MSI Express immerse a SATA connector that can also provide two SATA 3 6Gbps connectors. Also present were four SATA3 6Gbps connectors, overall motheboard is able to accommodate six SATA storage media as well. All motherboard SATA port is situated in an ideal location, with all horizontally oriented port that allows you while you do cable management on the casing.

This motherboard comes with two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, one of which is equipped with features Steel Armor and two PCI Express x1 expansion cards support such as Wi-Fi cards are available. The availability of two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots enable you to apply the configuration of dual graphics cards on this motherboard.Unfortunately the bottom of the PCI Express 3.0 slot can only walk with kecepata x4 even when in the PCI Express x1 slot in the third slot PCI Express 3.0 slots are used only runs x2. For multi-graphics card configuration which can certainly be used only AMD CrossFire, SLI while we are still in doubt because there was no certification by NVIDIA.

The most interesting of these is the presence of small motherboard slots M.2. But unfortunately you can only use it to install the Wi-Fi Card with M.2 plug into this slot and can not pair M.2 based storage media.

For the sound system, like most in its class motherboard, MSI Mortar B150 is equipped with an audio chip from Realtek ALC892 Codec. However, to improve audio performance and do not eliminate GAMING DNA of this motherboard, MSI buried AudioBoost features and embed audio capacitors Chemi-Con that is claimed to improve the sound cleaner.

In addition to providing a diverse connectors and a sufficient amount on the rear panel IO, MSI also provides a variety of internal header to add the number of connectors on the motherboard. One of the most important and already publicly available is a USB 3.1 header Gen 1 (USB 3.0) located at the bottom of the motherboard. Here is a list of available internal header on the motherboard:

• 1 x USB 3.1 connectors Gen1 (support additional 2 USB3.1 ports Gen1)
• 1 x USB 2.0 connector (supports additional 2 USB 2.0 ports)
• 1 x 4-pin CPU fan connector
• 2 x 4-pin system fan connectors
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
• 1 x Front panel audio connector
• 2 x Front panel connectors
• 1 x TPM module connector
• 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector
• 1 x Serial port connector

BIOS 

Although not aimed at hardcore gamers, this motehrboard still equipped with the latest UEFI BIOS MSI, the Click BIOS 5. However, because of the limitations of chipset features, MSI slightly trim features in it. One feature that is most sorely missing is a feature GameBoost (formerly OC Genie), but we think is reasonable because the chipset does not support the CPU Overclock B150. Besides GameBoost no feature that was missing, maybe you just can not access it. In fact you can still get information about the components installed on the motherboard you use. Interestingly, the switch to activate the XMP profile and we managed to increase the speed of the memory that we use to figure 2666MHz. It is quite interesting considering B150 chipset does not support the CPU and memory tuning.

Utility Applications

This motherboard comes with some utility applications supporting MSI Command Center. This application can be considered as the BIOS in the operating system. With this application you can change any settings that you want, you can even monitor the components you use without the need for third-party applications.

MSI now also provide application CPU-Z with the theme of MSI GAMING know.

Testing

*) The test performance by Bhishma Sidarto

Testing was conducted by comparing the two conditions where the first condition motherboards tested with normal or default condition and the second condition is tested when the motherboard XMP profile is active. Let's see perbedaa performance of these two conditions.

Normal Mode

XMP mode.

First of all let us see the results of the synthetic benchmark tests.

Cinebench

Cinebench is a test application that can be used to measure the ability of processors or graphics cards whenrendering a 3D object. The test results are presented in the form of a score. The higher the score is generated, the better.

• Cinebench R11.59

\

• Cinebench R15

PCMark 8

• PCMark 8 Home

PCMark 8 Home contains a set of load tests in which the test load describe the user activity in general on their home system. Load testing includes Web browsing activity, Writing, Casual Gaming, Photo Editing and Video Chat.

• PCMark 8 Creative

8 Creative PCMark contains a set of load tests in which the test load describe the advanced user activity on their home system. Load testing includes Web browsing activity, Photo Editing, Batch Photo Editing, Video Editing, Media To Go, Mainstream Gaming and Video Group Chat. This test has a heavier burden than PCMark 8 Home.

• PCMark 8 Work

8 Work PCMark contains a set of load tests in which the test load describe the activities of users in an office environment. Load testing includes Web browsing activity and Writing.

• PCMark 8 Storage

PCMark 8 Storage contains a set of load testing to measure performance storage components such as HDDs, SSDs and Hybrid Drive. This test will test the performance of storage applications Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3.

3DMark

After last we see the synthetic benchmark test results, now let's look at the performance of this motherboard when running a game application.

Battlefield 4

Bioshock Infinite

Grid Autosport

StarCraft 2

Electricity Consumption

Measurement for full load conditions is done by burdening the system with applications Cinebench R11.59 and game Lost Planet 2. While the measurements for idle done by making the system does not perform activities for about 10 minutes.

As a gaming motherboard, MSI B150M Mortar does offer specifications and features are interesting, especially the availability of multi-graphics Crossfire because the number of channels available PCI Express chipset chipset B150 more than H110 are equally positioned to the entry level. Connectors are available in this motherboard also varied and plentiful enough so that you will not feel the lack of a USB connector problems and so on.

Performance in handling the components we use in normal conditions was quite satisfactory, although when the XMP profile on diakfitkan memory instead of a performance improvement that we can but the performance is decreased in nearly all testing. However, we think this is reasonable given the B150 chipset does not allow tuning CPU and memory.

Supporting components of this motherboard is also equipped with MSI Military Class certification 4 where this feature will ensure durable motherboard. So for those of you who want to have a gaming PC with a limited budget with a form-factor micro-ATX, could not hurt to look at this motherboard, though it looks like you will have difficulty getting the casing is really compact form-factor for this.

Advantages:

• One affordable motherboard for Skylake platform.
• connectors abound.
• Military Class 4
• supports CrossFire configuration.
• Click BIOS 5 user friendly.

Deficiency:

• M.2 slot is used only for the Wi-Fi Card
• Performance with XMP profile akfit decreased.