It’s amazing how quickly things can add up. A great example of this is just how many motherboards a company like MSI manufactures. Just on the Intel side of things, you have multiple chipsets and then from there they have an overclocking line, gaming line, and their general line. From there they still have to break things down by price and feature set. Just for the Intel Socket 1150 they have a whopping 67 motherboards listed on their website. With the launch of Devils Canyon CPUs I really wanted to take a look at a few of their boards to get an idea of what the different price points will get you. So today, I’m going to take a look at four different Gaming motherboards ranging in size from Mini ITX to full ATX. Three are Z97 boards but there is also their only B85 gaming model slipped in as well.  Combined with the Z97 Gaming 5 that I already took a look at, we should be able to get a good idea of what you should be looking at for your builds and why they have such a wide variety of motherboards.

Product Name:

MSI Z97i Gaming

MSI Z97M Gaming

MSI B85M Gaming

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

Review Sample Provided by: MSI

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

 

Specifications

MSI Z97I Gaming AC Specifications

Socket

1150

CPU (Max Support)

i7

Baseclock/Hyper Transport

100MHz

Chipset

Intel® Z97 Express Chipset

DDR3 Memory

Up too DDR3 3300MHz

Memory Channel

Dual

DIMM Slots

2

Max Memory (GB)

16

PCI-Ex16

1

PCI-E Gen

Gen3(16)

SATAIII

4

RAID

0/1/5/10

LAN

10/100/1000*1

USB 3.0 ports (Front)

2

USB 3.0 ports (Rear)

4

USB 2.0 ports (Front)

2

USB 2.0 ports (Rear)

4

Audio ports (Rear)

6

eSATA

2

DisplayPort

1

HDMI

2

VGA Max Share Memory

1760

DirectX

11

Form Factor

Mini-ITX

 

MSI Z97M Gaming Specifications

Socket

1150

CPU (Max Support)

i7

Baseclock/Hyper Transport

100MHz

Chipset

Intel® Z97 Express Chipset

DDR3 Memory

Up too DDR3 3300MHz

Memory Channel

Dual

DIMM Slots

4

Max Memory (GB)

32

PCI-Ex16

2

PCI-E Gen

Gen3 (16,0), (8,8)

PCI-Ex1

2

SATAIII

6

M.2 port

1

RAID

0/1/5/10

TPM (header)

1

LAN

10/100/1000*1

USB 3.0 ports (Front)

2

USB 3.0 ports (Rear)

6

USB 2.0 ports (Front)

4

USB 2.0 ports (Rear)

2

Audio ports (Rear)

6+Optical SPDIF

eSATA

2

DisplayPort

1

HDMI

1

VGA Max Share Memory

1760

DirectX

11

Form Factor

M-ATX

SLI

Y

CrossFire

Y

 

MSI B85M Gaming Specifications

Socket

1150

CPU (Max Support)

i7

Baseclock/Hyper Transport

100MHz

Chipset

Intel® B85 Express

DDR3 Memory

DDR3 1066/1333/1600 MHz

Memory Channel

Dual

DIMM Slots

4

Max Memory (GB)

32

PCI-Ex16

2

PCI-E Gen

Gen3 (16), Gen2 (4)

PCI-Ex1

2

SATAIII

4

SATAII

2

TPM (header)

1

LAN

10/100/1000*1

USB 3.0 ports (Front)

2

USB 3.0 ports (Rear)

2

USB 2.0 ports (Front)

4

USB 2.0 ports (Rear)

4

Audio ports (Rear)

6+Optical SPDIF-out

DisplayPort

1

VGA

1

HDMI

1

DVI

1

VGA Max Share Memory

1760

DirectX

DX11

Form Factor

M-ATX

CrossFire

Y

 

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC Specifications

Socket

1150

CPU (Max Support)

i7

Baseclock/Hyper Transport

100MHz

Chipset

Intel® Z97 Express Chipset

DDR3 Memory

Up too DDR3 3300MHz

Memory Channel

Dual

DIMM Slots

4

Max Memory (GB)

32

PCI-Ex16

3

PCI-E Gen

Gen3 (16, 0, 0), (8, 8, 0), (8, 4, 4)

PCI-Ex1

3

SATAIII

8

M.2 port

1

RAID

0/1/5/10

TPM (header)

1

LAN

10/100/1000*1

USB 3.0 ports (Front)

4

USB 3.0 ports (Rear)

8

USB 2.0 ports (Front)

4

USB 2.0 ports (Rear)

2

Audio ports (Rear)

6+Optical SPDIF

DisplayPort

1

HDMI

1

VGA Max Share Memory

1760

DirectX

DX11

Form Factor

ATX

SLI

Y

CrossFire

Y

 


MSI Z97I Gaming AC

The Z97i Gaming AC is the smallest motherboard that I will be taking a look at today. Even so that didn’t stop MSI from packing their gaming features into the Mini ITX sized motherboard. Before we can take a look at the board itself, we do need to dig into the packaging though. Even though the box is smaller, It has the same red and black theme that all MSI gaming products have. Across the front you have the gaming dragon logo. The rest of the front doesn’t have to much going on though. On the back they used the little space available to pack in information on the boards Audio Boost 2, Killer NIC, and USB Audio Power. They also slipped in a small specification listing and a drawing of the rear I/O panel as well.

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Inside the board is wrapped up in a static protective bag as usual with all of the documentation and accessories up under the motherboard. You get a quick installation guide and a full user guide for documentation. They also include a door hanger that says sorry I’m gaming. Then of course you get a software/driver disc for the motherboard and then a second one for the LAN/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth drivers/software. For accessories you get tao SATA cables, Wireless antennas, a black rear I/O cover, and an MSI G series badge. Z97i3

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There is also a wireless adapter that installs onto the board. They include small baggie with the single screw needed to install it as well as instructions. The wireless adapter is an Intel WiDi adapter that covers a/b/g/n/ac bands as well as Bluetooth 4.0. It has a small connection on the bottom that hooks up to the board on the rear I/O. I’m not really sure why they don’t just include it installed ahead of time though.

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Before taking a closer look at the Z97i’s features, the overall board design is a little unique for a Mini ITX motherboard. Typically Mini-ITX boards share the same general layout as larger boards. With that I mean RAM slots on the right side of the CPU as well as the 24 pin and SATA ports. The CPU power connection is normally up on the top left corner, ect. Much like with the Z87 board, the entire board is spun 90 degree’s other than the RAM and PCIe slot. That means the connections normally found on the side are up top. As most case manufactures design around the “standard” layout this could cause a few challenges when you go to install the Z98i in your case. To go along with this, even the Gaming Series badge on the heatsink is facing sideways. I will get more into the location of everything as I go around the board. As for the overall look, I do like the red and black theme on the black PCB. I think the only thing they could do to add to the look would be to black out the rear I/O as well.

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Starting up in the top left corner we have a miniature Audio Boost with its gold Nichicon caps. That also puts the front panel audio up here as well. You also have a USB 2.0 header and a JSPI1 connection (that they use to program the BIOS). Tucked up near the middle of the board next to the heatsink is the 8 pin CPU power as well as the front panel connections. Front panel connections are hard enough to hook up when they are on the edge of a motherboard, imagine how much fun they will be in this location! It a shame they didn’t at least color code them, especially considering the board didn’t come with the small helper plugs to make it easier.

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Up in the top right corner we have the 24 pin power connection, four SATA ports, and the USB 3.0 header.  This is also where the four pin CPU fan header is, just above the CPU socket.  Down along the side the only thing going on are the two DDR 3 DIMM slots. MSI did make sure to put a little more space between the CPU socket and the memory than other Mini-ITX motherboards but if you plan on running any tower coolers you will need to run low profile RAM. I would recommend going with lower profile ram for any small form factor build really just to save space.

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Down on the bottom edge there is the PCI Express x16 slot. To the left of the PCIe slot is another 4 pin PWM fan header making for a total of two. This is fairly standard for Min-ITX boards, but I would love to have a third header for builds that use three fans, like our In Win 901 build. In this photo we can also see the small plug and the outline for the Wireless AC card that you have to install.

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For cooling, everything is contained up in the top left area of the Z98i behind the rear I/O. There is a red and black heatsink connected to a thin “heatsink” near the SATA ports to cool the chipset.

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The rear I/O panel has the same red and black theme as the rest of the board. The 6 plug has five black plugs and a single red plug. The red plug is your dedicated amplified output and the rest of the plugs can do whatever you need them to do, when you plug a device in the software asks you what you just plugged in.

For USB you get four blue USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports. Two of the USB 2.0 ports are marked in red as well as the PS2 port because they are the gaming optimized ports for your mouse and keyboard.  Digging into the documentation I found that what sets these ports apart is 3x more gold used in the connection over regular connections. They say this extends the life 10x when you are plugging and un-plugging often and the gold itself prevents oxidation. While you most likely won’t see a direct benefit by using them for your mouse and keyboard, if you unplug your hardware often you will see longer life. A lot of e-sports players unplug and take their gear to all tournaments so this could benefit them specifically.

The red network connection is for the e2200 Killer NIC. In the past I have been critical of Killer NICs because both Killer NICs I used in the past died (one card and one built into a motherboard). I will say that I have been using the Killer NIC in a LAN rig for a while now and things have been going well so far. I’m still a little worried about its durability, but from what I have seen they have improved things over the past few years.

For display connections you get a full sized DisplayPort and two HDMI ports. There is also an Optical S/PDIF-out. They dropped the standard DVI and added the second HDMI to save a little space for everything else. So what did that extra space get us? Well all the way on the right there is a small clear CMOS button for one. You also get room for the Intel Wireless/Bluetooth adapter that handles the AC in the Z97i Gaming AC’s name.   

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On the back side of the Z97i we can see the all black PCB even better. They also slipped a few of the required logos on the bottom as well. Even on the bottom of the PCB you can see how dense everything is to pack this many features into such a small form factor.

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MSI B85M Gaming

Even though the B85M Gaming is a lower end chipset compared to the Z997’s that I am testing alongside of it. It does still have the same signature black and red theme with the dragon on the cover that the other boards have. Around on the back they focus on the Killer NIC, Audio Boost, and OC Genie 4 along with a few other gaming focused features. We still get a specification listing and also a line drawing of the rear I/O panel to let you know what you are getting when you buy the board.

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b85m 2

Inside under the motherboard you get a user guide and a quick installation guide for documentation. They also include one of the gaming door hangers and a driver/software disc.

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Being a budget board you don’t really get all that much for accessories. It comes with two SATA cables, each with a right angle connection on the one end. This can be a problem in a lot of cases, it’s always nice when you get one or more of each style, just in case. You still get the small front panel connection helpers and a large case badge as well. The rear I/O panel is blacked out like the others, but they saved money by not using the nice foam on the back of it. In place of that you get the springs that get caught on everything as you install the board

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b85m 5

While the B85M does have the same red and black theme as the Z97 boards we are looking at today. The styling is a little different because it launched prior to the Z97 launch. The B85M has the same cooling design as the Z87 gaming boards with its dragon shaped heatsinks. The board itself has a fairly standard Micro ATX layout, meaning no crazy rotated designs like the Z97i.

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b85m 7

As I mentioned before, the B85M has the dragon cooling design. They went as far as to shape the heatsink itself in the dragon design they use as a logo. If you look at it from the side you can see it. The same dragon is on the chipset heatsink as well with a red background and the black anodized cover. Being a budget board, there really isn’t anything crazy going on for cooling, the heatsink is about half the length of some of the higher end motherboards. It is enough to get the job done but I wouldn’t expect huge overclocking numbers.

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b85m 10

Starting up in the top left corner, let’s take a closer look at the B85M and see what all it offers. The area around the CPU socket is surprisingly open actually. There is a 4 pin PWM fan header down in the bottom of the photo as well as the 4 pin PWM CPU fan up in the top right corner. Beyond that really the only other thing going on in this phone is the four pin CPU power tucked in right next to the heatsink. Considering it is only a 4 pin CPU power, I would have preferred they pull it away from the heatsink a little to make it easier to get too, but thankfully you shouldn’t have to mess with it more than once or twice.

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In the top right corner of the B85M we have four DDR3 DIMMS in all black. This is also where you will find the 24 pin motherboard power and a 3rd 4 pin PWM fan header.

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In the bottom right corner, starting at the top of the photo, we have a black USB 3.0 header. Next you have six SATA 3 plugs with right angled connections. Down in the farthest corner of the board you have two headers for the front panel connections. While they aren’t color coded for easy use, they did print markings onto the PCB to make things a little easier. Next, there are two USB 2.0 headers with one being bright red because it provides additional charging power for your USB devices.

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b85m 15

The bottom left corner of the B85M has MSI’s Audio Boost, a studio level 600 ohm headphone amplifier with AMI shielding. The logo lights up when the board is powered up as well. If you look closely, you can see that the audio circuit is split up from the rest of the board as well. I was a little surprised to see these features on a budget board, but they did save a little money by not going with the gold caps that we would normally see.  The front panel audio header is down along the bottom edge, just to the right of the Audio Boost shield. For slots you get two PCIe x1 slots in the middle of two PCIe x16’s. When you use just one x16 you will get full speeds, but if you run cards in both things slow down to x8 on each.  

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For rear I/O connections, we have four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 connections. They included a PS2 connection for hooking up those legacy keyboards, this is great for model-M fans. The 6 port audio connectors are all color coded over on the right side. Just above the USB 3.0 plugs you have a red Killer NIC. Lastly, for display connections you get a full sized HDMI, full sized DisplayPort, VGA, and DVI. The B85M isn’t loaded up with USB connections or any other premium features, but you get the basics to get the job done with!

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With the B85M flipped over, we can get a better look at its black PCB. You may notice that it has a bronze tint to it; this is the copper in the traces showing through. Most black PCB boards have a painted layer over them to cover this up. Being a budget board, they didn’t go that route. We still get a mostly black PCB but they get to save a little money.

b85m 17

 


MSI Z97M Gaming

The B85M and the Z97M are both micro ATX motherboards, add that to the shared styling of each of the boxes in the Gaming Series and you could easily mix up the Z97M with the B85M on the shelf. The Z97M has the same red and black them and large dragon on the front of the box. Beyond the name you have to look deeper to find things like the Audio Boost 2 logo, otherwise the boxes look the same on the top. On the back MSI touches on the Killer E2200 NIC, Audio Boost 2, USB Audio Power as well as the multi GPU support, Sound Blaster Cinema 2, their gaming app, and Xsplit Gamecaster being included. They also include a small specification listing as well as a line drawing of the rear I/O to show all of the connections you will have.

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z97m 3

For documentation you get a User Guide as well as a fold out installation guide. You also get a door hanger, a metal case badge, and a set of SATA cable labels. Of course they also include a driver/software disc as well.

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MSI included the front panel connection helpers as well. If you plan on using this case is a small case they will come in handy!

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The rear I/O plate continues the black and red theme with all of the writing in red on the full black background. On the back side of it I really love the use of foam rather than the small springs that get caught on everything.

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I love that MSI included a black Crossfire bridge with the Z97M, up until recently everyone just used those ugly copper colored bridges that look bad in nearly every build. Ironically with AMDs latest video cards not needing bridges it is a little late, but still welcomed. For SATA cables you get four black cables, two have right angle connections and the other two have straight connections. I love that they included both. Lastly the small connector in the bottom left is the USB Audio Power connection. You can use this to hook up an additional Molex plug to the Z97M to give more power to your USB plugs to help give the most stable power to USB sound cards.

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While the Z97M shares a very similar layout to the B85M, MSI made multiple board wide changes that give it a distinguished look. For one it has the new updated heatsink design, but I will get to that here in just a second. We also have a blacker PCB color, features introduced with Z97 like the M.2 connector, and there are a few important upgrades around on the board like additional USB connections and upgrades in the power circuitry and audio chipset. In other words, the Z97M might look similar to the B85M that I went over in the last section, but there are a surprising number of changes that help justify the higher cost. The one thing that doesn’t change is the Z87M still has the same Micro ATX form factor.

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So the old cooling design featured dragon shaped heatsinks and a large dragon cutout on the chipset coolers. In the case of the B85M it also had half as many heatsinks as the Z97M. To keep things cool the Z97M also has a heatpipe between those two heatsinks. The new design still uses a similar red color on the black, but the dragon features are limited to a small dragon photo on the end of the heatsinks and the dragon in the Gaming Series logo on the chipset. This design will cool as well as before (or in the case of the B85M the Z97M will cool even better), while giving you a cleaner styling that more people will like. There wasn’t anything wrong with the dragons, but not everyone is a big dragon fan.

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Starting up in the top left corner we have an eight pin power connection for the CPU. This one is slightly farther away from the heatsink than the B85M, giving a little more room to plug and unplug. Surprisingly there aren’t any random connections up in between the heatsink and the rear I/O panel, so the only other header around the CPU is the CPU 4 pin PWM fan header to the right of the top heatsink.

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The top right corner is where things really start to pick up and show why the Z97M is a better board than the B85M. You have four DDR3 DIMMs in all black and to the right of them there is a second CPU 4 pin PWM fan header for heatsinks with two fans. Next, you have the OC Genie button along with power and rest buttons, all three light up when the board has power to it. Just below the power buttons is an LED readout that shows your post information and errors as well as CPU temperatures when you are running. Lastly in this photo is the 24 pin motherboard power connection.

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Down in the bottom right corner, starting from below the 24 pin power, is a black USB 3.0 header. Just past that are the 6 right angle SATA 3 ports that run off of the Intel controller. Down in the bottom right corner are the two front panel connections, this time MSI didn’t include labels or colors to help with the installation. Make sure you use the helpers or keep your manual around. Next we have our third 4 pin PWM fan header as well as two USB 2.0 headers.

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In the bottom left corner, starting from the USB 2.0 headers mentioned in the previous picture we have a fourth and final 4 pin PWM fan header. Next to it is a plug for the USB Audio Power adapter that I spoke about earlier. The switch next to the plug turns the USB Audio Power on and off. Next is the front panel audio connection and the Audio Boost 2 chipset. We have 17 gold Nichicon caps and the EMI shield over the headphone amp that lights up when powered on with the Audio Boost logo in red. Around all of the audio chipset is a clear section of the board that lights up red when powered on as well to show that the entire audio chipset is separate from the rest of the motherboard. For PCI slots we have a little more going on with the Z97M. You get two PCIe x1 slots and two PCIe x16 slots. When only one x16 slot is being used it will run at x16, but if you hook up to both they will drop down to x8 on both. MSI slipped in a fifth slot to the right of the top x1 slot. This is a M.2 port for new high speed SSDs.

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For the rear I/O panel you get a total of 8 USB ports. Two of them are USB 2.0 and they are the red ports that have additional gold platting to give longer life when you unplug and plug your keyboard and mouse in often like pro gamers do. The other six USB ports are all USB 3.0 and have the standard blue color. On the right you have six red and black themed audio connections to match the rear I/O panel that is also red and black. The black ports can all be used for anything while the red port is the port that is hooked up to the built in headphone amplifier. Up under two of the USB 3.0 ports are two red eSATA connections for those of you who still have eSATA devices floating around. The red Ethernet port is the e2200 Killer NIC. MSI is using killer NICs on all of their overclocking and gaming boards. I mentioned earlier in this roundup. I had issues with them in the past because I had multiple fail, but the MSI board in one of my LAN rigs has a Killer NIC and it seems to be holding up better than my previous experiences. For display connections you get a full sized DisplayPort and full sized HDMI, this board has fewer onboard options because they expect that you will be using a dedicated card. Dropping the DVI and VGA gives more room for other options. Options like the small Clear CMOS button just to the right of the red USB 2.0 ports.

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Unlike the B85M the Z97i has a pure black PCB giving it an even better look. On the back side we can see it better as well as a few of the logos that they are most likely required to have on the PCB. Having the logos on the back keeps the top of the board even cleaner looking as well.

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MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

The Z97 Gaming 9 is a full ATX board and MSI’s flagship Z97 motherboard so the box is much larger than the B85M, Z97i, and Z97M. Even so, at first glance you know it is an MSI Gaming product because they have done a great job sticking to the same black and red theme with the dragon on the cover and the circuitry printed in gloss black on the flat black. What is different though is the ability to open up the front of the box and find a window to inside and even more information than normal on the inside. They touch on the mostly audio features on the inside of the door as well as the Killer NIC, XSplit being included, OC Genie, and some of MSI’s software. There is also a large window cut out in the shape of the MSI Gaming Series logo with the logo printed on the window as well. This gives you a slight peak at the board, when paired up with the pictures you should have a good idea of what you are getting when it is all said and done. On the back of the box there is a full specification listing as well as a line drawing of the rear I/O panel, just like the other boards had.

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When you go to pull everything out, you will have the choice to pull the box out with the motherboard or the accessory box. Both have small finger holes cut in them to make pulling them out easy.

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The accessory box has a User Guide, Software User guide, and an Installation guide for documentation. You also get a gaming door hanger, a driver/software disc, and a sheet of SATA cable stickers.

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Because this is the Z97 Gaming 9 AC, you also get the same Intel Wireless card that mounts to the motherboard in the I/O panel. They include an installation guide as well as a few of antennas for you to hook up once you install the adapter. With the adapter you get a/b/g/n/ac support as well as Bluetooth 4.0 at the same time.

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Being a full sized ATX board, the Gaming 9 has more SATA ports than the other three motherboards, so it wasn’t a big shock when I found all six of the SATA cables MSI included. Three of the cables are right angled to give you a variety and to make sure a few fit your case. The other set of cables are specifically for hooking up external hard drives. You get a PCI slot adapter that hooks up to two SATA ports and one Molex power. The PCI slot has two eSATA plugs on the outside as well as the Molex. The plugs will work with a standard eSATA device or if you want you can use the adapter cable included to convert back from eSATA to a normal SATA connection. They also include a Molex to double SATA power cable to help with this as well. You can use this to hook up two loose hard drives to the Gaming 9. This is great for anyone who sometimes does computer work for someone and might need to clone a pair of drives.

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Just like the Z97M, the Gaming 9’s rear I/O panel is blacked out with red trim and they use foam on the back side rather than the small springs that other I/O plates use.

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The Gaming 9 comes with a black Crossfire bridge for those who are running pre 290’s in Crossfire. You also get the Molex adapter for their USB Audio Power feature that lets you push additional power into USB to make sure you have a stable power for USB audio devices. The last few accessories are the front panel connection helpers and adapters for checking voltage on the Gaming 9.

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With the Z97 Gaming 9 being MSI’s flagship gaming motherboard, they didn’t hold anything back when putting it together. We have the same black and red theme as the previous boards but this time around it is a full ATX board with shields over both the rear I/O panel and the audio card. The layout is a completely standard layout with no surprises from the overall point of view, I will dig into the details and make sure here in just a second though.

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The Gaming 9 has the same new cooling design that the Gaming 5, Z97i, and Z97M have. The new heatsinks really catch your eye and don’t have to rely on gimmicks like the dragon shape. They did still slip the dragon logo onto the end of the heatsinks though. This time around, we have two full sized heatsinks connected by a thick heatpipe. Down on the bottom right the chipset cooler is larger than the others but shares the same black and red design with the MSI Gaming Series logo on top.

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Starting up in the top left corner we have the eight pin CPU power in between the two heatsinks. Down below the CPU socket under the heatsink is a four pin PWM system fan header. The four pin PWM CPU header up on the top right as well.

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On the right side of the top of the Gaming 9 we have the second four pin PWM CPU fan header just above the ram. Speaking of the RAM you get four DDR3 DIMMS all decked out in black, like Johnny Cash. In the corner, MSI put the power, reset, and OC Genie buttons. They all light up with red backlighting when the board is powered up. They are less important for when you have the board installed in a case, but if you test on a test bench the buttons are extremely helpful! The weird looking 9 pin header is actually where you can plug in and check motherboard voltages using your own multimeter for the best reading. Below that is the 24 pin motherboard power plug.

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Working our way down to the bottom right corner we have two USB 3.0 headers, one is right angled and the other faces up like most other boards. I’m really excited to see more USB 3.0 headers starting to show up. Next are the eight SATA 3 connections, they are all right angled for clean wire management as well. Below the SATA ports is the LED diagnostic readout that shows where you are in the boot when booting, errors when your system won’t boot, and also your current CPU temperature when your PC is running. Down along the bottom we have two more four pin PWM fan headers giving us a total of five. While this should be enough, it does seem a little on the low side for such a high end board. All of the front panel connections are in the corner but plan on using the included helpers or the manual because there aren’t any labels. Lastly we have two USB 2.0 headers. One of the headers has red inside showing that it provides additional power for charging your USB devices.

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The bottom left corner of the board is dominated by two things, the audio card and the Gaming 9’s PCIe slots. For PCI slots you get three PCI x1 slots and three PCIe x16 slots. The x16 slots only have 16 CPU lanes to share, so if you use a single card you get all 16 for it. However, if you go with two video cards (or any other device) you get 8x8. Running all three slots really cuts things down to 8x4x4, so if you plan on running two video cards and a sound card in those slots keep it in mind. For the audio card there isn’t much to see due to the large metal cover that goes over everything. We do still have the gold Nichicon caps and the built in headphone amplifier. The USB Audio Boost plug is down near the corner as well as the switch that turns it on. The front panel audio connection is down towards the bottom right near the USB 2.0 headers.

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For the Gaming 9, MSI really stepped things up when it comes to the rear I/O panel. The entire panel is shielded. Not only does this give a cleaner look, but I would bet that it might just help on the audio side as well. The shield comes bolted to the motherboard but when you go to install the board you will need to unbolt it because it is held down on the screw locations. MSI just uses the bolts to keep it in place during shipping.

For connections you get an impressive 8 USB 3.0 ports. There are still two USB 2.0 ports over on the left along with the PS2 for legacy keyboards. They are colored in red because MSI upped the gold platting to prevent issues with wear for gamers who unplug their equipment often to take it to tournaments. The red Ethernet port is the Killer e2200 NIC. For audio connections you get the standard 6 ports. Five of the six ports are black in color and you can plug whatever devices in as needed. The red port is the headphone port that is wired into the build in amplifier to help push high end headsets and headphones.

For video connections you get a full sized DisplayPort and full sized HDMI port. MSI didn’t bother with a DVI to save space for other devices plus with a board this high end you are most likely going to use at least one dedicated video card. Over on the left between the USB ports is the small clear CMOS button as well as where the wireless adapter (that is included) plugs in.

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With the Gaming 9 flipped over we have a better look at the black PCB. Just like the Z97M it is completely black unlike the B85M that had a bronze tent to it. Just like the other boards, MSI slipped some of the required logos onto the underside of the PCB to help keep things as clean looking as possible up top.

z97gaming9 29

 


Test Rig and Procedures

Intel LGA1150 Test System

CPU

Intel i7-4770K CPU

Live Pricing

Cooling

Noctua NH-U12S for cooling

Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste

Live Pricing

Live Pricing

Memory

Kingston DDR3 HyperX Genesis Blue 1600Mhz Ram

Live Pricing

Storage

Kingston HyperX 3K 240Gb SSD (OS)
Corsair Force GT 60GB (USB 3.0 and SATA 3 testing)

Live Pricing

Live Pricing

Video Card

Nvidia GTX 780

Live Pricing

Power Supply

Cooler Master V1000

Live Pricing

Case

Microcool Banchetto 101 Test bench

Live Pricing

OS

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Live Pricing

Motherboard Testing

Passmark Performance Test 8.0

We now just use the overall CPU mark score that takes into account all of the CPU oriented results

PCMark 8

We use the Home Accelerated benchmark and track the overall score

3DMark

We run the 2013 Fire Strike test on the performance setting

In Game Tests

Bioshock Infinite

Using the Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool, we run Bioshock Infinite on the “Xtreme” quality setting.

Tomb Raider

 Using the Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool, we run Tomb Raider on the “Xtreme” quality setting.

Hitman: Absolution

Using the Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool, we run Hitman: Absolution on the “Xtreme” quality setting.

Sleeping Dogs

 Using the Adrenaline Action Benchmark Tool, we run Sleeping Dogs on the “Xtreme” quality setting.

Subsystem Testing

RightMark Audio Analyzer

We use this to test the on board audio on all motherboard that come in, this gives us an idea of their audio performance beyond subjective testing. When testing we always have our audio set to 24 bit.

Crystal Disk Mark

We use this benchmark for USB 3.0 and SATA speed tests. Testing is done with Crystal Disc Mark with a Corsair Force GT 60 Gb. USB 3.0 testing is hooked up through a Thermaltake BlackX with USB 3.0 support

Passmark

Passmark Advanced network test

 


Performance

I couldn’t just hook all of these motherboards up and not put them through our benchmark suite right? Full disclosure, in standard tests like these most motherboards perform nearly the same, these benchmarks mostly just confirm that there aren’t any glaring issues. The systems tests that I will get into later generally show the motherboards performance more than anything.

With that said I ran all four boards through the latest 3DMark, PCMark 8, Passmark 8, and a collection of games as well to see how they all perform. Oddly enough with 3DMark and PCMark there were a few oddity’s when compared to the boards I tested previously. Seeing how drivers have changed I couldn’t pinpoint why there were differences. The four MSI boards tested today all performed consistent with each other. The Mini ITX board and B85M both did come in a little lower in 3DMark though. The in game benchmarks prove that a motherboard alone won’t improve your gaming performance, the boards just help facilitate things like multiple video cards that DO help improve that performance though.

3DMark

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Overall Score 8714

Graphics Score 9784

Physics Score 11082

Asus Z97-A

Overall Score 8715

Graphics Score 9777

Physics Score 11119

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

Overall Score 8578

Graphics Score 9744

Physics Score 10533

MSI B85M Gaming

Overall Score 8572

Graphics Score 9726

Physics Score 10556

MSI Z97M Gaming

Overall Score 8660

Graphics Score 9795

Physics Score 11089

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

Overall Score 8698

Graphics Score 9836

Physics Score 11128

PCMark 8

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

5133

Asus Z97-A

5287

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

4469

MSI B85M Gaming

4585

MSI Z97M Gaming

4712

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

4721

Passmark

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

5186.1

Asus Z97-A

5500.0

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

5057.8

MSI B85M Gaming

5117.8

MSI Z97M Gaming

5064.4

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

5373.8

Bioshock Infinite

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

106.54

Asus Z97-A

110.74

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

110.28

MSI B85M Gaming

111.36

MSI Z97M Gaming

108.35

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

110.28

Tomb Raider

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

57.1

Asus Z97-A

57.2

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

58.9

MSI B85M Gaming

57.3

MSI Z97M Gaming

56.8

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

57.1

Hitman: Absolution

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

45.8

Asus Z97-A

46.7

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

47.2

MSI B85M Gaming

45.6

MSI Z97M Gaming

47.3

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

47.1

Sleeping Dogs

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

62.4

Asus Z97-A

62

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

63.2

MSI B85M Gaming

62.4

MSI Z97M Gaming

62.3

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

61.3

 


Audio

Normally we use a benchmark that compares audio performance numbers. Sadly we have been experiencing issues with this software and it isn’t giving consistent results. Because of that, I had to go old school and reply on my personal audio testing. I ran through a variety of songs on each of the four motherboards. Just to make sure I had something to compare too, I also tested with a high end sound card as well. First things first, with all four boards having the build in headphone amplifier, I am extremely impressed with how things have progressed over the last few years when it comes to built in audio. In the past there wasn’t any thought given to it and now manufactures like MSI have really been stepping things up with quality caps, dedicated PCB’s, and headphone amps. So how did they all perform? Well the B85M came in at the bottom of the pack with fairly standard audio. The other three are comparable to a mid-ranged sound card with the Gaming 9 sounding a little better than the others.

I tried to test out the USB Audio Boost feature but frankly I didn’t notice a difference between when I was using it and when I wasn’t. I suspect that the only time you would have an improvement is when you are plugging a lot of devices into your USB plugs. I also feel that anyone who cares enough about their audio to hook this up would most likely prefer to use a sound card or at least the sound card built into these boards, USB sound cards aren’t exactly known for their performance.

 


USB 3.0 and SATA 3

Over the last few generations Intel and AMD have been doing a great job adding more and more USB 2 and 3 ports on their chipsets. Before, nearly every motherboard needed to run a second controller to add additional ports. The same happened on the SATA side as well. Back then testing the USB and SATA interfaces was important because those controllers didn’t always perform up to our standards. With all four of these boards we have more than enough of ports running on the Intel chipset and as you can see below, because of that the performance numbers are about what you would expect. I would still love to see MSI include something similar to Asus’s USB 3 Boost, they were able to get huge improvements using the same SSD and USB 3.0 drive that I tested on all of 6 motherboards.

SATA3

Read Speed

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

459.2

Asus Z97-A

460.6

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

466.7

MSI B85M Gaming

466.5

MSI Z97M Gaming

433.5

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

442.1

USB 3

Read Speed

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

279.0

Asus Z97-A

277.4

Asus Z97-A w/USB3 Boost

427.6

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

273.6

MSI B85M Gaming

273.9

MSI Z97M Gaming

275.4

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

276.2

 


Network

For network performance, I run a network test in Passmark to another PC on our network. Our old tests, including the Gaming 5 and Asus board were all run testing to our event server. Well sadly we dropped that server and had to change things up and test to an Intel NUC. With the NUC only running on an SSD and being a faster machine overall the results are a little higher than we saw before. The important thing to take from these tests is the Killer e2200 NIC in all 5 MSI boards actually performs extremely well in our tests. I have been critical of the Killer NICs in the past because I have had multiple die on me but I haven’t had a problem over the last few years with them after the Qualcomm purchase. I don’t trust them completely, but I am starting to warm up to them.

Motherboard

Average Network Speed

MSI Z97 Gaming 5

820 Mbps

Asus Z97-A

678.1 Mbps

MSI Z97I Gaming AC

886.1

MSI B85M Gaming

935.2

MSI Z97M Gaming

902.6

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC

860.5

 


Overall and Final Verdict

So at the end of the day, after taking a close look at all four boards and running them through our benchmark suite, how do they all compare? Well as a whole they all did very well with only a few downsides.

I expected the Z97i to be my favorite because of my love for Mini-ITX builds but it ended up being the motherboard I had the biggest issues with. That’s not to say that it wasn’t still a great board, but the rotated design did make me consider what heatsink I would be using even more, luckily our 120mm Noctua was able to fit by turning it sideways. Even then you have to consider that the weird locations of a lot of its connections will make doing clean wiring on most cases even harder, assuming all of the cords are long enough to reach. I would also love to see the board have a third fan header for cases like the In Win 901 that have two case fans and the heatsink. Even with those issues I love how much MSI was able to pack into the small form factor. You get Wireless AC and Bluetooth as well as an impressive sound card for such a small board. Without a doubt I expect to see the Z97i Gaming AC in a few LAN rigs over the next year.

z97ifv3recomended

Moving up to the Micro ATX B85M I was especially impressed with everything you get at well under $100 bucks. The only downsides were the old heatsink design that went a little dragon crazy and the lower quality audio card. Frankly at this price I don’t expect high end audio and the dragon heatsinks aren’t bad at all, just not as cool as the new styling. You are basically getting a gaming focused motherboard at the price of a budget motherboard. You can use the money you save on the B85M Gaming and put that money into a higher end Devils Canyon CPU or a second GPU, it supports both!

b85Mfv3recomended

The Z97M shared a lot of features with the cheaper B85M, but you do get more features across the board and a better looking board with the completely blacked out PCB and the new heatsink styling. It’s a great board, but its only downside frankly is its price point when you compare it to the B85M. You have to decide if spending nearly double is worth getting upgraded audio, more USB 3.0 ports, and better styling. The fact that I have to look to its price to find its only downside means the Z97M Gaming is a great board!

z97mfv3tophonors

Lastly we have the Z97 Gaming 9 AC. Being the only full ATX board tested today (I tested the Gaming 5 at the Z97 launch) it was worlds above the other boards when it comes to features. Just like the Z97i you get wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.0, but it was the built in audio quality that impressed me the most. The shields covering the entire audio card and rear I/O panel really helped give the best possible onboard audio and those same shields give the board a great look. Those looking to add a little style could even paint them to match the rest of your PC. For downsides I wouldn’t mind seeing one more fan header, for being a full ATX board 5 seemed a little low. My other concern is just the overall need for three x16 slots on a Z97 motherboard. The chipset/CPU limits how many PCIe lanes you have as a whole, running two cards is fun because you will get 8x8, but adding a third card drops you down to 8x4x4 and will really put a hurt on performance.

gaming9fv3recomended

 

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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garfi3ld replied the topic: #35311 13 Aug 2014 17:31
Things have been a little quiet around here but that is because I have been busy with both the upcoming LAN and working on reviews like this that take a little more time than normal to put together. Check out this four motherboard review of most of MSI's current socket 1550 gaming boards!

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