Overall and Final Verdict

I am extremely excited that MSI has turned their focus onto the Mini ITX and small form factor gaming market. I have been using small LAN rigs for years now and let’s be honest, it has been very hard to find parts. Once you do find good parts their isn’t much of a variety so a lot of the builds look very similar. Now with the Z87I Gaming AC and the GTX 760 Gaming ITX there are more options on the market.

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Well are they good options? After spending time with them both I can say without a doubt they are both great options for your new LAN build. I do have a few issues with each part that I would like to point out though. First the colors between the motherboard and video card don’t match. Although I like the creativeness of the dragon design on the Z87I Gaming AC, I would prefer to see a design closer to the Mpower boards design but with red accents to still give it the Gaming theme. If they did that the Mini-ITX video card would properly match the motherboard. My other complaint about the Z87I Gaming AC was with their choice of network card. Although I didn’t experience any specific issues while testing, I have had multiple issues with them in the past. They tend to be a little picky and sometimes cause hard to replicate issues. I would have preferred to of seen an Intel NIC. Not only would it be a quality NIC from a manufacture people know, but it would also most likely save a little money as well.

The Z87 Gaming AC does have a lot going for it as well. First, MSI bundled in a wireless AC adapter so you won’t have to worry about slow network speeds or your PC not keeping up with wireless technology for a long time. Along with that MSI really packed in a lot into such a small form factor. You have more than enough USB ports on the rear with headers inside as well, five internal SATA connections, and the PCI Express x16 port. All together the board will be a perfect LAN rig or even a SteamBox.

The GTX 760 Gaming ITX is also a great fit with the SteamBox idea. Together you can build a high powered rig that would be just as at home under your TV as it would be on your desk (or at a LAN for that matter). The only downsides to the card to me at the similarities to Asus’s Mini ITX design. I would have preferred they do something that is more MSI with a single fan Twin Frozr cooler for example. The fan they used was very interesting though with the dual direction fan blades. MSI also stepped up and included a backplate with the GTX 760 Gaming ITX, this adds value, styling, and protects the card as well. The only other thing I would want to change would be adding a second DVI connection back. I understand they removed it to give more airflow but personally I would prefer to have a second DVI than both of the DisplayPort connections.

For pricing both the motherboard and the video card come in at prices that are competitive with similar products. The GTX 760 Gaming ITX is actually the only Mini ITX focused video card available currently, so it will be interesting to see later on if its price stays competitive with the GTX 760 model from Asus. It does MSRP for less than the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini did when I covered it earlier this year. All said, if you want to build a rig with these components and an i7-4770 you are still looking at a little over a thousand dollars. That is a fairly hefty buy in price if you are thinking of a steam box, but the performance you get really does make up for the price. Not to mention nothing else is going to let you build a smaller more powerful rig!

fv3z87Igamingacrecomended

fv3gtx760itxrecomended

 

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's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #33770 24 Jan 2014 16:35
For those of you who are into small form factor gaming, MSI has a new motherboard and video card that you might be interested in. Check it out!
Plague's Avatar
Plague replied the topic: #33772 24 Jan 2014 20:44
Nice stuff, motherboard is an upgrade to the one I have only intel. Video seem to be just a bit slower then the Asus card, which I find odd, but not bad either way. To bad these were not out last September. hehe

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