Re: MSI x99a Gaming 9 ACK unboxing

This is mine set up in same case almost same apart from gpu

I am also having the same problem. I wish I had thought to activate on the Nvidia card, it might have avoided this.

Similar Messages

[COMPUTEX 2015 Best Choice Golden Award] MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK Motherboard

[Taipei, Taiwan] The world's 2nd largest and Asia's largest B2B computer exhibition, COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2015 will take place from the 2nd until the 6th of June. Today, the winners of the esteemed COMPUTEX Best Choice Awards are announced. MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK & MSI X99A XPOWER AC Motherboards proudly stood out from over 450 competitions and won the Best Choice Golden Award & Best Choice Award, confirming MSI’s leading position in Gaming and Overclocking.
Recognized for its extraordinary ingenuity and outstanding design, the MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK Motherboard receives the Best Choice Golden Award in the Gaming & Entertainment category. The MSI X99A XPOWER AC Motherboard receives the Best Choice Award in the Computer & System category for uncompromising Overclocking capabilities. MSI offers the best Gaming and Overclocking motherboards and was the first vendor to introduce a full range of USB 3.1 featured motherboards on the market.
Ted Hung, MSI Vice President of Motherboard Sales Division, gladly responded, “For years MSI has been pushing the boundaries of technology, going all out to deliver tech products that meet the needs of global users. This time around, MSI's effort in developing overclocking technologies has received recognition from COMPUTEX. It's absolutely a great honor and an affirmation toward MSI's technical innovation and design capabilities.”
World's First & Best Onboard Hardware Streaming Solution
Meet the world’s first & best onboard hardware streaming solution, called Streaming Engine. A dedicated onboard hardware card which delivers even better performance and quality than Intel Quick Sync, because having superior video quality and streaming performance is essential when sharing gaming activities with the world. Gamers can stream at amazing 1080p 60 Mbps quality using HD H.264 hardware compression.
A New Round of Breaking World Records
With each model built using Military Class 4 components and specifically tuned for an overclocking segment, MSI’s OC Certified models deliver stability and top overclocking performance with the latest Intel HEDT CPUs. Clever solutions are once again handed to devoted overclockers to help break world records. DirectUSB is available for easy USB flashing and saving scores. The latest series features a new OC Backplate, a smart solution for overclockers to mount their LN2 pot, and Xtreme OC Kit to make mounting a cooling solution easier, safer and to help squeeze every last MHz out of an unlocked CPU. The next generation OC Engine offers a dedicated Clock Generator for more flexible BCLK adjustments, from 100/ 125/ 167 MHz straps. Using these straps prevents system crashes while overclocking on the edge and opens doors to achieve the absolute maximum.
X99A GODLIKE GAMING, ONE BOARD TO RULE ALL
MSI rolls out its super high-end X99A GODLIKE GAMING motherboard at COMPUTEX. The X99A GODLIKE GAMING is world’s first RGB LED motherboard, supporting more than 2000 colors and many style presets such as breathing, flashing and waving.
The X99A GODLIKE GAMING employs the latest Audio Boost 3 PRO technology to deliver crystal clear sound quality and lossless audio compression. For efficient data transfer, Turbo M.2, SATA Express and USB 3.1 are supported. The X99A GODLIKE GAMING also adopts the latest Killer DoubleShot-X3 PRO. Smart teaming with two Killer Ethernet chips and Killer 1535 Wi-Fi module, X99A GODLIKE GAMING can provide up to 2.867Gbps of network bandwidth for hardcore gamers. The Mystic Light, another special feature, lets users easily control the LED light effects with the MSI Gaming APP on OS and the Mystic Light APP on Android mobile devices.
MSI Z97 & H97 motherboards fully support the 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processors
With the latest BIOS update, all MSI Z97 & H97 motherboards are completely compatible with the new 5th Gen Intel® Core™ processors and able to unleash
your system’s full performance. Committed to ensuring compatibility and performance, the MSI R&D team is making sure you never have to worry about your MSI motherboard supporting the latest generation of Intel® Core™ processors. For full enjoyment of the latest technology and all the advantages of the 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processors, MSI Z97 & H97 motherboards are the best choice.

I dont think the usb 3.1 drives ready now, but it's nice to see msi moterboard get this new feature.
I think the type-c usb 3.1 will be use on the mobile device for sure!

Tom's Hardware released USB 3.1 testing results on MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK

Tom’s Hardware released a test result of MSI motherboard and USB 3.1 device. It mentioned that there is an ASMedia ASM1352R controller on X99A GAMING 9 ACK to support two USB 3.1 ports on I/O interface.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.1-performance-benchmark,4037.html
X99A GAMING 9 ACK, expected to launch in Q1 2015.
USB ports on MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK
Testing Platform
Results: USB 3.1 VS. USB 3.0
ASMedia is the only company ready with USB 3.1 and Intel isn’t planning to build the technology into its chipsets any time soon. Neither Broadwell’s nor Skylake platform supports native USB 3.1. Moreover, MSI is the first company to announce its motherboard with USB 3.1 feature. MSI X99A GAMING 9 ACK will undoubtedly be a $400+ motherboard like X99S GAMING 9 ACK before it. Any users who want to enjoy the newest technology can choose MSI X99A motherboard to have the best using experience.

I dont think the usb 3.1 drives ready now, but it's nice to see msi moterboard get this new feature.
I think the type-c usb 3.1 will be use on the mobile device for sure!

Re: Black screen after MSI Z97I Gaming ACK BIOS Update

Great I could help.

Quote from: ruta.andrea on Today at 21:29:57
hi, with dimm in slot 2 im receiving the error code 99??????
edited
sorry 1 - 3One by one
What do you get with DIMM1(label them) in slot #2?
What do you get wit...

MSI X99S GAMING 7 - slow booting; HDD aren´t recognized in BIOS

Hi,
i´m facing a similar Problem as it is described in "MSI X99A Gaming 7 and Samsung SM951 PCI-e very slow boot time" https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=255919.0
My rig:
- i7 5930k
- X99S Gaming 7 (BIOS h90)
- PALIT GTX 980 Super Jetstream
- OCZ revodrive 3 x2 240 GByte (System disk)
- Corsair Force 3 120 GByte (game disk)
- 2x SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500 GByte (SATA 3GB/s)
- 1 LG Electronics BH16NS40
- 16 GByte Corsair Vengeance LPX schwarz DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR4-2666, CL15-17-17-35 (CMK16GX4M4A2666C15)
- 1000W power supply
- ANTEC P193 case
- G19 Keyboard
- MX518 Mouse.
I assembled it yesterday and during the first booting sequence it restarted 3 times.
After that it took 5 minutes to be on the Windows Desktop. Furthermore I recognized that all the HDDs and the optical drive weren´t available.
I tried to activate them in the Windows System - with no result. Than I checked the BIOS, they weren´t present there.
At the end i checked the HDDs only with the power supply, they booted. As soon as I connect them with the SATA cable they stand still - no spin up hear-able.
Now The BluRay and the HDDs are disconnected, the booting sequence is a Little bit faster (still 3 minutes).
In the BIOS I only activated the XMP-Profile für the RAM and I changed the booting sequence for the REVODRIVE.
May someone has any hint for me, how to deal with this Problem - but as I stated at the very beginning: it sounds similar to me.
Best regards from Austria
Gerald
P.S.: I apologize for "hijacking" - I tried to simplify the Forum by merging similar issues.

Your explanation isn't very helpful.
Your third try you got the Revodrive, corsair, and optical running? Meaning that you could boot multiple times and have it all work correctly?
I hate saying it, but if you aren't going to be descriptive, we aren't going to be very much help.
For what it's worth, I'm starting to think that the Revodrive and the motherboard do not work well together.
Personally, I would also consider contacting MSI directly about the issue. They might be able to issue a new BIOS that improves compatibility.
>>How to contact MSI.<<

Z97i Gaming ACK Keyboard Power on

I would like to be able to boot my pc by clicking any button on my keyboard or mouse.
I know that such a feature exists on other boards, but is it available (even via third party) to me?
If this is not an option how can I boot the system without utilizing the case's power button?
Thank you for your time,
Maverick
MSI Z97I Gaming ACK
Intel Core I7 4790k
MSI 970 Gaming 4G
Steelseries Sensei
Steelseries Apex

check you BIOS settings,
Go to Bios setup --> Settings --> Wake Up Event Setup --> Resume from S3 by USB Device (set to Enabled)
if you are using PS/2 keyboard or mouse, enable the Resume by PS/2 device option.

MSI Z97 Gaming 9 ACK problem with wifi (lag spike)

hi all,
the problem is that all is well connected to the ethernet (killer 2205).
while on wifi I have many lag spike when i play online game.
I got a laptop with similar wifi card (killer 1202) and all went good!!
so why with killer 1525 on desktop i got this lag spike? its very bad.
the network driver is the newset
my system:
windows 7 64bit
msi z97 gaming 9 ack
i7 4790k
16gb ddr3 2133mhz
msi gtx 970oc
seasonic 860 platinum

Quote from: darkhawk on 17-June-15, 18:01:01
I'd be more for RMA'ing the board.
But personally, I'm staying away from Killer Network products from now on. They are buggy and do not work very well when they don't work. Sometimes they don't work at all. Check back through these forums, and one of the biggest issues with any of the boards and/or laptops is always the Killer Networks NIC's. And there is no simple and easy fix for many of the issues.
If it was me, I'd buy a nice wireless card and use that instead. Or do the Intel mod you posted about.
I won't say that the Killer Networks device SHOULD work, but time and time again they prove to not work. In that case, I'd replace it with something that will and move on. A $40 wireless card to not spend days or weeks trying to fix the problem is money well spent in my opinion.
now im going with powerlink and all went good, but as all know, powerlink after 2 years will broke and need to replace..... but online game with eth is always better.
So im tihink to resend to AMAZON and ask for refund and ill rebuy a gaming 7 without wifi this change refund me a good 100 euro......

Msi x99 gaming 9 ack does not detect capture card when using with xsplit

msi x99 gaming 9 ack does not detect capture card when using with xsplit
i install every but still it does not work.

Hi
It wasn't hard to find your motherboard version:
http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z68AGD80_B3.html#down-bios
Since your BIOS is v20.1, it couldn't be G3
Apart from checking BIOS, you can only check motherboard or moth...

Msi x99 gaming 9 ack problems

ok got my new msi x99 gaming 9 ack with i7 5930k and g.skill 2400 ram
got my corsair ax1200i
so my problems i have been working on this all night near enough but today we have progress.
so problem is when i put ram in slot 1 would not post debug 04/55/60 no keyboard or signal to monitor. so i have finally got it working and got into the bios by put just one stick in slot 5. tried all 4 sticks in slot 5 but one failed at 6f so i think now one stick is faulty. but back to main problem with slot one.
once i had it booting up i switched off system and added 1 stick in slot one.
and it would not post debug 04/55/60.
so do i ram it or do you think bios update will fix this problem thanks in advance

Last night the exact same problem occurred to my Gaming 9 ACK.
Board worked flawlessly for three months with a 5960X processor, quad channel G.Skill 3.33 memory ( 16gb- 4x4 ) and four msi GTX980 gaming in quad sli mode.
Turned off the pc last night, and today, upon start the pc did not boot.
04-55-60-04 and all over again.
Memory modules are populated in slots 1-3-5-7. After several try and error efforts, slot 7 is blocking the system from booting. All four modules checked and are fine.
Removed module in slot 7 and booted. No problem there.
After entering windows 7 environment, a second even bigger surprise surfaced.
NO SLI. Device manager sees only gtx980 in slot 1 and nothing else.
New tests.
Only pci-e slot 1 works. All others are non functional.
So I am with an 8000$ pc, which works with 12gb triple channel memory and one VGA.
Obviously motherboard has gone south.
What now ???

MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC Unboxing Video

Hey guys,
newbie here on the forum...just bought my first MSI mobo, so I thought I should join MSI forum just in case I have any problem.
Anyway this is my first unboxing video for a motherboard...the mobo is the MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC motherboard.

Hi again,
Regarding RAM and watercooling: how I see this (and MSI might too) is that X99 series is based and thought about professional editing, creating, and in most cases people don't have water cooling attached to their, I don't know, Quadro K5200. Anyways, you can ask them why they actually did it this way (no matter it's X99 board, matter is that it doesn't fit watercooling backplate together with RAM, so surprised too).
>>How to contact MSI.<< If required.
For the BIOS: well.. in most cases new BIOS release is stability rather than performance. But glad you found out the issue of impossibility to update it. I wouldn't really help you, as I know enough to help you brick it Kidding. Rather not give bad info/guidance and then see you blaming me for bricking your board. Also X99 is new series, and I have no clue (yet) if M-Flash is improved (compared to Z87/Z97 boards) but also if Forum's Flash tool would work at all.
Regarding USB Key: I guess your Kingston is around 4Gb, whereas Sandisk Extreme 8 or 16? Had same issue, not just with update but also with taking screenshots within BIOS.
Quote from: vmanuelgm on 19-September-14, 01:24:23
Next time I ask for help, I would like ideas to solve the problem, and not answers like that...
Sorry I tried to help. The fact RAM slots are that near, none of us can help it. Regarding BIOS, I tried to tell you it's risky, and that if you don't experience problems, is usually not worth updating.
Regards

MSI A88XM GAMING | Can't boot with new PCI-e x1 card plugged in

Hi,
I'm a owner to an MSI A88XM GAMING motherboard and I purchased a AverMedia Live Gamer HD card last week. After unboxing and installing the card to one of my PCI-e x1 slots the computer won't boot. All what happends is what the fans starts and the power LED turns on, but that's all. No beeps or anything.
I know for sure what the AverMedia Live Gamer HD card is working just fine, as I've already tested it on my old computer. I've also tested if it might have been a power issue, by disconnected everything and running it on a towel outside the case, still the same result. Connecting it to any of the other 3 PCI-e ports gives the same result. All the PSU cables are properly connected and the motherboard has the latest BIOS version on it.
Is there any way to get it to work on my computer? I would really like to avoid switching motherboard is possible. Using a 2:nd computer is also not an option, as I want to be able to just take it with me without any issues.
My Computer
Motherboard: MSI A88XM GAMING
CPU: AMD A10-7850K
RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 2400MHz 2x8GB
GFX: XFX R9 280X 3GB DD Black
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Black
PSU: Corsair 760W (don't remember the model)
OS: Win 8.1 Pro x64

Quote from: jfreiman on 15-October-14, 16:54:29
Well, someone is doing something with the BIOS because they sent me 1.2B6 a couple weeks ago for the same 88XM GAMING motherboard -- and it didn't fix my Display Port issues. Maybe the changes were to the PCIe timings?
I didn't want to test any more 1.2 beta builds, due to earlier problem with them. But I'll give the final build of v1.2 a try later today, I didn't notice what it had been released.
Quote from: Alcifer on 18-October-14, 01:47:13
Out of curiosity, have you tried the video output from the motherboard, instead of the 280x, when you have card installed? (Make sure the IGP is enabled in bios)
That was one of the very first things I tried, did so after my 2:nd post on the forum. You can find the results here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=183220.msg1315289#msg1315289
I've contacted the AverMedia Support, hopefully they should be able to find the issue. It's possible what it might be a firmware related issue.
I've also searched around on the XSplit forum if there's anyone else what have run into the same problem. But couldn't find anything, so I made a thread and asked directly instead. I got a reply from someone on the Support Staff, but he couldn't find anything either.

MSI z97 Gaming 9 Network problems

I just finished my first build and i used the msi z97 gaming 9 ack motherboard. After installing all drivers and everything i tried to connect to the network via wifi and ethernet, but neither worked. When using wifi, it could see the networks but wouldn't connect to any of them. Also, when i plugged in a working ethernet cord, the lights didn't even blink on the port and it didn't show up as having anything plugged in. I am running windows 8 pro 64 bit. I have no idea why it is doing this and am starting to get very frustrated by it. If anyone could help it would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Quote from: Svet on 23-February-15, 19:15:40
is the lan card enabled in bios setup and function properly inside OS? [check it in device manager]
Yes the BIOS is saying that it is turned on, and the device manager lists these under Network adapters:
Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)
Killer e2200 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.30)
Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1525 Wireless Network Adapter
Microsoft Kernel Debug Network Adapter
Also in the BIOS menu, it isn't showing the wifi adapter that came with the board. It is plugged in andscrewed onto the board and it can find networks, but can't connect. It just looks like a blank spot in the board explorer option in the BIOS. Any reason it would be doing this?

Msi z97 gaming 5 bios update help

Hello I recently purchased the msi z97 gaming 5 motherboard. It was working fine it came with bios version 1.0 and I wanted to update it. I downloaded the latest 1.5 bios from msi website copied to usb flash drive and flashed it using mflash. Computer powers on but black screen wont do nothing. I cleared cmos and battery and still nothing so I am pretty sure its bricked. I am going to store to exchange it for another one but I want to be able to safely update the bios without bricking again. I usually dont update bios unless needed but i need at least 1.2 bios to fully support the devils canyon cpu. Can someone please point me in the right direction? I read about the usb flashing tool in forum but also read that bios+me need to be flashed and I don't know if that program is up to date and will flash both files? I really appreciate it if someone helped thanks in advance.

Also does anyone know if it is dangerous to update the bios with a 4690k devils canyon cpu since it is not officially supported until 1.2? Is that why my first bios flash was bricked? I would hate to go and borrow another cpu just to update the bios but if I have to I will. Sorry for all the questions but I need to get my bios updated and I will not update it until I am sure of all these things. Thanks to anyone who answers these questions.

Problem with my MSI 290x gaming 4g performance in unigine valley benchmark.

First im dutch(netherlands) so sorry for my maybe bad english.
My system is:
Asus p8z77 v deluxe mb
intel 3770k cpu
16gb ram 1866 Corsair
2x ssd 256 gb OCZ
MSI 290x gaming
win7 64bit ultimate.
When i came home with my card i removed my old 7970 and replaced it with my new card.
Put some programs up like gpu-z cpu-z realtemp ext.
Then run Unigine-valley Benchmark with OC tool MSI at 1040 option.
My cpu at 4.2ghz OC
Score Unigine valley v1.0: 61.1 fps-score2558-min fps 30.3/max fps 112.8
Custom settings at 1920-1080 and ultra 8x aa windowed.
Seems ok result.
Now to problem i have.
So next i did (dumb me hehe) i try OC my CPU with All-suit II from ASUS to OC cpu extreme mode which stress test untill stable clock is found.
Got a crash bluescreen and then after few attemps stable 4.3.
Then did new benchmark and my score was alot lower and nomatter what i try my 290x did not pass 60fps any more and score dropped to 2100?
3dmark firestrike gave first time score of 9655 and after my disaster with cpu failed attemp 9200.
My card is stuck at 60fps max it won't get any higher?
The GPU-Z also show PCI-E 3.0 X16@ X1 1.1and when i activate render i see it only change to x16 1.1 i never see gen 3.0.
CPU-Z info motherboard also only pci-express link with x1 and x16
My questions is how can o solve this problem it seems my motherbaord don't reconize my videocard anymore?
Also posible that something with the OC attemp CPU broke something?
I also try change from AUTO to GEN3 in bios but then i get a blackscreen when i boot up it stays backscreen, have to change it switch videocards so i can see my boot again and go into BIOS.
Im at a lost here, hope one of you know a solution or whats my problem?
Hope ive supply enough info im bit of a newbie at this sorry for that.
Thanks in advance.

>>Clear CMOS<< of your board and retry.

MSI Z97A Gaming 6 meets up Intel Broadwell i7 5775C

It’s been awhile since I posted short reviews of PC hardware stuff but today I have something up my sleeve. We will take a quick glance on MSI’s Z97A Gaming 6 motherboard together with Intel’s new Broadwell Processor.
Box design is same as any MSI Gaming motherboard before with black/red theme, dragon logo in front and PCB trace prints all over the box. The only difference is the new USB 3.1 Type-C featured logo on top. Another thing, if you noticed the naming rule for this model. You have the letter “A” after the Z97. “A” stands for the USB 3.1 functionality.
Flipping the box, you have an overview of the input/output ports, specifications and brief information about the features of the Z97A Gaming 6 motherboard.
Specifications:
•CPU Support – 4th and 5th Generation Intel Core Processors
•CPU Socket – LGA1150
•Chipset - Intel Z97 Express Chipset
•Graphics Interface – 3x PCI-3.0 x16 slots with 4th and 5th Gen Intel Core processors
•Display Interface – HDMI, DVI, D-Sub – Requires Processor Graphics
•Memory Support – 4 DIMMs, Dual Channel DDR3-3200(OC)
•Expansion Slots – 4x PCI-Ex1 slots
•M.2/SATA – 1x M.2 Slot + 6x SATA 6GB/s (2 ports reserved for SATA Express)
•SATA RAID – RAID 0, 1, 51 10 – Only available on ports SATA1 to SATA6
•USB Port – 1x USB 3.1 Type-C + 6x USB 3.0 + 6x USB 2.0
•LAN – Killer E2205 Gigabit Ethernet
•Audio – 8-Channel (7.1) HD Audio
Main Features:
•Audio Boost2 – Provides true quality, less noise and crystal clear sound with the aid of high audio quality components such as Japanase Nichicon capacitors, dual audio amplifiers, EMI shielding, audio isolation line, golden audio jacks and direct audio power.
•Killer E2200 – Built for maximum performance for online games and high-quality audio and video streaming.
•USB Audio Power – Continuously delivers stable 5V when connecting multiple USB devices, where traditional USB solutions fall short. This is highly noticeable with high-quality external USB DACs, making sure you can continue to enjoy the crystal clear audio standard you expect.
•USB 3.1 Type-C – Allows speeds up to 10Gb/s which is twice faster than a regular USB 3.0 connection. Type-C is reversible with double sided connections for easier plugging in of your devices.
•Multi-GPU – the board is designed to have spaces in between multi-graphic cards configurations to maximize air flow.
•Gaming-App –Allows simultaneous control of both Gaming motherboard & video card’s overclocking feature. Choose from Silent, Gaming or OC mode.
•Xsplit Gamecaster V2 – Lets you record your gaming moments and broadcast your live gameplay session to Twitch, YouTube, UStream and more. Enjoy 6 months premium license for free.
Next, for the bundle we have the following
•Origin of MSI Gaming
•User Guide
•Door Hanger
•Quick Installation Guide
•DVD Utility Disc
•SATA label sticker
•Black IO Plate with soft static shielding
•SLI Bridge
•Audio direct power cable
•M-Connector for easy installation of cables to headers
•2x 90 degrees SATA 6GB/s cable
•MSI Gaming Case Badge
And there you have it my friend, MSI’s Z97A-Gaming 6 motherboard. Sleek isn’t it?!
This is a 4-layer PCB with matte black finish complimenting the red stripes for both VRM & bottom part heatsinks. There is a total of 8 power phases which is enough to squeeze out more juice from the processor during overclocking. Military Class components make the board sturdy, stable and efficient. You can see them all over the board but specifically more are placed around the processor socket area.
Before getting close with other parts of the board, here are the input/output rear ports. All red ports are part of MSI’s gaming features. Starting from the left is a PS2 combo port capable of autosensing keyboard or mouse and below it are 2x USB 2.0 ports. Both internally are gold plated to protect against oxidation and increase the lifetime 10x longer when plugging/unplugging devices. It also makes the mouse or keyboard more responsive in games.
Next, you have a wide range of display terminal options. Specifically VGA, DVI and HDMI ports and just above that is a Digital SPDIF audio terminal. The small port there is the USB 3.1 type-c connector and beside it are the Killer E2205 Gigabit LAN and 2x USB 3.0 ports. Lastly, 6 analog gold plated audio jacks with one dedicated amplified output optimized for studio-grade headgear.
Did you notice that chrome dragon on the Dragon Claw VRM heatsink before?
I really like how the components are laid out around the socket, no obstructions for installing any 3rd party market coolers out there in the market.
8pin power connector for powering up the processor and MSI manage to put a M.2 socket just above the 1st 16x PCIe slot. M.2 uses PCIe 2x bus and takes full length 2280 and 2260 M.2 devices.
4x DDR3 DIMM slots capable of speeds up to 3200MHz with max capacity of 32GB. On top of the 24pin power connector are the voltage check points. You can just tap your digital multi-tester on the read points to get real-time voltages of hardware components like the processor, memory and system agent.
The board is packed with PCIe connectors that starts with PCIe 1x and runs through 16x, 1x, 1x, 8x, 1x to 4x. If you are planning to do multi-graphics card setup, just go for a dual configuration only as the last video card slot is crippled to 4x bandwidth. At the bottom-most part are headers like USB 2.0, HD Audio, Power/Reset/HDD LED/Power LED and also present here is the debug LED for easy troubleshooting of basic bootup problems.
On the left side is where the isolated Audio Boost system is found. From the audio capacitors, amplifier chips, Realtek audio chip and Audio power header are put together into one place.
6x SATA 6GB/s ports are available but some will be lost once you utilize the SATA Express connection. RAID configurations can be set to 0/1/5 and 10. You also have here another USB 3.0 front header in a 90 degree position for better cable management.
Moving on, here are some handy software features of the MSI Gaming motherboard.
•MSI Eco Center – With this, you can turn off or disable certain ports or connectors of the board.
•MSI Gaming App which I already discussed earlier
•Sound Blaster Cinema 2 – Improving more the audio quality of Audio Boost 2
•MSI Fast Boot & Go2Bios – Shortcut command software to enter BIOS right away after a restart.
•MSI Command Center – The All in One Center to tweak and overclock your motherboard, fans, memory, built-in graphics card and processor.
MSI Command Center lets you enable the OC Genie function through Windows and make use of the RAMDisk application for high data read and write performance
Here is another exciting part of the review. Intel’s flagship LGA-1150 Broadwell i7-5775C. This is a 14nm die shrink of Haswell which was built on 22nm with a few tweaks and rated speed of 3.3Ghz (Turbo 3.7GHz). Being 14nm in die size, results to a lower power consumption and lesser heat. TDP is only at 65W but I guess Intel might be releasing soon a Broadwell based on 88W with higher frequency.
You have here is the first set of Broadwell to be launched in the market. As for the naming rule goes, I’m not really sure why Intel use “C” this time for their unlocked multiplier processors while “R” is for the BGA (Ball Grid Array) embedded to the board package.
*Crystalwell is the codename of the L4 cache (eDRAM) featured in the Iris Pro-enabled Haswell CPUs
Another best feat of Broadwell is its integrated graphics chip – Iris Pro 6200. It utilizes the extra eDRAM L4 Cache to gain more memory bandwidth. The architecture also provides faster 3d and compute performance
•20% more computes and 50% higher sampler throughput
•Microarchitecture improvements for increased Geometry, Z, Pixel Fill Performance
•More Thermal Headroom with 14nm Process
•Scalable Architecture
•Continued Focus on Gaming with support for Direct X* 11.2 & OpenGL* 4.3
•OpenCL 1.2 and 2.0 (with Shared Virtual Memory Support) for GPU Compute
You will be amaze how the Iris Pro 6200 performs with popular games title today. Benchmarks will be shown later too and the only thing I could say “We have a new IGP king!!!”.
Here comes the good part where the motherboard and processor meets up. They will be put to the test to show off some benchies scores
Test System Configuration:
•Processor: Intel i7-5775C 3.3Ghz / 3.7Ghz Turbo
•Motherboard: MSI Z97A Gaming 6
•Integrated Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 6200
•Memory: Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3 2133MHz
•SSD: Kingston HyperX 3k 128GB
•PSU: Antec TPQ 1200W
Software:
Windows 7 64Bit SP1, latest downloadable CPU-Z & GPU-Z, Cinebench R15 & R11.5, PCMark 7, Heaven Benchmark, 3dMark13 , Catzilla
Games:
Far Cry 4 and Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
Catzilla is a benchmark program with impressive animation. It tests your computer graphics capabilities if it can run the latest games today or watch HD movies in best quality. It can also suggest what hardware modules of your computer should be replaced in order to get best performance.
PCMark 7 is a complete PC benchmarking solution that measure performance under common use scenarios or at the hardware component level. It includes 7 tests combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming.
Heaven software is a GPU-intensive benchmark software that tests your graphics card to the limits. This can be used to determine the stability of a GPU under stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output
Basic mode uses DirectX 9
Extreme mode is DirectX 11
Maxon Cinebench Software tests both CPU and Graphics Card Performance. I use version R11.5 and R15 of Cinebench
CPU test scenario uses all of your system’s processing power to render a photorealistic 3D Scene. This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores.
R11.5 CPU Result: 8.52
For the Graphic test side, the procedure uses a complex 3D scene depicting a car chase which measures the performance of your graphics card in OpenGL mode. The performance depends on various factors, such as the GPU processor on your hardware, on the drivers used. The graphics card has to display a huge amount of geometry and textures.
R11.5 GPU Result: 2074.43
R15 CPU Result: 792CB
R15 GPU Result: 81.63
3dMark13 Cloud Gate is a new test that is designed for Windows notebooks and typical home PCs. Cloud Gate includes two graphics tests and a physics test. Cloud Gate uses a DirectX 11 engine limited to Direct3D feature level 10 making it suitable for testing DirectX 10 compatible hardware.
Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today's high-performance gaming PCs. It features real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.
Lastly, game benchmark results of Intel Iris Pro 6200. Resolution at 1920x1080 with medium graphics quality.
We know how intensive Far Cry 4 game is but Iris Pro 6200 was able to handle it
These are the game settings
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare baby!!! And it’s fast and smooth!!!!
So that concludes my short review. The Gaming 6 is quite similar with the Gaming 5 design except for the IO Ports, inclusion of the USB 3.1 function and SATA Express port. So if you are planning to build your gaming system now, it’s good to have these new functions as to make your system future proof. I’m sure there will be lots of USB 3.1 devices in the future, be it smartphones or storage devices. Aside from this, Z97 chipset motherboards are compatible with the latest Intel Broadwell processors. I’m sure you were amazed upon seeing the performance of the Intel Iris Pro 6200 in games. The IGP is capable of playing latest games smoothly even at high resolutions.
More reviews to come and it’s nice to be back

Thanks for the tip Henry! As mentioned, this will be my last resort...
Pat
Quote from: HenryW on Today at 21:49:31 I normally test any build of mine on a sheet of plain brown cardboard cut from a box. I always do...

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