Conclusion
Design
The MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC is one of MSI best offerings and that’s easily evident. The design goes the same route we have seen before. Black and Red has been done so many times now, it seems the standard for high end gaming boards. What we like most about MSI’s take on the black and red scheme, is it has more black and less red. Both the PCIe and DIMM slots are full on black and that goes really well with the RED LED’s included in the VRM heatsinks. Aesthetically, we think the board is beautiful and with windowed cases now being the standard, it’s nice to have a good looking board.
Features
Some board manufactures are throwing word gaming onto the boards without actually offering anything specific towards gaming, However. The Gaming 9 AC offers a lot to any serious gamers. The included Killer LAN is a definite plus for priority control and makes sure your Games get the most attention with the included software, but it’s only a more reliable RJ45 jack, and overall will perform better. Let’s not forget the included WiFI AC, that will not doubt come in handy at LAN parties or for those to can get an Ethernet cable to their rig.
Something we really like seeing with boards these days is decent audio. The Gaming 9 AC doesn’t let us down and includes an Extreme Audio DAC with Audio Boost 2. Decent audio is massive factor when it comes to enjoying your games and even decent headphones will take advantage of the included Dual headphone amplifiers. MSI also included enhanced USB Audio with direct 5V power. Putting that much attention towards sound alone,really proves this is a gamers board.
Performance
The performance really speaks for itself and the benchmarks showed that even with the same chip, we were getting better performance with this board. Our 4770k was easily able to get 4.6GHz with 1.3V and we could have probably done better with some more tweaking. The board was clearly providing stable enough power to get an excellent overclock out of our CPU. MSI also include the OC Genie button as well, while we highly suggest you manual overclock instead. Overclocking still isn’t for everyone, but the OC Genie offers a quick way of getting everything to run just a little better than normal. You can’t argue with something that as easy as clicking a button.
Overall
We love the MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC. It offers a great design, extensive featur and excellent performance. It’s a true gaming board with features aimed at those looking to get the most out of their board without having to add more accessories or peripherals. We really have nothing bad to say about the MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC and it’s been a pleasure to review. It of course get’s a Geektech gold award. and we highly recommened it to anyone looking for a top performing motherboard with all the bells a whistles.
9. Conclusion
