Review: msi z97i gaming ac

In an age when the word “Gaming” in the title is usually an indicator of little more than aggressive aesthetics and a considerable premium, this board seems to be the exception, including not only aesthetics, but everything expected in its older ATX sisters. that fits in the available space, z97 chipset and socket 1150 supporting the 4th generation intel processors, 2 dual channel DDR3 memory slots with multipliers up to 3300mhz, 6 phases of power supply for the processor, making us expect good behavior in the face of quite important overclocks, AC 2 × 2 network and a fairly moderate price given its range.

We thank MSI for the loan of this plate to carry out the review.

Technical characteristics

CPU (Max Supported) i7 FSB / Hyper Transport Bus 100MHz Chipset Intel® Z97 Express Chipset Memory DDR3 DDR3 1066/1333/1600/1866 * / 2000 * / 2133 * / 2200 * / 2400 * / 2600 * / 2666 * / 2800 * / 3000 * / 3100 * / 3200 * / 3300 * (* OC) MHz Memory Channel Dual DIMM Slots 2 Max Memory (GB) 16 PCI-Ex16 1 PCI-E Gen Gen3 (16) SATAIII 4 USB 3.0 ports (Front) 2 USB 2.0 ports (Front) 2 RAID 0/1/5/10 LAN 10/100/1000 USB 3.0 Ports (Rear) 4 USB 2.0 Ports (Rear) 4 Audio Port (Rear) 6 eSATA 2 Displayport Port 1 HDMI 2 Memory Max shared VGA (MB) 512 DirectX 11 Form Factor Mini-ITX

MSI Z97I Gaming AC: Appearance

With the reduced dimensions of the box we can already anticipate that it is a very restrained product

The front has the typical design of the MSI gaming series, with its usual silver dragon and black tones for the rest. In the back we anticipate some of the differentiating features, such as the Killer E2200 network card, the audio capacitors and the filtered 5V power of the USB for amplifiers. The last thing we see is a diagram of the rear connections. As soon as we take the plate out of the box we see a very well thought-out design and quite a general quality. The connections are abundant and the colors well chosen and to some extent even discreet.

As for the accessories, it is surprising that with such a small box the board is so well endowed, apart from the undeniable, the back plate, the required driver discs, a complete manual, only in English, the AC network module with its antennas, a pair of sata cables and a door hanger.

MSI Z97I Gaming AC: In Detail

The board in question is based on the Z97 chipset and the 1150 socket, the most modern from Intel for the mid and mid / high range. This mini-ITX form factor is becoming increasingly popular with users, and it is only natural, although it was previously reserved for a few low-power and low-consumption devices, normally used as HTPC, today you can mount a powerful team of games without any problem in this format, and this board is one of the best bets for it.

At the top stand out the 24-pin power connector and 4 SATA3 ports, a common number on boards of this size.

Detail of the 6 phase chokes and the 8-pin EPS power connector for the processor, which confirms what we anticipated, this is a board highly prepared for overclocking. Next to them, the pins for the front.

Removing the heatsink reveals the 6 corresponding MOSFETs

And taking advantage of the task, we take the opportunity to show you the exposed chipset (along with the CPU fan connector)

Chipset heatsink and phases detail. Content but enough, and with a really good aesthetic.

We go to the right side, where the two RAM slots and one of the USB3 connectors for the front panel are located:

At the bottom we have the solitary pciexpress slot that we will use in case we need to add a dedicated graphics card (in most cases) or some other expansion card if we decide to use the integrated one.

We finish the tour right next to it, where we find the only connector for an additional fan that incorporates this plate in the center of the image, and to its left, with a hole for the screw in gold, the housing for the network card, which is included but we can choose whether to ride or not. On the edge of the board, the BIOS reset button.

The included network card is an intel AC7260 with bluetooth, a 2 × 2 AC module (867mbps) common in high-end notebooks, which stands out for giving very good performance, reasonable range and very measured consumption. In the following image you can see already assembled

Detail of the specific Audio condensers on the top

In the back, a very good weld quality can be seen, and the socket backplate in the foreground

The rear connections will be more than enough even for the most demanding users, on the left the audio connections (contrary to the usual in larger format boards), then two USB3.0 ports and two eSATA ports (in red), a PS2 connector and two USB2.0 ports (also in red), followed by two other USB2.0 with an HDMI underneath, the block with the optical connector, the second HDMI and a displayport. Finally, the RJ45 connector of the Killer E2200 network card and two USB3.0 ports, which turn out to be those that have the filtering technology that MSI announces in the box, to nail the 5V and that no noise enters a possible amplifier. It is appreciated to start seeing displayport ports for the integrated ones, after all it is the future standard.

The mounted result is really collected and spectacular, below you can see how it is ready to connect, with the Intel stock heatsink and 8gb of RAM. For these photos the wireless network card has not been mounted, but all the tests will be with it connected, since we understand that it is the habitual use of this board.

Test equipment and performance tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Pentium G3258 "Anniversary Edition"
Base plate:	MSI Z97I Gaming AC
Memory:	G.Skill RipjawsX 2x4Gb 2133mhz CL9
Heatsink	Stock Intel // Cooler master Seidon 120XL + NB Eloop 1900rpm
HDD	Intel X-25M G2 160Gb
Graphic card	Integrated
Power supply	Antec High Current Pro 850W

As usual, the influence of the board on benchmarks is minimal. We have not used gaming benchmarks in this test, since with the power of the integrated we were really limited, but of course this board accompanied by a powerful graphics without much consumption, such as a GTX970, allows us to have a gaming team at Higher level in little more size than a shoe box, with a box like the Silverstone RVZ01.

TESTS

Cinebench R15 (stock)

239 points

Cinebench R15 (4.7 Ghz)

322 points

The results are identical to those obtained by Miguel with full size plates, and surely the pair of points below is due to using memory at 2133mhz, or simply due to the variability from one pass to another.

BIOS

MSI has done the homework, and brings us a really complete BIOS. Gone are the times when we did not have an offset voltage option and the settings were limited, this BIOS has little to envy to those that include other manufacturers traditionally more leading in this specific point.

Below you can see a summary of the most relevant menus, as well as the basic settings for one of the first overclock attempts of our G3258. The frequency shown in the screenshots is the stock frequency, while the voltage settings are configured for the first stability tests at 4Ghz, which is the maximum we upload with the stock sink. With a high-end heatsink such as the Cooler Master Seidon 120XL we reached the 4.7Ghz without problem, equaling the result we got with a full size board at the same voltage.

Unfortunately we have limited space, as in all mini-ITX boards, so in case of opting for high-end heatsinks for moderate / high overclocks or just silence, our only option is the sealed liquid kits "All in one "Like the one we use, a large tower heatsink is very likely to stick with the chipset heatsink or other areas, although we understand that it is not the usual type of heatsink on such a small PC either.

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The BIOS has a very complete and visual adjustment for the fan curves, a feature that we have already seen in high-end models from MSI and from other manufacturers, but that is still an advantage.

We finish with one of the BIOS options of this board that inexperienced users will most appreciate, the Board Explorer section, which allows us to access information about the different elements of the board with a single click

conclusion

We really liked this complete MSI option for mini-ITX equipment, it is a board that will meet the expectations of the most demanding users, and it comes with really good extras for the format, such as AC network or Integrated Audio, in charge chip Realtek but with considerable improvements compared to the usual integrated.

Unfortunately the competition is very high in this format, with excellent options such as the Asus Maximus VII impact, with even more powerful and equally complete phases, although we must note that in this case the Asus alternative has a price premium of more than € 50, which tilts the balance significantly in favor of the option offered by MSI. The price of this plate is around € 150 in Spanish stores, and counting the premium that high-end plates always have in a small form factor, it is a fairly reasonable amount for such a round product. If we choose this specific plate, it is very difficult for us to be disappointed, it has everything we can ask of a large board, with the only notable absence is the number of ports and expansion slots, for obvious reasons. The RAM support reaches up to 16gb in 2 slots, in short, it is also difficult for this board to become obsolete before the entire platform, especially if we accompany it with an i7.

The BIOS is really complete, easy on the eye, and certainly much better than we expected. The fan curves are modifiable and highly visual, and of course everything can be done with keyboard and mouse. As I already mentioned in the previous section, we have adaptive voltage + offset at last on an MSI platform.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ OVERCLOCK CAPACITY VERY GOOD, EVEN IF WE TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE FORM FACTOR	- ONLY TWO CONNECTORS FOR FANS
+ RED AC 2X2, USB3.0 PORTS AND EXTRAS IN QUANTITY TO BE A MINI-ITX FORMAT	- NO SLOT M.2, ESPECIALLY INTERESTING IN THESE SIZES
+ AESTHETICALLY VERY SUCCESSFUL, ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE LITTLE SPACE
+ INTEGRATED SOUND CARD SUPERIOR TO THE USUAL
+ FILTERED TO THE 5V LINE FOR THE LOWER USB3.0