Introduction

Sigh. It's just after Christmas, and I'm a bit upset. My vacation is about to end and school will soon starts up again, so my time is yet again going to be limited for several months until my winter semester ends. Being Christmas, I obviously got some new PC goodies to play with, and that means it is time for me to retire a system to build it up again. These choices are always hard for me, especially since I get some fantastic products and cannot find much reason to replace them other than, well, because I got new stuff!

But not all is disappointing! I've got the opportunity to show you guys some more great stuff, and this time, I get to go back to my favorite brand right now, MSI. That in and of itself is funny since I have had quite a few "official" people complain that I have lately favored ASUS, but I think they've been blinded by the light! For me as a gamer, MSI is where it is at, and there is no mistaking how MSI has carefully assembled complete product lines to meet the discriminate gamer's needs, whether they've got a few dollars to spend or a few thousand. Buy an MSI GAMING GPU and an MSI GAMING motherboard, slap them together, and you've got a killer system, no matter whether you favor NVIDIA or AMD or Intel. Just pick your socket, your grade of GPU, and you're set.

I'm not one of those gamers with just a few dollars; I do run triple GTX780 TI cards, so what board for Intel's Z97 chipset from MSI would I use? I've already covered some of the SKT1150 MSI GAMING products (and had this review written until an SSD's death obliterated it), but the one I'd choose has sorta been in use this entire time and is none other than the MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC. Featuring built-in Wi-Fi (that is what the "AC" stands for) and a flashy red and black esthetic, you know that this board is made to take things to the limit while looking good. It's like those fancy shoes with those red bottoms all the girls drool over...

Specifications

Packaging

The MSI Z97 GAMING 9 comes in a large box clad in MSI's familiar esthetics which objectify their GAMING line up, motherboards, and VGAs alike. You get their familiar dragon logo and the product name on the front, while the rear has a smattering of functionality specific information you'd expect to be there for any product.


My sample comes directly from MSI's MTC lab, which tests the hardware to make sure what I get to play with accurately shows what the product has on offer. Once testing is complete, they seal the box with a sticker and send it on its way to me. As shown in the picture above, this board happens to be sample number 20. With the seal removed and its flaps open, I found the board and the board's accessories to be in separate boxes, each with its own nice little holes to aid in taking it out of the larger box.


I pulled the board and accessories boxes out separately and took the pictures above. The board comes with a nice plastic cover across its top, while the accessories box is a mad mess of goodies ready for you to put to use.