MSI Z97I Gaming AC mini-ITX Motherboard Review

With a pricetag of about $190, MSI’s Z97I Gaming AC isn’t the most affordable Z97-based mini-ITX board out there, but for that cost, it sure does pack one hell of a punch. Admittedly, after dealing with the hassle of installing this board into a far-too-large chassis, I almost didn’t even want to boot the PC up. I’m glad I calmed down, though, because this is one of the best boards I’ve used in a while.

At the top, I have to question again MSI’s reasoning for putting the SATA ports at the top of the board along with the 24-pin power connector, and the 8-pin closer to the middle than the edge. I can suck it up that I made installation a hassle for myself by installing such a small board into a full-tower chassis, but the fact of the matter is, I didn’t have any issues with the ASUS board which had ports in more sane (to me) locations.

After talking to MSI, it was established that the company truly did design this board with mini-ITX chassis in mind, and I suppose that’s fair. But in doing so, it’s made it automatically harder on anyone wanting to install into a larger chassis. In the end, I can’t hate on the board too much for this – MSI chose this design for a reason, and as long as you know ahead of time what to expect, it’s all a non-issue. In fact, in perusing consumer reviews around the Web, I couldn’t find another person who shared this particular complaint.

Features I haven’t talked about up to this point are those related to the audio and networking; so let’s fix that.

For networking, MSI’s chosen to go with the gamer-targeted Killer Ethernet E2200. While I can’t discredit that this solution is great for gaming, past experiences with it have left me not liking it much at all. The biggest issue I have with it might not affect many who buy this board, but it bugs me nonetheless: There’s no Linux driver. That could be remedied via a wrapper or another driver for a similar chipset, but don’t expect a distro to take care of it for you.

Personally, I’d much rather the board include an Intel NIC and then custom software that replicates the same gaming enhancements, like ASUS does with its motherboards (even the non-gaming ones). Nonetheless, as long as you know that Linux support is appalling for this chipset, the card does come with a boat load of features tailored to gaming.

To me, the highlight of this board isn’t the NIC (obviously), but the audio. I’m no audiophile, so I can’t properly review this solution, but my experiences with it overall are good. With Audio Boost 2, MSI helps “boost” the audio with Creative’s Sound Blaster Cinema 2, and I admit, I prefer listening to audio like this. Even with my Xonar card on my regular desktop, I enable “Dolby Headphone” because I like the much boomier sound (see, I’m not an audiophile).

That’s not all that makes the audio solution interesting. On the board itself, the card is isolated to keep the signal away from other components, and improving things further, an EMI shield is found near the top of the board. Other perks include a headphone amplifier, Nichicon capacitors specifically for the audio, and, while I’m not sure of its actual benefit, gold audio connectors at the back.

For the final audio-related enhancement, MSI really pulled no punches. “USB Audio Power” ensures that all USB ports get a “strong 5V” power signal at all times – potentially useful for those who use external DACs, or perhaps even USB-based headsets.

All of the board’s other features were covered earlier, so let’s wrap this up. What do I think of the board overall? As I said above, first impressions were not great, but had I realized ahead of time that the board’s design didn’t favor my test chassis at all, the hassles I experienced would have been non-existent. Post-install, I went into testing with a fresh mind, and then, I was able to appreciate the board a lot more. In all honestly, throughout testing I came to love this board. I’m still more apt to go with an mATX solution myself for something like a mini LAN box, but for those not minding just a single PCIe slot, this board would make for an excellent base to that gaming rig.

MSI’s EFI has matured quite a bit over the past couple of years, and while it’s certainly not my favorite EFI implementation, it gets the job done and looks good to boot. Plus, we get cool features like the advanced fan control, Memory Try It!, and the Board Explorer (a simple but really cool feature).

MSI has also delivered on the software front here. Command Center isn’t exhaustive like some other solutions, but for most, what it offers should suffice. A real highlight is the fact that it offers the ability to create a RAMDisk. If that’s your intent, you’ll really want to consider 16GB of RAM, else you’ll seriously be limited on both the RAM and RAMDisk front.

I might not personally like every design decision MSI’s chosen to go with on this board, but there’s no denying that as long as you understand its limitations (NIC not designed for Linux, 2 fan headers, and port locations), this board makes for an excellent base to any mini gaming PC.

MSI Z97I Gaming AC