# MSI X99S GAMING 7 (Intel LGA 2011v3)



## cadaveca (Aug 22, 2014)

Another new Intel debut is upon us, and you just can't miss it if you use multiple monitors and videocards. Today, we take our first look at Intel's X99 Express platform with MSI's X99S GAMING 7 to show us what's in store. Including SATA Express, M.2, DDR4, and support for Intel's new Haswell-E CPUs, the MSI X99S GAMING 7 might just be what you're looking for.

*Show full review*


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## erixx (Aug 29, 2014)

A quick check rises the question why no Rampage 4 BE or equivalent results included in the charts?
I'll have to read it later, but you are a crack, Dave!!! WootOLÉ


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## Mathragh (Aug 29, 2014)

Wut! has X99/Haswell-E officially launched? hardware.info releases their review at 18:00 CEST i think.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Aug 29, 2014)

29th of August is all I heard. Early bird gets the worms


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## bogami (Aug 29, 2014)

I was expecting better at those prices. I'm disappointed!


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## Jack1n (Aug 29, 2014)

I assume you already know the price but simply cant tell us? since i think it plays a huge role in the final score.


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## BorisDG (Aug 29, 2014)

Thanks for the review, but why no direct comparison with X79? Also is the processor was stable during the test with this MHz and V?


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## buggalugs (Aug 29, 2014)

Why no real overclocking performance results?? Did the platform have problems?


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## Assimilator (Aug 29, 2014)

"The remaining four SATA ports do not support RAID at all due to the Intel X99 Express PCH's design."

Interesting - and disappointing.


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## Ed_1 (Aug 29, 2014)

like other post above , in CPU tests what was clock on this and others it the graph .I assume the Z87/97 MB had 4770 or maybe 4790k .

Maybe cause Intel didn't give ok yet on 5xxx series .


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## Rahmat Sofyan (Aug 29, 2014)

No cpu test bed ? still NDA or how?


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## ShockG (Aug 29, 2014)

The reason you can't get more than 2,666 on this board is because that's a limitation with the HSE CPUs. You need to use the 1.25X BClk and select the appropriate divider to get 3,000MHz.
Also note that your Uncore looks like it's all over the place, that will affect performance as well, especially if that BIOS doesn't lock all cores to the same speed. It's a problem with some other motherboards right now as well.


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## souleet (Aug 29, 2014)

Hey Dave, so how come you give it a 9.3 with highly recommended?  Shouldn't it be editor's choice for such a high rating?


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## cadaveca (Aug 29, 2014)

souleet said:


> Hey Dave, so how come you give it a 9.3 with highly recommended?  Shouldn't it be editor's choice for such a high rating?


9.5 and higher.


Jack1n said:


> I assume you already know the price but simply cant tell us? since i think it plays a huge role in the final score.


Not sure on price.


ShockG said:


> The reason you can't get more than 2,666 on this board is because that's a limitation with the HSE CPUs. You need to use the 1.25X BClk and select the appropriate divider to get 3,000MHz.
> Also note that your Uncore looks like it's all over the place, that will affect performance as well, especially if that BIOS doesn't lock all cores to the same speed. It's a problem with some other motherboards right now as well.


NOt a problem, default behavior.


buggalugs said:


> Why no real overclocking performance results?? Did the platform have problems?


Nope, no real problems, runs 4.5 GHz @ 1.265V. I'll leave the CPU oc results for CPU review, or what's the point in review if you have those numbers already, this is a board review!!!...and no I won't be doing it.


erixx said:


> A quick check rises the question why no Rampage 4 BE or equivalent results included in the charts?
> I'll have to read it later, but you are a crack, Dave!!! WootOLÉ


We all know Haswell is faster than SB-e and IVB-E. No point in adding the numbers. my daily rig is built with RIVBE, could toss up numbers in next review if you guys really insist.


ShockG said:


> The reason you can't get more than 2,666 on this board is because that's a limitation with the HSE CPUs. You need to use the 1.25X BClk and select the appropriate divider to get 3,000MHz.
> Also note that your Uncore looks like it's all over the place, that will affect performance as well, especially if that BIOS doesn't lock all cores to the same speed. It's a problem with some other motherboards right now as well.


Did you read the conclusion?  yeah, BCLK OC is a bit hampered on many boards, but it's improving with each BIOS release.



More reviews coming, guys, I have many boards here, but school is eating my time:









On my way out the door to school right now, have a great day guys!!!


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## erixx (Aug 29, 2014)

You are a student? Rocket science? 

And there are so many reasons to add a X79 in the charts I am not going to cite even one!!! haha


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## ensabrenoir (Aug 29, 2014)

More reviews coming, guys, I have many boards here, but school is eating my time:







 On my way out the door to school right now, have a great day guys!!![/QUOTE]


X99 MICRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   ................(FAINTS....)


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## fullinfusion (Aug 30, 2014)

Great review and I love how the poster shows the cpu temps... all boards should have that imo


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## cadaveca (Aug 30, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> Great review and I love how the poster shows the cpu temps... all boards should have that imo


Yeah, it's nice feature, and I can just look over at the board in my test bench while running benches to see CPU temps without needing software.




erixx said:


> You are a student? Rocket science?
> 
> And there are so many reasons to add a X79 in the charts I am not going to cite even one!!! haha



Why, so it can end up low on the charts? All other boards shown use 4770K, as another user posted above, so we have full Haswell/Haswell-E compares, at same clocks. Please remember these are board reviews, not CPU reviews, and I don't have 4930K, I have 4960X. That would be comparing board with $1000 against boards with $600 or so CPU(not sure of price yet myself), and that doesn't make sense to me.

Not Rocket Science, but Environmental. Maybe I can turn it into a job with space ships in the future, though. 



ensabrenoir said:


> X99 MICRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> ................(FAINTS....)



You guys wanted to see smaller boards, so that was requested by me for review, just for you. 

I just got home from school, but did have physio directly after school, guys, so when I said my time was limited, I really meant it.  I'll be working through the night and on through the weekend on other board reviews, and DDR4 reviews, will get them all up ASAP.


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## LeonVolcove (Aug 30, 2014)

ensabrenoir said:


> More reviews coming, guys, I have many boards here, but school is eating my time:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




X99 MICRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   ................(FAINTS....)[/QUOTE]

Damn i want those board, could you toss 1 of those? i will pay the shipping cost


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## erixx (Aug 30, 2014)

Thank you Dave for all the feedback and interest in the cause!
(For the love of our kids and mankind we all should be studying Environ and forget the rest, specially the art of stealing (economics), the art of fooling (politics/religion) and the art of killing more for less (industry, plus the former 2)!)

On topic: I just thought that Z89 and Z97 guys are not -probably- that much worried about the new X99 (except happy-go-spending ones).
But those having the older 2011socket boards may be considering the jump, maybe?


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## cadaveca (Aug 30, 2014)

erixx said:


> On topic: I just thought that Z89 and Z97 guys are not -probably- that much worried about the new X99 (except happy-go-spending ones).
> But those having the older 2011socket boards may be considering the jump, maybe?


Right, but a CPU review should cover that, no?

I'll add some numbers though.


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## Hilux SSRG (Aug 30, 2014)

I'd too like to see an x99 vs x79 comparison in the future if possible.


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## cadaveca (Aug 30, 2014)

Hilux SSRG said:


> I'd too like to see an x99 vs x79 comparison in the future if possible.


Definitely possible. I've posted numbers in the past, and can re-add the old numbers in seconds, but I'll take the time to re-install OS and benches on my personal rig and within a couple of reviews I will add numbers. I do reviews for you guys, and I think I have had enough requests between messages, PMs, and comments here in this thread, so that'll happen 100% for sure.



Rahmat Sofyan said:


> No cpu test bed ? still NDA or how?


I do not have NDA about CPU. I have a retail CPU. But I have started back into school, and as such, do not have as much time as I used to. So we have a new CPU reviewer. He has recently posted 4790K review, and hopefully he'll have CPU reviews for the X99 platform soon.


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## revin (Aug 30, 2014)

@cadaveca  Thank you for yet again an unparralled review of a product !! To say it's geatly appreciated of your dedication to this art is an *understatement !*
Would like to say that MSI is very smart to include the XTU ! As we have discussed years ago, it's a fantastic tool, and to see more vendors tweaking it to them is great.
I'm sure that with this day of age where the graphic BIOS is common, back in the day's of like my Z68 it was the only way to get a board tuned/tested correctly.

One curious thing is that it want's to show 4000w and 1000A on some loadout's, is it still a bug? Mine did that with other versions other than 2.1,
but mainly 2.1 was the only version that had ALL BIOS functions avaiable, plus the sub-timings for RAM, that ended up being key for my speed and stabialty.


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## cadaveca (Aug 30, 2014)

revin said:


> @cadaveca  Thank you for yet again an unparralled review of a product !! To say it's geatly appreciated of your dedication to this art is an *understatement !*
> Would like to say that MSI is very smart to include the XTU ! As we have discussed years ago, it's a fantastic tool, and to see more vendors tweaking it to them is great.
> I'm sure that with this day of age where the graphic BIOS is common, back in the day's of like my Z68 it was the only way to get a board tuned/tested correctly.
> 
> ...


I need more time with the software before I can comment. And as we've discussed, I really like this software, so have been using it although I don't always talk about that side of things in reviews. Let me play for some time and I can give real feedback on this subject.


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## The Von Matrices (Aug 31, 2014)

I just want to see the memory running at that XMP profile of 47.5 THz at 0.000V.  You're the memory expert, so I'm sure you can do it.  

Performance would be underwhelming though with a CAS latency of 2.15 billion clocks, making its nominal latency a painfully slow 0.5 miliseconds.


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## TheHunter (Sep 1, 2014)

You can send me that X99 deluxe when done


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## TheHunter (Sep 2, 2014)

@cadaveca 

Can 5820K do 4.6ghz and cache 4.2ghz at reasonable voltage? ie 1.25v for core and 1.15v for cache


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## cadaveca (Sep 3, 2014)

TheHunter said:


> @cadaveca
> 
> Can 5820K do 4.6ghz and cache 4.2ghz at reasonable voltage? ie 1.25v for core and 1.15v for cache


NO idea, don't have one, and would need many before I could assess such.


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## radrok (Sep 6, 2014)

Thank you for the review Dave, do you have any idea when the RVE comes available in retail? Kinda waiting for that one 

EDIT: Found it for preorder on my go-to shopping website, thank you anyway


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## The Von Matrices (Sep 6, 2014)

I think you should give some consideration to PCIe slots layout in the review score.  You mention the PCIe x1 slots getting blocked, but you forget about the PCIe x16 slots.  One thing I've noticed with these X99 boards is that their PCIe x16 slot arrangements are all different and many times suboptimal for multi-GPU use.  This likely comes down to manufactures trying to deal with the varying number of lanes on the CPU.  One of the target markets of the HEDT platform is multi-GPU users, so I think this should be a concern to address.

For example, this MSI board recommends that when using 2 GPUs they be put in the top two PCIe x16 slots so they both get 16 lanes (or 16/8 lanes with the 5820K).  However, those recommended slots only have one slot in between them.  In other words, when using 2-way SLI/Crossfire using standard 2-slot air cooled cards, the top card gets choked for air, and it's not even possible to use two 3-slot cards (like many of the custom R9 290X) in this motherboard's recommended configuration.

For optimal air cooling performance with two 2-slot cards or to even use two 3-slot cards, you would have to use slot 1 and 6 (or 5 for the 5820K), which would then be an 16/8 configuration (or a 8/8 configuration for the 5820K).  While I know that the difference in actual performance between 8 and 16 lanes is minuscule, I can imagine the reduction in PCIe lanes for the sake of better cooling would be a dealbreaker for a lot of people, particularly those who are buying the platform for the PCIe lanes.  Perhaps more importantly, this layout would require you to have a case with support for 8 PCIe slots (or 9 PCIe slots for 3-slot cards), which eliminates about 90% of the cases on the market.


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## cadaveca (Sep 6, 2014)

Great feedback. As a user of Tri-SLI GTX780 Ti myself, THIS IS something that I consider. I also consider addition of RAID card or similar, too, with HEDT platforms. When it comes to the MSI X99 GAMING 7 in particular, it is these factors as well as my experience using it with both Micron- and Hynix-based memory, overclocking, power consumption, price, performance, and ease of use, that dictated the final score.



Also consider that I posted pictures of the boards I have on-hand above (and I have received a few more since), so my rating isn't based on just one board, but out of a bunch of boards. Of course, you'll have to wait for my other reviews to come out to see the full picture here from my use of this platform, but you can rest assured that your comments are ones that I do consider when doing my reviews.


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## pokazene_maslo (Oct 6, 2014)

any idea if this board support speed control of 3-pin fans? 

@cadaveca: It would be great if you could examine every board for 4-pin and 3-pin fan control possibilities.


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## cadaveca (Oct 6, 2014)

pokazene_maslo said:


> any idea if this board support speed control of 3-pin fans?
> 
> @cadaveca: It would be great if you could examine every board for 4-pin and 3-pin fan control possibilities.


Will add it to my fan investigations. Thanks for the idea!


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## OldPower (Dec 30, 2014)

Dear Dave:

Is not right as for example: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/Z87-GD65_GAMING/1.html is editor's choice with single 9.0

Happy end of year parties![/QUOTE]



cadaveca said:


> 9.5 and higher.


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