# MSI Z97I GAMING AC (Intel LGA 1150)



## cadaveca (May 15, 2014)

If you're looking for a miniature board to toss into a portable LAN box, MSI has the board for you! The Z97I GAMING AC we are looking at today is a GAMING-centric mITX board, equipped with everything you need to blast your enemies into GAMING nirvana.

*Show full review*


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## bepari220 (Jun 21, 2014)

I'm so confused. should I go for this or wait for VII impact ?


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## ChaoticG8R (Jun 21, 2014)

It's exactly what I was hoping to read   My plans for my iTX build are nearing completion!!


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## LeonVolcove (Jun 21, 2014)

Am i mistaken or i dont see any m.2 slot in that Mobo?


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## bepari220 (Jun 21, 2014)

LeonVolcove said:


> Am i mistaken or i dont see any m.2 slot in that Mobo?


only the ASrock and the Asus ones are equipped with m.2


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

LeonVolcove said:


> Am i mistaken or i dont see any m.2 slot in that Mobo?


Nope, none. Given the target audience and the cost vs performance ratio, I don't see such users buying M.2 unless a sales guy convinces them. You buy SSD, mechanical, RAID them, and get roughly the same thing anyway, @ 550MB/s, with a 60 GB drive.

Full-size boards, must have M.2.

IMHO.


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## robE (Jun 21, 2014)

M.2 is always nice to have, for the future....i don't think everyone replaces their mobo every 2 years. Imho it should still be a CON, even if it's a -0.1 one, other than that...nice board but i think impact will be nicer


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## puma99dk| (Jun 21, 2014)

another nice review Dave, i totally have the matching board and gfx u have in that setup


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

Nice review. But I don't understand it getting a 9.8 with a layout like that? Who thought that the placement of the 8-pin and the socket was a good idea?

Seems like Asus is the only one who knows how the layout of a mini-ITX board should be.


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## TheWorldForgotten (Jun 21, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Nope, none. Given the target audience and the cost vs performance ratio, I don't see such users buying M.2 unless a sales guy convinces them. You buy SSD, mechanical, RAID them, and get roughly the same thing anyway, @ 550MB/s, with a 60 GB drive.
> 
> Full-size boards, must have M.2.
> 
> IMHO.


I disagree. In a Mini-ITX board especially, the M.2 functionality is of essence, as you want to build it as cramped as possible, with little space left to spare for 2.5" drive bays. But the real deal breaker with this board, is the CPU socket layout. 







If you take a look at for instance Asus Z97I Plus, you will discover that there is much more space between the CPU socket and the PCIe x16 lane. Why does this matter? As mentioned in the article, you are hence not able to fit big aftermarket coolers. In particular for mini-ITX builds, the Noctua NH-L12 is of special importance, as it can cool an overclocked i7 4970K, while fitting onto a mini-ITX board and not drawing taller than the dedicated GPU. If you want to make an ultra-compact build like a MSI Radeon R9 270X Mini + Noctua NH-L12, then you can't with this board.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

OR you could simply use an AIO cooler, and the socket area doesn't matter.

M.2 isn't properly available locally. It's more expensive and only the slower drives are available, the M500 M.2, and only in 240 and 120 GB sizes.

If that's the case, yeah, even stores don't think M.2 is important, PERIOD.

Now, if these companies were smart about Z97 launch, drive would have been in stores at the same time as boards, but the lack of availability for drives here is part of why I feel I do...I cannot even see any benefit to M.2 at this time. You can disagree all you want, but you cannot change drive availability.


If I could go any get 1.2 Gb/s out of an M.2 drive... and actually buy one...my opinion on this subject would change.

I truly feel that by the time drives are available, next platform will be launched, and no one will care about Haswell much any more. In my eyes, M.2 is a failure, just like mSATA is.


How many users here have mSATA drives? Uh...me? Any others? Nah, didn't think so.


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> OR you could simply use an AIO cooler, and the socket area doesn't matter.
> 
> M.2 isn't properly available locally. It's more expensive and only the slower drives are available, the M500 M.2, and only in 240 and 120 GB sizes.
> 
> If that's the case, yeah, even stores don't think M.2 is important, PERIOD.


 Hang on a minute, motherboard-manufacturers should NOT depend on AIO-coolers for their layout.

Well, in my country you can order Crucials M550 up to 512GB, M500 up to 480GB and Intels 530 up to 180, no problem.
Its dirt-cheap aswell. The M.2 version is only $20 more over the 2.5".


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## TheWorldForgotten (Jun 21, 2014)

Exactly. We have availability here as well. I have designed case blueprints for 5,3 liters, where there is actually no room for a 2.5 inch drive, believe it or not.

And I also find it laughable that a motherboard should depend on water cooling. Large AIO won't even fit in a compact Mini-ITX case anyway.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

TheWorldForgotten said:


> Exactly. We have availability here as well. I have designed case blueprints for 5,3 liters, where there is actually no room for a 2.5 inch drive, believe it or not.
> 
> And I also find it laughable that a motherboard should depend on water cooling. Large AIO won't even fit in a compact Mini-ITX case anyway.




Meh. BitFenix prodigy and how popular it is, as is watercooled gaming rigs in mITX cases, say hello.


Like, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your wants or needs are not important, however, they are not the only ones, either.

Many users...would save that $20 on a M.2(um, who doesn't try to save money building a PC...that's WHY you build a PC yyourself!!!), and buy SSD, simply because M.2 drives are ugly. Eww, gotta stick this green PCB in my nice matte black motherboard?


Like, that's the future for M.2. Black PCB, or bust!



I feel M.2 is too expensive, simply because it's new (uh, no case like SSD, no plastic SATA connector, smaller PCB, why TF is it more costly?), it's ugly, and actual fast drives aren't widely available.


Newegg having Intel and Crucial only is not good enough. WHERE IS SAMSUNG AND PLEXTOR !!!???!!!


When users can actually buy an M.2 drive, and it offers something over normal SSD instead of offering the same SSD in new form factor with higher consumer cost, I might change my opinion.


BTW, I have both H90 (on GTX 780) and H100 (on 4790) in my mITX build. That's TWO AIO units, one mITX case.


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Many users...would save that $20 on a M.2(um, who doesn't try to save money building a PC...that's WHY you build a PC yyourself!!!), and buy SSD, simply because M.2 drives are ugly. Eww, gotta stick this green PCB in my nice matte black motherboard?
> 
> 
> Like, that's the future for M.2. Black PCB, or bust!
> ...


What? They are rated at the same speeds. Or even faster in the case of Plextor M.2 PCI-E based series, with insane read/writes and massive IOPS.
And those are readily available here aswell, although they are pricier.

M.2 support is one of the reasons i bought an Maximus VI Impact (even though that runs via SATA) so i could lose SATA-cables + power and run the entire thing of the drive at the M.2 slot.

And there is no way in hell you are going to see that M.2 drive mounted on your motherboard with all other components installed.

I don't understand your reasoning against M.2 since almost every point is invalid from my point of view according to availablity, pricing and performance in my country. It seems like you have a personal agenda against the format?

And the H100 and and H90 isnt very mini is it? The Prodigy is NOT a Mini-ITX case by size, just look at the M-version.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

Nokiron said:


> What? They are rated at the same speeds. Or even faster in the case of Plextor M.2 PCI-E based series, with insane read/writes and massive IOPS.
> And those are readily available here aswell, although they are pricier.



But not here. NO Plextor, no Samsung. If they were, yeah, my opinion might be different. But if those drives are available in your country, and not North America, clearly even the drive makers see that N.A/ market does not have as much interest in these devices.




> I don't understand your reasoning against M.2 since almost every point is invalid from my point of view according to availablity, pricing and performance in my country. It seems like you have a personal agenda against the format?



When 1.2 Gb/s drives can be purchases by anyone, like I said, my opinion will change slightly. When I wrote this review, even, weeks ago, not even Crucial drives were out yet, BTW. @ standard SATA 6 Gb/s speeds...yeah, I don't want M.2.

But at the same time, even fast drives, I'll still hate the green PCB. AS well many others. You don't see green PCB in many memory modules, and that was complained about too.

My opinion on that subject won't change. That doesn't make yours invalid though. That's the joys of the internet, different people who want different things get to come together. We want different things, and I don't see that as a problem. Like you said, there are boards that will meet your needs, and this one can be ignored by you. But if you have no interest in M.2, there's not reason to look elsewhere, really, unless cost or other feature.


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## TheWorldForgotten (Jun 21, 2014)

Then again, the U.S. only accounts for 300 million people. Europe got 700, and the world contains over 7 billion. So I don't know who exactly you imagine yourself to be, telling that the technology is a flop globally.











(Above picture shows size compared to Fractal Design Define R4 on right)

This is the potential of mini-ITX motherboards with M.2 and room for a Noctua NH-L12. What are you looking at? An i7 4790K, AMD Radeon R9 270X Mini Silverstone SFX PSU and Noctua NH-L12 cooler. The reason you can fit water cooling into Bitfenix Prodigy, is because it's a bloated case more suited for mATX in physical size. The Prodigy is 25 liters, I could get these specs inside 5.3 liters. AIO cooling, nope. SSDs, difficult so.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

TheWorldForgotten said:


> difficult so.



So, you buy a different board? Why is that a problem? Everyone must purchase the same board and want same features? I don't understand...


I agree, if you want to build in smallest space possible, M.2 might have appeal. But for many, small space = heat =lower clocks, or noise. IN dealing with those problems, a larger case must be used, and in such instances, space for 2.5 drive is no problem.

Did you get that? In smallest space builds, I agree. But not everyone builds in smallest space possible = M.2..not that important.

Roughly 140 million motherboards sell each year. I truly wonder what % of that is mITX.


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> But not here. NO Plextor, no Samsung. If they were, yeah, my opinion might be different. But if those drives are available in your country, and not North America, clearly even the drive makers see that N.A/ market does not have as much interest in these devices.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well, that might be because the nordics (mostly Sweden) is one of the biggest componentpart-consumers in Europe. I know that Nvidia sent Titans here if they had any available because they were bought instantly, and we are for some reason spending huge amounts of money on it here. So im not surprised we are getting it pretty early, we are somewhat tiny according to populace, but we spend a lot of money on stuff 

But what i dont understand is why dont WANT M.2, there is no reason NOT to want it is there? The only reason they are still green is because its only solder mask. They are not painted.
They are new on the market and when people start buying these drives and the products needs to meet demands. That is when we are going to see black drives for example.

Yeah, i didnt said your opinion was invalid, i said the points were from my view (according to availability and pricing).


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## TheWorldForgotten (Jun 21, 2014)

It is not a problem for me, I'll just go with AsRock or Asus. It is however a problem for MSI losing customers, because I am a huge fan of the board if it hadn't been for these missing features. They are things that can be implemented without losses. It is plain bad engineering design and righteously described as a con.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

Nokiron said:


> Yeah, i didnt said your opinion was invalid, I said the points were from my view (according to availability and pricing).


Yeah, I agree, but that speed thing.. man... unless something actually offers something for higher cost, then it doesn't get a lot of interest. being "new" isn't good enough. M.2 offers NOTHING other than better mounting options for me.

Devil's Canyon reviews that are out now highlight this same opinion. Either offer something real, or get some bad hype.



TheWorldForgotten said:


> It is not a problem for me, I'll just go with AsRock or Asus. It is however a problem for MSI losing customers, because I am a huge fan of the board if it hadn't been for these missing features. They are things that can be implemented without losses. It is plain bad engineering design and righteously described as a con by TPU.



I don't play brand favorites. Other boards can offer similar feature set and capabilities, offer THAT m.2, and get a perfect score. Or they can offer that M.2 and have shitty audio, and get a lower score.

It is not like I said this is the best ever...it did not get a perfect score. There is still room for other boards to do better, which has me feeling your ideas here are a bit alarmist. I have not reviewed these other boards you mention, first of all... There is no con here.


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

TheWorldForgotten said:


> It is not a problem for me, it is a problem for MSI losing customers. These are things that can be implemented without losses. It is plain bad engineering design and righteously described as a con by TPU.


I agree with this, the layout absolutely sucks. Im just gonna spew some opinions here on motherboards:

Asus have a seriously good layout on their boards with

Power-connectors being on the edges where they should be
Building on available height, as they have been doing for a while
Making room for tower-based coolers
I have bough everything from the original H50, through the H70 and the H100i. I'm even on my second Swiftech H220 which sits on my shelf because that, like the first one sounded like crap. I have always returned to my trusty NH-D14 and Prolimatech Megahalems. Slightly higher temps but boy are they a whole new world of quiet. The pump noise will always be a problem, no matter how silent it is.

And finally, something that has been bothered me for ages. Why does everyone have such aweful UEFIs and software?

Even Asus UEFI is going haywire with the latest Z97-boards. The one they had with Z87 and X79 was the best I have ever seen. But Asus still have the best of both, and that is by a long shot.
AI Suite is miiiiles ahead of anything else.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

Nokiron said:


> I agree with this, the layout absolutely sucks. Im just gonna spew some opinions here on motherboards:
> 
> Asus have a seriously good layout on their boards with
> 
> ...


Good points to cover, for sure. ASUS software is excellent, no doubt. Layout..man, impact + add-in PCB and M.2...many tower cooler don't fit. You have MPCIe Combo II + IMPACT AUDIO cards on one side, dimms on 2nd, power PCB on third, and rear I/o towers on fourth. Wiring is almost worse with front panel plugged in. I did review this board, and do have pics. 


But NOTHING OC's memory like IMPACT. IMPACT, to me, is dual-duty bench + game; that's why those add-in cards are add-in to begin with, and it has beefy VRM design. It is a COMPLETELY different product. At the same time, the idea of using mITX and having such a hugely capable  board almost defeats the purpose of mITX. Using a tower cooler, eliminates many of these "I want smaller case" ideas, too. Low-profile cooler support on IMPACT is HORRID. At the same time, it's pretty poor on ALL mITX boards.

UEFI..I prefer ASUS Z87 to ASUS Z97. But there is still issues with ASUS UEFI, too. I can corrupt too easily. The stuck-clock problem, corrupted MEI, USB 3.0 problems, etc...

ASUS has done something really interesting with mITX, since they offer clocking in such a way with ROG boards...people expect a lot. I don't expect that ROG experience from anything, but ROG. ASUS has best fan control.


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Good points to cover, for sure. ASUS software is excellent, no doubt. Layout..man, impact + add-in PCB and M.2...many tower cooler don't fit. You have MPCIe Combo II + IMPACT AUDIO cards on one side, dimms on 2nd, power PCB on third, and rear I/o towers on fourth. Wiring is almost worse with front panel plugged in. I did review this board, and do have pics.
> 
> 
> But NOTHING OC's memory like IMPACT. IMPACT, to me, is dual-duty bench + game; that's why those add-in cards are add-in to begin with, and it has beefy VRM design. It is a COMPLETELY different product. At the same time, the idea of using mITX and having such a hugely capable  board almost defeats the purpose of mITX. Using a tower cooler, eliminates many of these "I want smaller case" ideas, too. Low-profile cooler support on IMPACT is HORRID. At the same time, it's pretty poor on ALL mITX boards.
> ...


My impact has the NH-D14 on it, with the M.2 card installed, it fits no problem!

Well, they have the Z77-I Deluxe. It has the same daughterboard and that is not meant for benching 

Really interesting to hear about that, i have a looot of Asus boards. The Z77-I Deluxe, Rampage IV Black Edition, Maximus IV Extreme P67, Maximus VI Impact and I have owned the Maximus IV Gene-Z and Rampage IV Gene aswell.

Never had any problem with their BIOS though? (The motherboards have taken a stern beating with overclocking mind you)


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## TheWorldForgotten (Jun 21, 2014)

So you are admitting that MSI has poor CPU socket placement, lacks SATA Express and there are superior UEFI interfaces out there... and 9.8? That's pretty vivid.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

Nokiron said:


> Never had any problem with their BIOS though? (The motherboards have taken a stern beating with overclocking mind you)


Just look on ROG forums. See BIOS updates to address specific issues like this. What part of system-config that causes these problems...I dunno. I just push buttons trying to break limits.
Like, I like MFR memory. "Pro" oc'ers in general do not. But many users buying new systems have MFR or Samsung single-sided.. that's just what is popular now. When you push these memories to the limits, things go wonky.


I've ALWAYS pushed memory in this way. is no big deal. And beucase I don't care about HWBOT, or benchmarking competitively, I push ALL HARDWARE equally, caring not  who is "BEST". I simply push, for the thrill of exploring all limits, rather than being snobbish about it. I buy or get it all, since paying for stuff and saving cash isn't worth missing that experience.




TheWorldForgotten said:


> So you are admitting that MSI has poor CPU socket placement




Yes, -.1 point.



> lacks SATA Express and there are superior UEFI interfaces out there... and 9.8? That's pretty vivid.



SATA Express? NO. M.2, yes. -.1 point. Total, 9.8.

Superior UEFI? No way. No way. Sry, just no. Superior fan control has nothing to do with UEFI, that's driven by Super I/O, and ASUS didn't make this. Nuvoton did.

Frankly, when it comes to OC, ASRock is giving ASUS a run for the money at the moment in terms of UEFI capabilities.

See, if you value OC, then I understand why opinions might be as they may. If running your system just stable enough for a screen-cap is important, sure.


But for MOST users, having BIOS without that, that just doesn't work, but doesn't corrupt, is more valuable. ASUS took many generations to deal with stuck time in UEFI, and still some boards have not received BIOS update for that one. We all have different ideas on what is "stable", that is of no question. But to me, UEFI stability is a very important thing. ASUS needs to work on this.


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## Nokiron (Jun 21, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Just look on ROG forums. See BIOS updates to address specific issues like this. What part of system-config that causes these problems...I dunno. I just push buttons trying to break limits.
> Like, I like MFR memory. "Pro" oc'ers in general do not. But many users buying new systems have MFR or Samsung single-sided.. that's just what is popular now. When you push these memories to the limits, things go wonky.
> 
> 
> I've ALWAYS pushed memory in this way. is no big deal. And beucase I don't care about HWBOT, or benchmarking competitively, I push ALL HARDWARE equally, caring not  who is "BEST". I simply push, for the thrill of exploring all limits, rather than being snobbish about it. I buy or get it all, since paying for stuff and saving cash isn't worth missing that experience.


Glad i haven't experienced that 

I have a Gigabyte X79 board and a MSI Mpower Max aswell, and their UEFI is absolutely rubbish. Especially the Gigabyte-one, its still the old 3DBios-variant, i still shudder just at the thought of that.


And as a secondary note, and some feedback: your review-score is a little wonky, not yours personally but Techpowerup as a whole. I think that way too many products get an award where they really shouldnt.


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## cadaveca (Jun 21, 2014)

Nokiron said:


> And as a secondary note, and some feedback: your review-score is a little wonky, not yours personally but Techpowerup as a whole. I think that way too many products get an award where they really shouldnt.



I guess it's how you look at scores. For myself, each product has an intended market, and how that product meets that users needs is what dictates the final score. Each problem encountered leads to a deduction in points, with severity and likelihood of user finding such problem dictating how big of a deduction is placed. No company, in my eyes is directly competing with each other. The numbers of each product sold actually paints a very different picture than you'd think.

For example, 140 million boards. 560 different boards available for purchase. top boards sell 250kunits, or more, bottom boards sell 30k units. OEMs offer products that span many user types to increase sales numbers, but users are very picky, so this doesn't always work out well. What ASUS does well that gives them huge market share is bridging the gaps between users and thereby building a wider community of users behind each product, which inputs more dollars for R&D. Marketing that appeals to gamers with OC-centric products sells those products. But the OC-side of things isn't what really matters to sales. It's the hype, and that community. Other brands choose to strategically target specific users with that 50K number, and as such, have smaller communities.

But, when it comes time to think about UEFI implementations, that hardcore OC-centric feeling brought to all marketing categories means that bugs that are present and acceptable for OC products, and aren't OK for others, get noticed where they shouldn't be, creating some negative hype, that from where I sit, exhausts those that are happy with things the way they are.

Filtering that with motherboards, VS. another type of product, is different. Marketing and product design is more rigid and tight, with less options within the same brand due to strict physical limitations that aren't present when thinking of motherboards.


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## Vaux (Jun 23, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Many users...would save that $20 on a M.2(um, who doesn't try to save money building a PC...that's WHY you build a PC yyourself!!!), and buy SSD, simply because M.2 drives are ugly. Eww, gotta stick this green PCB in my nice matte black motherboard?


On mini-itx it's generally underneath the motherboard, so you don't even see it.

Also M.2 is use in laptop too, so that's gonna be very common pretty soon.


For AIO, well why put an loud 120mm AIO who gonna block the airflow of your case when you can put an nh-d15 ?


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## cadaveca (Jun 23, 2014)

Vaux said:


> For AIO, well why put an loud 120mm AIO who gonna block the airflow of your case when you can put an nh-d15 ?



But..but..W1zzard told me to. And listen, you don't argue with him, OK?


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## LeonVolcove (Jun 23, 2014)

I like mini-itx these day, they cute and desireable. and btw when Asus Maximus VII Impact review?


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## Lopez0101 (Jun 23, 2014)

LeonVolcove said:


> they cute



First time I've ever heard that about a motherboard.


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## efahl (Jun 23, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> How many users here have mSATA drives? Uh...me? Any others? Nah, didn't think so.


I have one!  It was (yes, past tense) on a 3770k build a couple years ago, realized too late that the mSATA port on the motherboard was only SATA 2 (I mean WTF?), while the external drive ports were SATA 3 and pulled the mSATA drive off.  It's sitting in the pile if anyone wants it.   Definitely a failed experiment.


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## neliz (Jun 23, 2014)

efahl said:


> I have one!  It was (yes, past tense) on a 3770k build a couple years ago, realized too late that the mSATA port on the motherboard was only SATA 2 (I mean WTF?), while the external drive ports were SATA 3 and pulled the mSATA drive off.  It's sitting in the pile if anyone wants it.   Definitely a failed experiment.



First off, a lot these things like eSATA and mSATA are done on third party controllers, if you're unlucky it will be "powered" by a Marvell controller, that's why I always laugh when a positive point about a motherboard is that "it has eleventy sata ports!!11" having 20 sata ports means diddly squat if they can't even properly server SATA2 HDDs, quality > quantity.

As a M.2 user, I can only say it is still  a novelty (how many drives can I choose from?), and SATA Express will honestly be a novelty for even much longer (0 drives on the market in the next 6 months and who ever thought that that connector was a good idea? exactly.) I hope that everyone here has enough experience to know that "future proof" never is a buying argument for those that want the latest features as there's always something better available by the time you actually need it.


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## cadaveca (Jun 23, 2014)

neliz said:


> First off, a lot these things like eSATA and mSATA are done on third party controllers, if you're unlucky it will be "powered" by a Marvell controller, that's why I always laugh when a positive point about a motherboard is that "it has eleventy sata ports!!11" having 20 sata ports means diddly squat if they can't even properly server SATA2 HDDs, quality > quantity.
> 
> As a M.2 user, I can only say it is still  a novelty (how many drives can I choose from?), and SATA Express will honestly be a novelty for even much longer (0 drives on the market in the next 6 months and who ever thought that that connector was a good idea? exactly.) I hope that everyone here has enough experience to know that "future proof" never is a buying argument for those that want the latest features as there's always something better available by the time you actually need it.




Oh snap, we agree on something! High Five, bro!


ROFL.


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## neliz (Jun 23, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Oh snap, we agree on something! High Five, bro!
> 
> 
> ROFL.



I'm still a bit sick, maybe once I'm back to 100% health I can start disagreeing again


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