The Board - A Closer Look

MSI's GAMING line-up the X99S GAMING 7 is a part of has been designed from start to finish with gamers in mind, the needs and wants of such users built right into each board's DNA, and, as shown above, its circuitry.


The X99S GAMING 7 has a dual-BIOS implementation, with a close-by on-board switch to swap between the two. The print may have you think that little switch is for "SLOW MODE", but really, its there to pick the BIOS, while the "SLOW MODE" function is enabled via a close-by jumper. Each BIOS activates an LED that differs in color based on which is in use, one green and the other blue. Along the board's bottom edge are the Power, Reset, and OC Genie buttons—the latter enables a quick and dirty OC for those not interested in tweaking in an unfamiliar BIOS.


The X99S GAMIN 7's cooling is comprised of huge chunks of metal that sit over both the VRM section and the PCH farther down on the board, slashes of red left by a dragon's claws, perhaps?


The back of the VRM section also gets a stiffening backplate that aids with cooling, while the Intersil VRM controller is found on the front, just to the left of the monstrous cooler.


Each bank of DIMM slots gets an independent dual-phase VRM design, although the left bank has its design strewn all over the place, here and there, while the one on the right is clean and linear.


Providing good fan control requires a good Super I/O, and like many other high-end boards, there are also voltage read points on the MSI X99S GAMING 7, right next to that Super I/O rather than on the board's right side, which increases the accuracy of readings. These points will unfortunately be hard to reach if you fill the board with VGAs or other expansion cards, but that is perfectly fine with me since very few users actually put such voltage points to use.


There is a dual-digit POST code display on the board's bottom-right, under the PCH cooler. It actually swaps over to report CPU temperatures automatically once the boot-up sequence completes. Fitting all this functionality into the board requires many layers, eight in fact, which a tiny rectangular box on the MSI X99S GAMING 7's bottom-left illustrates nicely.


All those USB 3.0 ports on the rear can not possible be provided for by the Intel X99 Express PCH alone, and I did manage to find not one but two addition hub controllers, one near the rear I/O towers and the other close to the top, by the Intersil VRM controller.


LAN connectivity is provided for by a KillerNIC e2205 controller, one with optimized software and hardware for both network use while gaming and streaming, which many gamers, as TWITCH can testify to, are into now. I noticed a sticker on top of a USB tower close to the e2205 controller. It indicates that these ports are for USB audio devices as they are connected to a 5V power supply designed to ensure devices that need clean and accurate power, like audio devices, get the power they need.


Speaking of audio, the MSI X99S GAMING 7 features an electrically-isolated audio design, a now common measure we have all seen countless times before. Not all implementations have such clear isolation in their design as this one, though, as it also includes that MOLEX-based plug to directly fuel the circuit with some additional power for enhanced audio clarity. There is also a switch close to the EMI-shielded CODEC that allows you to swap power sources, so should you prefer to keep wiring simple because you have no need for such an awesome design, you can do so as well.