Test System

Initial Setup

The new DIMM design clearly marked on the board's surface, initial installation is pretty simple since you know where to install your DIMMs without pulling out the manual.


There is lots of space between the DIMMs and the uppermost PCIe slot, so fans or waterblocks on your memory are not going to cause any issues should you decide to go down that route. I chose to use a simple configuration with a single MSI GAMING GTX 780 3GB, fitting considering the X99S GAMING 7 is also an MSI GAMING product. I have been using this VGA in my test bench for quite some time now, and it has proven itself a capable GPU for single-monitor usage.


Easily booting into my freshly installed OS, drivers were effortlessly installed off the provided disc. Once complete, I ran CPU-Z and captured the information displayed above. Once I completed my baseline testing, I also took the time to quickly overclock the system. CPU-Z screenshots of the overclock have also been included above. Unfortunately, the BIOS is a bit rough around the edges, but I had the opportunity to try a few new boards out and this is a common issue right now, so OEMs will need some time to update their BIOSes before we can get the most out of what DDR4 has to offer. I have 3000 MHz sticks, but was not able to get much more than 2666 MHz out of them, on several boards. Yet performance has slowly improved since I have had this board, so I do hope things will keep on progressing in that direction.