Introduction

Sigh. It's just after Christmas, and I'm a bit upset. My vacation is about to end and school will soon starts up again, so my time is yet again going to be limited for several months until my winter semester ends. Being Christmas, I obviously got some new PC goodies to play with, and that means it is time for me to retire a system to build it up again. These choices are always hard for me, especially since I get some fantastic products and cannot find much reason to replace them other than, well, because I got new stuff!

But not all is disappointing! I've got the opportunity to show you guys some more great stuff, and this time, I get to go back to my favorite brand right now, MSI. That in and of itself is funny since I have had quite a few "official" people complain that I have lately favored ASUS, but I think they've been blinded by the light! For me as a gamer, MSI is where it is at, and there is no mistaking how MSI has carefully assembled complete product lines to meet the discriminate gamer's needs, whether they've got a few dollars to spend or a few thousand. Buy an MSI GAMING GPU and an MSI GAMING motherboard, slap them together, and you've got a killer system, no matter whether you favor NVIDIA or AMD or Intel. Just pick your socket, your grade of GPU, and you're set.

I'm not one of those gamers with just a few dollars; I do run triple GTX780 TI cards, so what board for Intel's Z97 chipset from MSI would I use? I've already covered some of the SKT1150 MSI GAMING products (and had this review written until an SSD's death obliterated it), but the one I'd choose has sorta been in use this entire time and is none other than the MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC. Featuring built-in Wi-Fi (that is what the "AC" stands for) and a flashy red and black esthetic, you know that this board is made to take things to the limit while looking good. It's like those fancy shoes with those red bottoms all the girls drool over...

Specifications