The Board - Layout

The MSI Z97 GAMING 9 looks a lot like MSI's other GAMING motherboards; that is, except for the black metal cover over its audio. The subtle red and black colors mesh together well and do not look like the colors on other red and black boards out there... others look like THIS one. The rear of the board has a fair bit of action going on, so do take care when mounting this board into your case.


The front of the socket is open, with a couple red dragon claws reaching up from the board's surface to grab the VRM coolers and hold them in place. The rear of the socket is ready and waiting for your after-market backplate.


With three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and three PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the MSI GAMING 9's slot arrangement is pretty basic. There are four DIMM slots that are capable of pushing DIMMs to 3200 MHz and beyond.


There's a large M.2 port between the lower PCie slots, and the board's bottom edge is full of the usual stuff: USB, audio, and case-wiring headers, although all the plugs and such have been pushed to the MSI Z97 GAMING 9's right side due to the audio design. There are five 4-pin PWM fan headers on the MSI GAMING 9. These headers come with full controls in both the BIOS and the software in your Windows-based OS.


The rear I/O towers include HDMI and DVI connectivity and no less than eight USB 3.0 ports. The left-most I/O tower holds a PS/2 port and two legacy USB 2.0 ports, while a singe LAN and the esthetically matching audio plugs fill out these options. There is also a clear CMOS button, and the remaining space is open until you install the MSI AC card for wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. There are a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports on the MSI Z97 GAMING 9, six of which are driven by the Intel Z97 PCH, while the other two are provided for by an add-on controller.