The Board - A Closer Look

Most high-end gamers like to OC, and the MSI Z97 GAMING 9 is ready to meet those needs thanks to several onboard features. First, there's a dual-digit POST display for diagnosing boot issues. Then, there are the onboard Power Reset and OC Genie buttons, this time in the top-right corner of the MSI Z97 GAMING 9. There are also dual BIOS chips you can swap between by using the switch shown above.


Built with a 6-layer PCB, the MSI Z97 GAMING 9 scrams a fair bit of functionality into a somewhat smaller real estate than others might, and proudly proclaims it. There are also pointers on the board's surface as to which DIMM slots you should populate first, which makes those first boots easier because you won't have to pull out the manual to figure out which slots to use.


Power delivery is provided by six input drivers found on the edge of the board; three each, separated into two banks. These push the MOSFET packages on the board's front. The MOSFETs are cooled by the heatsinks there, heatsinks clad in red dragon claws. I also immediately noticed that all the capacitors are blacked-out to match the esthetic, and that I could see directly through the VRM heatsinks... they light up in a red glow when power is supplied to the board. There are also the customary silver MSI GAMING dragons that flank the 8-pin EPS connector.


Speaking of power, should you want to monitor various voltages in real-time using real hardware, there is a header for you to plug those V-Check cables into—these can then slide onto the end of your multi-meter's probes.


That brings us to the MSI Z97 GAMING 9's audio design; one that is a bit more complex than on MSI's other GAMING boards. A black metal cover sits over the entire audio section, and on the rear, a clear line of isolation can be seen; it travels from the board's bottom edge all the way up to the rear I/O audio towers.


The line of isolation is highlighted by a bunch of red LEDs on the board's underside. There's also the close-by Audio BOOST power plug.


The rest of the onboard hardware is rather boring, honestly, although it is worth noting that ASMedia does provide most of the other controllers—the USB 3.0 hubs and additional SATA support. However, just like on nearly any other motherboard out there, it's NXP that provides the HDMI TMDS chip.