MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC review/Unboxing

[twinto23]

Finally, finish my X99 system builds last week. Just want to share and show this MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC motherboard for you guys, hope this will be helpful.

Spec
CPU: Intel i7-5960X
Motherboard: MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC
Memory: Crucial DDR4-2133MHz 64GB
HDD:WD 1T BLACK SERIES
Graphic: MSI N780 TI LIGHTNING X3
(I haven’t decide which GPU I want to get, so I borrow those gpu from my friends.)
(May get 2-3 nvida 970 or 980 later on for my x99 build)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Frio Advanced
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W

Note: I am not the professional write/reviewer, so the image I take may be bad and low resolution, please forgive me!!!

Unboxing

Huge box, EATX motherboard [12 in. x 10.4 in. (30.5 cm x 26.4 cm) EATX Form Factor]

On the back of the box, it shows the key feature of the motherboard, include: Streaming engine, supports 4-Way SLI/CF, supports new DDR4 momory, Turbo m.2, Build-in Wifi, Audio boost 2, and Killer lan.

Accessories

Streaming engine, inside with AverMedia encoding chip. For those of you play with live stream, this will be a useful feature for your system build. [Record your gaming activities at amazing 1080p quality with 60Mbps bitrate, without sacrificing CPU and graphics performance.]

Turbo M.2, Delivering speeds up to 32Gb/s using Gen3 x4, Turbo M.2 is more than 5 times faster than a regular SATA III connection!

i/o, MSI use red instant of blue for the USB 3.0, support up to 8 USB 3.0 for use.

Also, up to 10 sata 6Gb, and also the Sata express as well. The coolest feature for the new x99 MSI motherboard, is that you can use m.2 and SATA-e at same time, for this will be good for your future upgrade.

As we know, all the x99 motherboard support for new DDR4 momery, MSI and ASRock can support up to 128G DDR4, but the official webside of Gigabyte and ASUS shows their mb can only up to 64G memory.

 

[twinto23]

8-power phases

This red usb 3.0 slot is for MSI Super charger use. Super charger is a tech can let you re-charge your phone battery faster.

Support 4-way sli and crossfire, but for this review I only get 3 gpu for 3-way sli

Onboard OC Genies, reset and on-ff button

 

[twinto23]

Overclocking/Benchmark

I tried to do some overclocking, and up to 4.4 Ghz with air-cooling.
And it work fine during the burning test.

And I also doing some benchmark, this is the non-overclocking set-up

This is the score I get when I turn on the OC Genies, MSI OC Genies auto-overclocking my CPU up to 3.7 Ghz.

This is the score I get when my CPU overclocking up to 4.4 Ghz

And also, I did the benchmark test for those monster level GPU.
Here is the score with non-overclocking set-up

Score for OC Genies, [3.7 Ghz]

Overclock my cpu up to 4.4Ghz, and get this score.
So basically, if you are not the professional ocer, maybe use the OC Genies will be a good choice!

For the gaming motherboard, I also do the Unigine Heaven Benchmark test, set up to the ULTRA Setting

The result is nice, 90+ FPS on Ultra mode, should be easy to take off most of the GPU-Killer Games (like watch dogs, and more)

Conclusion
If you are the gamer, or streamer, and also looking for the high-end pc/workstation,
I think this MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC will be the best selection for you.
I was take a look between ASUS X99 Rampage V Extreme and MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC, The reason I didn’t choose ASUS because of the OC Socket. I understand the OC Socket is a good/ new tech for overclocking, but I am not going to play hard overclocking with this x99 system, and also really worry about the Intel warranty. And the price of Asus x99 Rampage V Extreme is like $100 more than the MSI one, so base on those reason, I pick up the MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC motherboard.

Also, I think MSI doing well on the X99 motherboard, they do add some useful feature on the board, not only for the marketing use. Like Streaming engine, I think this is nice, if you are the game streamer, you don’t need to get the extra encoding card for use, and will also save one of your PCI-E slot for 4-way SLI/CF. and also the Gen3*4 M.2, I know there don’t have many M.2 Device on the market, but I believe will get more in the following 2-3 years, so the new generation M.2 will allow me to upgrade my pc in the future.

But remember, X99 platform is most use for the server/workstation, if you are only looking for gaming or office use, you may want to think about the z97 build. (unless you get un-limit budget). For me, this pc is use for gaming/streaming, and also the home workstation (Photo-shop, video editing) and cloud server.

Thanks!

 

[Shmee]

Very nice review! Looks like a cool board, glad you are enjoying it. Can you give an explanation of how the PCI-E lanes are divided up on the board? Curious if 3 or 4 cards would cause any bottleneck with the turbo m.2/SataE

 

[mistersprinkles]

Same cheeseweiner chokes they use on their much cheaper Z97 offerings in a "premium" enthusiast motherboard?

Sigh, Msi... (that rhymes!!)

The days of quality MSI components are long gone.

 

[twinto23]

Very nice review! Looks like a cool board, glad you are enjoying it. Can you give an explanation of how the PCI-E lanes are divided up on the board? Curious if 3 or 4 cards would cause any bottleneck with the turbo m.2/SataE

(the last one, near the m.2 slot [pci-e(5)])

and about your question, I get the answer from Guru3d review
"5 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. a whopping five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 which can be arranged in these slot configurations with graphics cards:
•1-way mode - x16 / x0 / x0 / x0 / x0
•2-way mode - x16 / x0 / x0 / x16 / x0 or x16 / x0 / x0 / x8 / x0
•3-way mode - x16 / x0 / x0 / x16 / x8 or x8 / x8 / x0 / x8 / x0
•4-way mode - x8 / x8 / x0 / x16 / x8 or x8 / x8 / x0 / x8 / x4
"
MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC Review on GURU3D

 

[twinto23]

Same cheeseweiner chokes they use on their much cheaper Z97 offerings in a "premium" enthusiast motherboard?

Sigh, Msi... (that rhymes!!)

The days of quality MSI components are long gone.

Haha, I understand that
but I think MSI doing better on teh quality control on the z87, z97 and x99 now on.
and also you will see more problem come out with asus/gigabyte motherboard.
but I really dont think there has a brand can do 100% with their QC....

anyway, my x99s work well right now lol

 

[Rvenger]

No issues with the chokes though on my X99S SLI Plus. They are quiet and run very cool, even overclocked. The X79 Asrock board I had previously hit close to 100c and heated up the back of the case.

 

[Redstorm]

MSI N780 TI LIGHTNING X3

You know only 12 were ever made and given away to a select few over clockers.

Now you might have 3 x MSI 780 Lightings but not TI's

 

[TheGoat Eater]

Yes - there is only one 780Ti in the US - It went to the Overclocker "Splave"

This looks like an amazing board and I can't wait to get my hands on one and take it for a spin