MSI Z97 Gaming 7 (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

MSI’s Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard is currently selling for $189.99 on Amazon and Newegg. In the UK the expected retail price is £139.99 from retailers like Amazon. The Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard from MSI comes with a 3 year warranty.

For UK readers reading this on launch day: don’t forget about MSI’s special launch day Z97 promotions of 20% cashback and free bundled Corsair cooling components!

Overview

The MSI Gaming Series brand has come a long way in a fairly short period of time. The MSI Z97 Gaming 7 represents an impressive achievement for MSI’s product design and development process. The product feels very well executed with sensible feature choices, attractive gaming aesthetics and a very compelling price point for what is a flagship gaming board. MSI have really managed to pin down the kind of features that a gamer wants and needs: packet prioritisation with a powerful network controller, high quality audio optimised for gaming headsets, support for multiple GPUs and overclocking for maximum gaming performance and most importantly a motherboard that fits the bill of what a gaming motherboard should look like. Whether you agree or not I still believe that aesthetics are one of the main driving forces in a motherboard purchasing decision, in this regard MSI have done extremely well. You only have to look at MSI’s P67/Z68 motherboards to see just how far they have come in terms of styling and catering to a gaming market they’ve never really gone after in the past.

I think there are a few areas for improvement though.  Clearly our results show that MSI could do with a bit more optimisation on the storage side of things, maybe this can come through BIOS updates or some improved software utilities and drivers, performance seemed to be about 5-10% off where it should be based on my results with other motherboards. I also feel that the Killer NIC might not be the best choice for gamers – Intel’s NIC is equally as capable and has significantly less CPU overhead as well as offering much more compatibility with the native Intel Z97 platform. I can only assume that the Killer NIC is a more affordable solution which is acceptable and understandable given MSI’s success at keeping the cost of this product so low.

Pros

• Solid gamer aesthetics
• Great audio
• Rich extra features – debug LED, power/reset buttons, extra dip switches, voltage check points
• Very well priced
• Extensive accessory and software bundle

Cons

• Killer NIC has high CPU usage
• Second CPU fan header is awkwardly placed
• Below average storage performance

“MSI’s Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard is something MSI should be proud of. For the price I am amazed at not only how much MSI have managed to cram in, but also how well they have managed to execute it. Intel’s Z97 launch has hardly been well executed or inspiring but boards like this one from MSI have certainly made it worth the wait.”

Thank you to MSI for providing this review sample.