MSI Z97A Gaming 6 LGA 1150 Motherboard Review

Software Overview

So the manufacturer’s point of difference is not only the components it uses, but also what it can offer the user during day-to-day use. MSi, like others, offer many different programs for you to choose from once set up which can help to make your life a little easier. Usually these programs are useless, offering bloatware or some pretty pointless programs that you wouldn’t normally download. MSi used to be the same, but have now changed and have tuned the software on offer to be extremely useful.

First up is one of the smallest applications MSi has to offer, Gaming App. This lite program is a quick and easy way of overclocking or even underclocking your system to your current needs; if you want the best CPU performance, OC mode, fancy watching a movie, set it to Silent mode to turn all of the fans down. Along with this, MSi has cleverly bundled in a display changer; a simple click changes the brightness and other screen settings to give the best visual appeal.

If you want something a little more in-depth, MSi Command Centre is for you. Taking the years of experience that MSi has and turned it into a visually pleasing program. Generally we advise to only overclock in the BIOS, but this feature works very well for small tweaks.

If that still isn’t enough for you, but you don’t like venturing into the BIOS, then Intel Extreme Tuning Utility has got you covered. This has every possible setting you could imagine, all in one place. This is definitely not for the faint hearted.

Even though we all want more power out of our system, sometimes it’s nice to turn off a couple of things inside the computer. Generally what we want to turn off are things that you can’t get to easily as they are within the case. This feature allows you to turn off certain items, although it does require a restart to activate.

MSi Live Update 6 is the backbone of the utilities bundled in with this motherboard. It allows the user to search for, download and install all of the missing drivers BIOS updates from the MSi website with one easy click.

MSi has bundled in Sound Blaster Cinema 2, like most other sound utilities; it allows you to choose from a preset or create your own sound for your taste.

With the growing live streaming trend, MSi added in a 6 month trial of XSplit Gamecaster. This gives you the resources to stream or record your game play easily.