MSI has launched the "mini, but mighty," Z97I GAMING ACK motherboard. The Taiwanese laptop PC and components firm says that this new board offers an entirely new "gaming oriented PCB design" and all the facilities and functionality you could desire in a Mini-ITX form factor gaming machine.
Frag, don't lag
A major selling feature of the MSI Z97I GAMING ACK is thought to be the Killer DoubleShot Pro networking solution. MSI says that this wireless network hardware delivers "3.5x times lower latency and 2.9x times faster data throughput compared to traditional Wireless-N solutions". Connection 'teaming' is available to make use of both wired and wireless simultaneously so, for instance you can game via LAN and partake in other internet tasks over Wi-Fi. This, it is alleged, will help keep your connections lag-free. MSI supplies 'smart applications' back up the hardware solution to make the most of it.
Storage speed boost via M.2.
The M.2. storage support in the MSI Z97I GAMING ACK "transfers data through a PCI Express 2.0 x2 interface up to 10 Gb/s, making it 67% faster than SATA 3.0 solutions," says MSI. The M.2. slot is situated at the bottom of the motherboard for convenience and it is compatible with two sizes of M.2. storage components.
Motherboard re-design
As mentioned in the intro, MSI is particularly pleased with its new MSI Z97I GAMING ACK PCB design. Small form factor designs sometimes need to have specially designed cooling solutions due to their miniaturisation and the confined spaces into which they are installed. Air cooling requires airflow and in a mini-system space can be at a premium. MSI has re-designed the entire PCB to allow standard sized enthusiast CPU air cooling solutions or water cooling kits to work well. So users should have a wider choice of better, quieter cooling solutions.
Specifications
- Model name: Z97I GAMING ACK
- CPU Support: 4th and 5th Gen Intel Core / Pentium / Celeron processors
- Chipset: Intel Z97 Express Chipset
- Network: Killer E2205 Gigabit Ethernet, Killer 1525 802.11 ac, BT 4.1
- Storage: 1x M.2 10Gb/s, 4x SATA 6Gb/s
- Display interface: 1x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI
- Audio: Isolated audio PCB, Headphone amp, Nichicon Japanese capacitors, Audio Boost 2, USB Audio Power, Sound Blaster Cinema 2
- Connectivity: 1x PCI-e 3.0 x16, 6x USB 3.0, 6x USB 2.0, 8-channel Audio Boost, Gaming device port
- Software: OC Genie 4, MSI Gaming app, Click BIOS 4, Live updnate, Command Centre, Smart Fan control
