MSI Z97M Gaming Review
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 22.07.14Page:
Connectors and I/O
In total, MSI equipped the Z97M Gaming with six SATA 6Gbps connectors. This means you get six native SATA-III ports from the PCH and there are even two additional eSATA ports at the I/O panel from another chip which is in this case the ASM1061 from ASMedia. With this motherboard you get two PCIe 16x Gen 3.0 and and two PCIe 1x Gen 2.0 slot and all of them have been coloured black. From top to bottom for the PCIe 16x slots you get, 16 and 8 lanes. This means you can do 8x/8x SLI/CrossFire. Basically, that are the standard options you get with any Intel's Z97 Express based motherboard, that does not come with a PLX chip. The placement of the PCIe slots has been well thought. There are for example two slots inbetween the two main PCIe 16x in order to provide a multi-GPU configuration with enough fresh air.Something that is almost standard nowadays with premium motherboards are the practical onboard power- and reset-buttons as well as a debug LED. Furthermore there is an OC Genie button and an audio switch.
The BIOS can be cleared by removing the battery or simply by pushing the clr_CMOS button located on the back panel.
The MSI Z97M Gaming motherboard features a total of four fan headers, which is enough to provide an overclocking rig or even a high-end gaming machine with plenty of fresh air. A closer look at the pictures below shows where they have been placed. All four fan headers are PWM (4-pin).
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Looking at the external connectors placed directly at the I/O-panel, MSI equipped the new Z97M Gaming motherboard with a P/S2 connector, six USB 3.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one HDMI and a DisplayPort output, two USB 2.0 ports, the CLR_CMOS button as well as an optical out and the analogue audio panel.
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