Z97 gaming 5 review: MSI Z97 GAMING 5 (Intel LGA 1150) Review

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Overview, Visual Inspection, Board FeaturesBIOSSoftwareIn The Box, 2014 Test Setup and OverclockingSystem BenchmarksCPU BenchmarksGaming BenchmarksMSI Z97 Gaming 5 Conclusion

Sometimes it feels odd to review the cheaper elements of the motherboard market. The more expensive models have more to play with, whereas the sub $160 market for Z97 comes down to the choice of an individual controller or two. Here is where brand loyalty and styling seem to matter more than absolute feature set. To make matters worse for MSI, one of the other manufacturers is also branding their motherboards with ‘Gaming X’, making it harder to forge that nomenclature as a brand. Today we are looking at the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 at $160, which at the time of writing is sold out on Newegg.

MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Overview

One of MSI’s main focus points of the last twelve months has been style. This typically means fashioned heatsinks, almost-invisible traces and if possible a reduction of on-the-board components (trying to balance price as well). MSI wants its motherboards to be shown off, rather than hidden inside a case, such that other users can show it off to their friends and perhaps entice them into a similar build. The Gaming 5 aims to the more cost conscious Haswell build while still maintaining a full ATX size in the red and black livery featuring the MSI Gaming logo.

On the gaming side of the hardware equation the Gaming 5 is fitted with a Killer E2205 network port which comes with application prioritization software, as well as an enhanced Realtek ALC1150 audio solution via Audio Boost. For users with USB DACs there is a feature to offer enhanced power to a pair of USB ports as well to improve power signal quality. There is also M.2 support for 22x42mm to 22x80mm devices up to PCIe 2.0 x2 speeds, and all the fan headers onboard are 4-pin.

One of MSI’s positive points of late has been the BIOS and software combination, which for the gaming range is boosted by a six-month premium subscription to XSplit. The box also contains a door hanger to let people know you are gaming and an MSI Gaming case badge to affix to the build.

Performance at stock is a bit of a mixed bag. We get a good array of CPU results due to MSI’s aggressive MultiCore Turbo, along with low idle power consumption and DPC Latency, but MSI’s tri-annual USB speed bug rears its head again. POST times are also longer than expected, being north of 14 seconds in both stock and stripped mode. Despite our audio tests also performing poorly, MSI has informed us of a driver update that should improve performance.

The best point of comparison for the Gaming 5 will be the Z97 Guard Pro at $110 we reviewed previously. Compared to the Guard Pro, the Gaming 5 gets SLI support, Killer NIC over Realtek, ALC1150 over ALC892 audio, HDMI rather than DisplayPort, support for 3 full-length PCIe devices, more rear panel USB ports, more in the package and perhaps a nicer looking product overall. This amount might be a sufficient difference to account for the $50 upgrade, although whereas the price of the Guard Pro might suit a Pentium build, the Z97 Gaming 5 really indicates a good i3 or i5 build.

Visual Inspection

One of the first things I noticed about the Z97 Gaming 5 is the PCB, especially in the socket area. MSI would seem to have a knack for making a PCB look polished, especially on these lower end models where there are fewer components. Like other gaming ranges, MSI uses a red on black theme here, with the heatsinks being the main source of red on the motherboard. The slots and port connectors are all in black, and even the power delivery chokes are an off gray as to not interfere with the general look.

The power delivery heatsinks use an odd surface area design and are not conjoined by a heatpipe, but feel sturdy enough for four phases each. The socket area is not outlined by the typical white box denoting the Intel minimum distances, although we had no issue fitting our CPU heatsink here. The socket area has access to four fan headers – two CPU headers to the top right, one SYS header just above the first PCIe slot and a final one below the 24-pin ATX power connector. The other fan header is at the bottom right of the motherboard.

As the DRAM slots are not color coordinated to indicate to users where to install the first memory stick, MSI puts in a handy diagram on the motherboard.

On the right hand side of the motherboard are the voltage check points. This is more of an overclocker tool, hence MSI has only placed pads here rather than an easier-to-use molded array with bundled connectors. Further down the board is the USB 3.0 header which MSI has placed at right angles to the motherboard to align with the SATA ports but also to not get in the way of any PCIe devices.

MSI uses the six SATA 6 Gbps ports from the chipset, all of which are RAID 0/1/5/10 capable. SATA_5/6 share bandwidth with the M.2 when the M.2 is in SATA mode, so there is a small amount of mental juggling to perform when installing storage. This is despite M.2 is still a few quarters away from mainstream sales. Note that there is no SATA Express, perhaps indicating that SATAe should be reserved for the more expensive produce on the shelf.

The bottom of the motherboard has the front panel headers, two USB 2.0 headers, a TPM header, a COM header, and an interesting addition as the ‘Audio Power’ header. One of MSI’s features is better USB power – this uses a bundled adapter and a 4-pin molex to drive a fresher 5V signal into the USB on the rear panel to give a power signal with less jitter. The concept being that it would benefit USB Audio users for better signal transmission.

The PCIe layout of the motherboard uses x16, x8/x8 and x8/x4/x4 when the full length slots are in use, with four x1 PCIe slots from the chipset added in for good measure. Note that if a device is installed into the bottom PCIe slot then SLI will not work, as the first two main PCIe slots will then run at x8/x4, and SLI needs x8/x8 minimum to work.

The rear panel is a main focus for some of MSI’s gaming features. On the far left are a combination PS/2 port and two USB 2.0 ports, with these USB 2.0 ports being part of the ‘Gaming Device Port’. MSI’s marketing materials say that with 3x more gold in the connector, the port is more responsive and has a 10x longer lifetime. While the latter statement is most likely true, the first statement is dubious – more gold would mean less impedance for signals, although without overriding software to increase the polling rate I doubt it would do anything for responsiveness.

Elsewhere on the rear panel we get another two USB 2.0 ports, VGA/DVI-D/HDMI video outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, the Killer E2205 network port and audio jacks with extra gold plating.

Board Features

MSI Z97 Gaming 5
Price	US (Newegg)
Size	ATX
CPU Interface	LGA1150
Chipset	Intel Z97
Memory Slots	Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Dual Channel, 1066-3300 MHz
Video Outputs	HDMI (4096×2304 at 24 Hz or 2560×1600 at 60 Hz) VGA DVI-D
Network Connectivity	Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2205
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1150 via Audio Boost
Expansion Slots	3 x PCIe 3. 0 x16 (x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4) 4 x PCIe 2.0 x1
Onboard Storage	6 x SATA 6 Gbps, RAID 0/1/5/10 1 x M.2 x2 M.2 shares bandwidth with SATA_5 and SATA_6.
USB 3.0	6 x USB 3.0 from Z97 (one header, four rear panel)
Onboard	6 x SATA 6 Gbps 1 x M.2 x2 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Headers 5 x Fan Headers 1 x TPM Header 1 x COM Header Two Digit Debug LED Front Audio Header Front Panel Header Voltage Check Points Audio Power Header
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers	2 x CPU (4-pin) 3 x USB (4-pin)
IO Panel	1 x PS/2 Combination Port 4 x USB 2.0 Ports 4 x USB 3.0 Ports 1 x Killer E2205 Network Port VGA DVI-D HDMI Audio Jacks
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link

I have seen numerous discussions regarding the good and bad parts of an x8/x8 + x4 PCIe layout against the x8/x4/x4 orientation. Ultimately, I believe the former wins out, due to the fact that tri-Crossfire users are low in number and more likely to go to X99. With x8/x8 + x4 a user can still have an extra PCIe card while maintaining SLI. If a user needs three PCIe x4 cards for their build, chances are at least one of them is not PCIe bandwidth bound, which makes the PCIe 2.0 x4 slot preferred. What MSI has done is use x8/x4/x4, because this frees up the chipset PCIe lanes to be split into four PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. It would be interesting to see a user that has a situation where all those need to be filled.

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Overview, Visual Inspection, Board FeaturesBIOSSoftwareIn The Box, 2014 Test Setup and OverclockingSystem BenchmarksCPU BenchmarksGaming BenchmarksMSI Z97 Gaming 5 Conclusion

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MSI Z97 Gaming 5 — Intel Z97 Express: Five Enthusiast Motherboards, $120 To $160

MSI certainly grabs attention with its matte black PCB and red accents. But the hardware focuses primarily on the Z97 platform’s integrated features. Four I/O panel USB 2.0 ports bolster connectivity on a board that offers a total of six USB 3.0 ports (four of which are also found around back).

The single GbE connection gets a slight boost from its PCIe-based Killer controller, but other PCIe connections are dedicated to slots and the M.2 interface. The chipset has only eight PCIe lanes, so the Z97 Gaming 5 presents four x1 slots in addition to the network controller and two-lane M.2 interface. The M.2 port also steals two SATA ports when a card is installed there.

Notice that the Z97 Gaming 5 has no SATA Express cable provision? That’s because MSI agrees with my boss that the M.2 interface is mostly useful in notebooks that lack space for RAID arrays, and that RAID arrays are most practical in desktops. That certainly gets around the chipset lane limitations experienced in several competing products, but it makes me question where the single-remaining lane might have otherwise been used. MSI could have just as easily omitted the x1 slot beneath the top graphics slot to get the second lane needed for that interface.

And yet it still sounds like MSI is getting around the PCIe limits of some competitors in its x16 slots. That’s because the bottom slot steals four lanes from the middle slot. Nvidia insists its cards need at least x8 for SLI, so using the bottom slot could prevent the top and middle slots from supporting SLI. MSI could have instead made the bottom slot x1/x4 switchable to support slower cards without that issue, but its documentation says it didn’t. Those limitations effectively make it a non-SLI graphics slot, whether those cards are used for CrossFire, an OpenCL-oriented accelerator, or just a massive wall of displays.

The Z97 Gaming 5 features a row of voltage detection points along the front edge and a two-digit POST code display at the bottom edge, both to make overclockers happy. The firm also adds a three-pin audio power input header for output current enhancement, along with a switch to select internal or external power sources (but that sounds just a little gimmicky to us).

The Z97X Gaming 5 includes a flexible SLI bridge and a four-to-three-pin audio power input adapter. But it also only includes two SATA cables. I typically use three cables in a basic build.

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Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom’s Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.

MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard review and test for Intel Haswell processors — Articles and Reviews

MSI Gaming series motherboards appeared relatively recently — just over a year ago, but since then they have managed to win the trust and sympathy of computer gamers. The key to this success is not only high quality and rich functionality, but also a wide range of product lines, thanks to which each user can choose a model that best meets the requirements. Of course, few flagship models are purchased, while the bulk of buyers pay attention to mid-range products, such as, for example, the MSI Z97 Gaming 5.

The motherboard is designed to operate Intel LGA1150 processors, to some extent it can be considered as a simplified version of MSI Z97 Gaming 7. What is the difference between the heroine of today’s review and the older model — you will learn from this material, and for now, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the specifications of the novelty.

Package Contents

The Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard comes in a cardboard box designed in the style of MSI gaming products. The front surface of the package is decorated with the image of a dragon — the mascot of the Gaming series, the name of the model and a couple of logos of the key features of the novelty are also applied here. nine0003

On the back of the box, a brief specification of the motherboard and the configuration of its rear panel are listed, as well as an extended description of design solutions, such as the presence of an advanced Audio Boost 2 sound subsystem and the use of a Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2205 network controller. In addition, MSI Z97 Gaming 5 supports USB Audio Power technology, which provides stable power to USB 3.0 ports, which is especially important when using external sound cards. nine0003

The only thing that can be complained about is the small number of SATA cables, but otherwise the set of accessories corresponds to the offers of competitors.

Design

The MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard measures 305mm x 244mm, which is an ATX form factor. The novelty is based on the Intel Z97 system logic, which provides support for Intel Haswell and offers a full range of overclocking options. The design of the product is closely related to the older model Z97 Gaming 7, the layout is close to the classic, all the main nodes are conveniently located. All electrical circuits use components that comply with the internal reliability standard Military Class 4. The motherboard is equipped with four DIMM slots, which can accommodate modules of RAM with a total capacity of 32 GB. The RAM subsystem is capable of operating at a frequency of 3000 MHz and higher.

Conclusions

The MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard performed quite well during the review, demonstrating a successful combination of high quality workmanship, balanced expansion and firmware options, having all the necessary tools for successful overclocking. The positive picture is complemented by functional complete software and high performance in normal mode. At the same time, during overclocking, the new product showed good, but far from record-breaking results, in any case, it was not possible to achieve maximum overclocking for the test Intel Core i7-4770K. Most likely, the reason lies in the imperfect Vcore control mechanism, which is why the processor in extreme modes was teetering on the verge of instability and overheating. There are also some questions about the operation of the OC Genie automatic overclocking function, which provides a very modest increase in clock frequency. Fortunately, these problems can be solved in the new stable version of the control microcode, since the objective reasons that prevent overclocking in the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 no.

As for the comparison with the older model MSI Z97 Gaming 7, the Gaming 5 does not look like a “poor relative” against its background. All the best features remained unchanged, and some reduction in expansion options and additional functions led to a 25% reduction in cost. At the time of writing the review, the price of the Z97 Gaming 5 in Ukrainian retail was around $175 — not so much for a quality product with a lot of advantages.

More details: www.overclockers.ua/motherboard/msi-z97-gaming-5/1/

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MSI Z97 GAMING 5 motherboard review