When MSI first launched their Z97 Gaming Series motherboards they were made up of the Z97 Gaming 3, Z97 Gaming 5, and Z97 Gaming 7. MSI has now introduced a new high-end addition, the Z97 Gaming 9 AC. This board is targeted directly at high-end gaming PC builds.
The board features a 16-phase VRM for the CPU which is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slot, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x4/x4 when all three are populated). 3-way CrossFire and SLI is supported.
For wired connectivity you have Broadcom’s newer Killer E2205 gigabit NIC. Wireless on the other hand is handled by an Intel-made chipset that will give you 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. Storage comes in the form of eight SATA 6GB/s port and an M.2 slot, no SATA Express here. Overclocking features on the board include voltage measurement points, a POST LED display, OC Genie button, and power and rest button.
Expect this board to go for around $200.
