MSI Z97 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard MSI Z97 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Latest chipset, lots of connections, fast boot.

Cons: 1st one was DOA. My test equipment showed that power got to the motherboard on only one voltage. No fans spun, no POST codes. 2nd one was perfect, but I had to reformat the hard drive as my previous Windows 7 installation couldn't tolerate the new chipset.

Other Thoughts: Purchased as a combo with a CPU at total cost less than current price for the board alone. I didn't remove the UPC before I tdiscovered the first one dead. Consequently, Newegg could provide a free return shipping label, which took them 3 days to process, and otherwise replaced it promptly.

Pros: BIOS is fantastic. Price/Performance is awesome.

Cons: Haven't found any.

Other Thoughts: It's a little hair raising watching this board flex when you attach cables.

Pros: Easy to setup and working well so far. No problems overclocking and I like all the options available in the BIOS. OC Genie does an okay job overclocking for people with no experience.

Cons: CPU temp in BIOS seems to be off for me, but other then that nothing to complain about.

Other Thoughts: Got this with the free G3258 and they work very well together. Going to hold off flashing the BIOS because of issues I've seen on MSI's website.

Pros: A lot of usb, easy to use bios

Cons: non of i can think of

Pros: -Easy to use UEFI BIOS
-Very affordable
-Good layout of USB hubs, SATA ports, etc
-Has heatsinks on VRMs, I've noticed some budget MSI boards do not.
-Overclocking is easy peasy with the UEFI.

Cons: -Somewhat flimsy, which I've noticed in other MSI boards. When you're plugging things in to the board, make sure you support it from the underside. Wouldn't want to snap a chunk off of your brand new motherboard.
-Some questionable "utilities" bundled in with the drivers, and no descriptions of said utilities. Just something to pay attention to when you're installing drivers/utilities.

Other Thoughts: Got this and a G3528 for $100, can't really beat that when you're building a budget rig. Would definitely buy again when building another budget rig.

Pros: This board just rocks the cpu it came with, in overall speed. Running the g3258 I was able to push it to 4.3 GHz running 4 GB DDR3 1600, A Stable, Prime95 8 Hr. run. The board works great. Comes with allot of memory options.

Cons: Doing more than a few things at the same time kinda sucks. Even at 4.3 GHz multitasking sucks but a major improvement from the stock 3.2 GHZ. I got this because it came with a cpu. I'm waiting in anticipation for the next desktop cpu. The board is great the cpu kinda sucks even clocked . May just get a better chip to hold me over until the new chip comes out 14nm.

Other Thoughts: I also need better memory

Pros: Price

Cons: BIOS was completely locked up when I got it. I called the MSI tech support and he told me to RMA it because it is defective. Hope the next one works.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,
Based on the symptom you reported, we suggest you checking following steps below since many reasons can cause the situation like this ,
1. Check and make sure that power are connected correctly and firmly (JPWR1 and JPRW2).
2. Check your other major hardware’s (memory, video card, CPU and power supply) to ensure that they are not the cause of the issue.
3. If you need further assistant, please feel free to contact our technical support department directly at 626.271.1004 from M to F, 6am to 6pm Pacific standard Time.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Has enough ports to fit what you need.

Cons: So I've only used this motherboard for about a month. Things were fine at first, but within 2 weeks, the motherboard starting failing on me. First off, the BIOS would not listen to my boot priority which caused boot times to be extremely long (up to 10 minutes at one point). I have also had issues of it not reading anything in the USB ports and causing my mouse and keyboard to malfunction. I have updated all the drivers to my peripherals, as well as did a clean install of my OS, and formatted my hard drives to make sure nothing is wrong but this all still occurred because of my motherboard. Some of you may also be thinking this is because of a BIOS issue and yes I have cleared the CMOS and done a BIOS update. Sure the price is nice for what you get, but this is disappointing.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,
Based on the symptom you reported, we suggest you checking following steps below since many reasons can cause the situation like this ,
1. Check and make sure that power are connected correctly and firmly (JPWR1 and JPRW2).
2. Check your other major hardware’s (memory, video card, CPU and power supply) to ensure that they are not the cause of the issue.
3. If you need further assistant, please feel free to contact our technical support department directly at 626.271.1004 from M to F, 6am to 6pm Pacific standard Time.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Well built, nice spacing on the PCI slots fan connectors, etc. running this with an i7 that was part of the combo deal. Magnificent black and blue color scheme. All printed PCB labels easy to read. Excellent bundled driver and utility software. BiOS is so modern one would think they were on a website or a program running on the OS.

Cons: None yet. I have nothing bad to say about this board.

Other Thoughts: I am not an overclocker, but I have played with this board a bit and find the GUI to be outstanding for a somewhat rusty old dude. When one installs the bundled drivers and application everything is a snap, including flashing the BiOS. This is part of a DIY bundle from Newegg that saved me money and removed any reservations I had about making such a purchase. Far superior to my venerable Universal Abit on my previous machine.

Pros: Functions good. Bios is easy. RMA is good.

Cons: BIOS update?

Other Thoughts: This was used for my first ever computer build--
Everything went solid and I liked how easy the bios was
Overclock was almost a no-brainer
If overclock fails, the computer boots into safe configuration and it works good again.

I once updated bios (since up-to-date is got to be good right?) and found that the bios killed my motherboard. reset CMOS and what not it just plain didn't work out right. So I panicked and called MSI and told them what happened, and to my surprise they allowed a clean RMA. I was able to send and recieve the product back in about two weeks (i live in central america) and now I don't dare touch BIOS. I've also learned that you shouldn't update bios unless you're sure BIOS is causing hardware compatiability issue... so take that for what it is.

The use and setup was real easy with the board. I am pleased with the purchase and the RMA department.