MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX High Performance CF Intel Motherboard

Pros: I have completed two builds using this motherboard, and I have to say I am pleased with the results. It is a basic, no frills, easy to work with board that does not cost a lot and currently comes with a rebate. The major pros are the Military Class 4 components, plus ESD protection, EMI protection, and the new glass fabric moisture resistant PCB. All the important features I look for are present such as a USB 3.0 header for the front panel, heatsinks on the VRM, angled AND vertical SATA III connectors (very nice, I must say), and a very good UEFI. Both builds are running BIOS ver 1.4. I ran both builds through the ringer with Prime95, MemTest86, and Unigine Heaven. I looped the Unigine Heaven benchmark while running Prime95 Blend test for eight hours to ensure maximum stability and I had no issues with either build.

This motherboard supports Realtek Gigabit Ethernet, using the "G" variation of the chip, which is Realtek's latest. The onboard ALC 887 analog-only audio is decent but won't win any contests...however it is not relevant to me since I have a Creative Sound Blaster Z in my personal machine anyway. I have learned from my 22 years of building PCs that simplicity is beautiful, and the more features you get increase the price, the complexity, and the chance of failure or other unusual problems. Some times it really pays to go the more basic (but not TOO basic) motherboard route if you have a high end sound card, no need for overclocking, prefer high end single GPU solutions, and have no need for onboard WiFi/BT or other items that you probably do not want. If this fits you...then why pay more?

Cons: Really, only one con and this is easily circumvented if you know what you are doing when building a PC. This motherboard makes use of six mounting holes...not nine like on true full size ATX motherboards. That means a lot of flex at the edge of the board. This means when you insert your RAM, you do it outside the case on a hard flat surface (preferably on a anti-static mat). It also means when plugging in the main ATX power connector that you support the PCB from underneath with your fingers to prevent flex. To attempt to insert RAM or the main ATX power connector in any other fashion is to risk damaging the PCB which shows up as supposedly DOA boards or non-working DIMM slots. You can always tell via the reviews from other folks complaining of non-working DIMM slots that you are working with a six hole board--most often they do not realize the caveats I just outlined and cause their own hardware failures and then blame the manufacturer.

Overall Review: I am glad that MSI has released a basic no frills (and no unneeded extra fluff) motherboard that caters to someone who has a high end sound card and powerful single GPU setup with no desire to overclock. Here are the two builds:

My personal RIG:

Core i7-4770K at default clock
16 GB (2 x 8 GB stick) Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR3-1866, CL 9, 1.5V
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Super Clocked
Creative Sound Blaster Z
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB as OS/primary drive
Samsung 830 256 GB as secondary/gaming drive
Western Digital Blue 7200 RPM 1TB as mass storage
Corsair H110 water cooler
Cooler Master HAF XM case
Seasonic X-Series Gold Certified 650W modular PSU
ASUS DVD/RW
Windows 8.1 64 bit retail

Build for friend:

Core i5-4570
8 GB (2 x 4GB sticks) Team Vulcan DDR3-1600 CL 9, 1.5V
Seagate hybrid 1TB 7200 RPM hard disk
Power Color Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
ASUS DVD/RW
Cougar Archon case
Seasonic S12 II 620 Watt PSU, Bronze Certified
Using onboard Realtek sound and Ethernet
Windows 7 64bit OEM

Pros: I've been using this on a new build for around a month now, and the motherboard works as intended......

Cons: .....with the exception of two bad RAM slots. The computer won't even boot with RAM in two of the four slots (it has nothing to do with needing to be dual channeling). The other two work fine, and I am typing from the computer with this board in at the moment. I would have RMA'd this if I hadn't waited around a month or so before buying the rest of my computer and trying to boot it up.

Overall Review: None