MSI Z87I LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: This motherboard performs as advertised and then some. For the price, you literally CANNOT do better. It supports all speeds of RAM. Plenty of SATA ports I used a coolermaster 212 evo and have just recently switched to a corsair h90 to cool my 4770k daily use at 4.1 GHz and OC'd to 4.5+ Good looking Motherboard, can't complain much on layout or looks. Wifi Antennas are nice, not as bulky as ones supplied with other motherboards, Wifi also works Excellent! I can't seem to replicate issues other reviewers have had. 2 Ethernet ports are nice as well BIOS is SO much better than all my previous systems, OC Genie is nice to use when I don't feel like tweaking my voltages and multipliers to OC. The included MSI Intel extreme tuning utility is pretty cool too and easy to overclock with. The z87i is just as capable as the Asrock and Gigabyte models with an even better BIOS IMO

Cons: Only 2 fan headers are a little annoying when using 3 fans and a pump, but I am able to overcome that with the Node's fan control. CPU placement is fine for GPU clearance on tower coolers over 120mm in width, but much larger than that you will have issues. Documentation isn't the best, but if you have basic knowledge of PC building you'll be just fine. "Military Class" seems like a marketing gimmick but I haven't blown any caps or cracked the PCB yet so I guess we'll see.

Overall Review: I can honestly say I would have bought this motherboard over the Gigabyte and ASrock even if it was $50 more. I thought about getting either one of the Asus boards but chose the MSI because although they may offer a few extra features, most people won't ever need them and gains would be few and far between when it comes to OC and real-world performance, unless you count internet-ego. My system: MSI z87i i7-4770k Corsair h90 Sapphire HD 7950 OC Samsung 830 and WD Blue Silverstone 550w Gold with pp05 kit Node 304

Pros: WiFi/BT works great, dropped my latency by about 20ms and increased DL by 5Mbps vs a USB adapter. Mini-PCI-E slot. Great BIOS, very easy to overclock my i5 to 4.6GHz+. Fan controls are pretty good, see more in Cons. Onboard audio is actually the same as the Realtek 1150, just with 2 channels chopped off.

Cons: Nitpicks: Only 2 fan headers and the system fan header is in a bad place. 4-pin power plug is also placed in a bad spot. PCI-E locking mechanism is kind of a PITA, but it could just be that I'm used to Gigabyte's excellent mechanism.

Overall Review: Aside from some goofs on chipset layout, this is an excellent motherboard. It offers everything you need to have a powerful Haswell system in a Mini-ITX form factor. It may not have the power phases or headphone amp the more expensive boards have, but in my experience those don't make as much of a difference as you expect. Will update a few months later, but so far I am loving it.

Pros: I have it in a silverstone SG08 but it will work well with most SG cases. The cooler I have is a cooler master GeminII. It fits perfectly after I remove the CPU fan as it's not necessary in SG08. Some other ITX boards have SATA and power connectors behind RAM slots or next to PCI-E. That's bad for SG cases. This one has most ports lined up on the opposite side of PCI-E. That's the best layout for an ITX in my opinion.

Cons: I don't know the thinking behind dual LAN for a mini ITX board intended for SFF.

Pros: Relatively easy overclock, decent feature for the price.

Cons: Only 2 fan connectors, had to get an adapter to have all the case fans running.

Overall Review: Was running an i5 4678K at 4.2GHz, stock voltage no problem with 1.3 bios, but after updated to 1.4 it became unstable. Had to revert back to 1.3

Pros: Value - Decent Intel WiFi - Black looks nice. has overclocked the two k series I have used without issue - has recognized the 1600 @ 1.35v, 2133 @ 1.65v and the 2400 @ 1.65v memory I have used in all of the builds - bios is easy enough to use - location of the CPU, SATA, 24-Pin, USB 3.0 were good for the cases I used. (Cooler Master Elite 120)

Cons: 4-pin board power I guess. I would have liked one more fan header. CPU location is close to PCI-e and Memory so keep that in mind when thinking about aftermarket cooling

Overall Review: Great board at this price point. Is it the ASUS Maximus VI Impact? No... But it is half the price. This board makes a great HTPC or mid range gaming board and none of the three I have used have had any issues so far. If that changes I will let the Newegg world know.

Pros: This was my first ITX setup and I'm greatly amazed at the functions and features you get in such a little package. I grabbed all the drivers from intel except the audio and everything is working without any hiccups.

Cons: Would have been nice to have 4x sata III cables but I'm not knocking a egg just for that since I have a drawer full of them. Also out of all the components I purchased from Newegg with their rebates MSI is the only company I have not had a problem with when it comes to getting the rebate.

Overall Review: This is now the third MSI board I have in the house and I have been happy with every single one...X79 Big Bang, a P67-45 board, and this. Now I need to start getting their video cards.

Pros: Plenty of your standard motherboard features and the placement of everything on the board isn't terrible. I love the style of network antenna included.

Cons: The intel centrino wireless device on this motherboard is absolutely terrible. It boasts the ability to do both bluetooth and wireless, but whenever a bluetooth device is connected, the wireless connection speeds drop dramatically, and the connection itself disconnects and reconnects. Even with bluetooth disabled, the network reliability is terrible. A quick google search shows me that MANY other people have this exact same issue.

Pros: 7.5 second boot time with a Samsung 840 Pro and an i5. Stable as a rock.

Cons: None