Question 1

How many fan headers does this MOBO have ?

Accepted Answer

CPU fan hookup (4-pin) and a single system fan hookup (splittable).
I tried to reference the manual on MSI's site; it appears that is not allowed in this forum.  I suggest you look at the manual on their site pages 22-23.

It's a great little mobo for mini-ITX boxes.  If you plan on installing a higher-performance chipset (i5 or i7) make sure you have the device in a very cool air box or have it liquid cooled.  It's a nice open design, but especially in smaller enclosures, higher-end  chipsets will generate more heat than some mini-ITX enclosures will be able to shed easily under load (especially if you plan on using on-board gfx chipset).

I currently have an i5-4670 running stable (stock fan and system fans keep it at 36-50 deg C under load) at its design frequency with 8 Gb of RAM and I've had no issues.  Installed in an EVGA Air case and the system is almost always under load, but only crests 50 C when I'm really pushing it.  The PCI-e port is 2.0-3.0 compliant -- the gfx card I have installed drives 3 monitors and the system stays cool enough that I don't have to worry about heat issues with this case.

Draw your own conclusions, but for a mini-ITX board, this is one of the better ones I've found, especially for the price-point.

Question 2

Is the wifi dual-band or only 5ghz/ac?

Accepted Answer

I have a dual band linksys router. Yes, the wireless on this main board supports both. I will admit, the 5ghz did not connect consistently at first. This does not appear to be an issue any longer

Question 3

Can I use both onboard and Dedicated graphics? Ex: 2 monitors on Dedicated Graphics and 1 monitor with onboard graphics.

Accepted Answer

I believe that can only be done on a AMD as a feature. I don't believe Intel supports it. The experience I had with older motherboards before that did carry onboard vga would always have a conflict with a dedicated vga card if they were both enabled.

Question 4

Overclockable?

Accepted Answer

It is overclockable, however you normally overclock the CPU or your graphicscard. 
 
So it would depend on the chipset you are going to be purchasing for this motherboard. You can overclock your processes in the BIOS. Generally, you want to overclock the graphics card that you are going to be purchasing.

There once was a time where the manufacturing companies maximized the clock speed and the voltage but with the overclock trend manufactures have put in a bit less so that people can go and overclock with relative safety.

The MSI states that you can overclock this motherboard on their own website so you should be ok with overclocking it.

To tell you the truth the overclocking should be done later on when the computer is a little bit irrelevant. For now buy the best chipset and graphics card you can afford and you should be able to play any game on the highest setting.

Oh, and one more thing, I dont know what kind of case you are going to be buying for this board but if you want to double up on graphics card be careful because my corsair case barely fits one graphics card.

Question 5

Does this support triple monitor display?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but either one of the monitors _must_ be DisplayPort capable (the other two can be HDMI or DVI), or you need an _active_ adapter for the DisplayPort to HDMI or DVI of your monitor (the key is an active adapter - a passive adapter won't work). If you were to connect 3 monitors, one with an HDMI input, one with a DVI input, and one with a DisplayPort input, you'd be fine. You can get away with a passive adapter to convert between the motherboards HDMI and DVI ports to your monitor's HDMI and DVI ports. The one to watch is the DisplayPort - it needs the active adapter, if it's connecting to a non-DisplayPort capable monitor.

Question 6

This works with haswell refresh chip right out of the box with no bios update needed?

Accepted Answer

Yes but I personally would update it for best compatibility and performance.

Question 7

Can a MSI Rep please confirm if the shutdown AND restart issue has been fixed with a BIOS update and what the correct version is to fix these issues?

I would love to purchase this model but am hesitant with the repeat shutdown and restart problems people are having.

Accepted Answer

I'm not an msi rep,  but I've been running this model for about a year and haven't had any issues.

Question 8

The spec says RAID 0/1/5/10 but I can't figure-out how to get to the controller options to set it up at all.  Manual says - during POST, but it's not happening at all.  How do I get into the RAID config?

Accepted Answer

Enable raid under system -> Intergrated IO -> sata. After that you'll want to "create" the raid disk which can be done through the UEFI bios or by pressing CRTL+I on boot up

Question 9

Can I use a dvi to VGA converter... Because I have a KVM switch?

Accepted Answer

Yes you can but it will limit the resolution it can display

Question 10

size?

Accepted Answer

mITX is the size.  That means its about 6.7 inches by 6.7 inches

Brand	MSI
Model	Z87I AC

CPU Socket Type	LGA 1150
CPU Type	4th Generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron (LGA1150)

Number of Memory Slots	2x240pin
Memory Standard	DDR3 2667(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600
Maximum Memory Supported	16GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

Serial ATA (SATA)	4 x SATA 6Gb/s
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC892
Audio Channels	8 Channels

MSI Z87I AC LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Learn more about the MSI Z87I AC

Customer Reviews of the MSI Z87I AC

Warranty & Returns

Warranty, Returns, And Additional Information

Warranty

Return Policies

Manufacturer Contact Info

LAN Chipset	Realtek 8111E
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps
Wireless LAN	WiFi IEEE 802.11ac
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0

Back I/O Ports	1 x DisplayPort / 1 x HDMI / 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 / 4 x USB 3.0
Video Ports	DVI
HDMI	1 x HDMI
DisplayPort	1 x DisplayPort
USB 3.0	4 x USB 3.0
USB 1.1/2.0	2 x USB 2.0

Item#: N82E16813130738