Pros: This board works flawless . installed a 64 Gb M.2 card for OS boot . win8.1 boots in under 8 sec . used the CD. for drivers and zero problems used msi update no problems. and wow it even had a SLI bridge connecter. Board is packed with features and looks great too. I have a plexi side panel to see in. On board LED shows cpu temp. OC GENIE button pushed CPU from 3.4 to 4.1GHZ with no issues. easy to setup and connect. temps 38C AT IDLE 54C when gaming. runs at 28C @ 3.4 ghz Frame rates when gaming went over 220fps on ultra settings. Using just one video card gave me avg. 120fps.

Cons: none yet

Overall Review: CPU I-5 4670 3.4GHZ OC TO 4.1GHZ EVGA 760GTX 2 GB SLI MY DIGITAL 64GB M.2 HYDRID DISK OZC VERTEX 240 GB SATA WD 1 TB HDD CORSAIR H50 block cooler EVGA 850 WATT GOLD PS GSKILL SNIPER 8GB X2 APEVIA-X HERMES CASE W 5 FANS WIN 8.1 64BIT no crashes or hang ups msi benchmark utility fun!!

Pros: Clean Look Tight Design Lots of Features Love the BIOS Post buttons and readouts Cool Logos Great BIOS Boot Up Options and overclocking abiliites Stable Platform to overclock off of Who doesn't love black and red?

Cons: NONE so far.

Overall Review: So far so good, I've only had it a little bit but so far I HIGHLY recommend it!

Pros: Good looking board. Nice bios, features, etc...

Cons: But don't buy it if you want to overclock. At bios defaults all is well, fast and stable. It easily OC's but when you do you'll find the USB ports quit working when it wakes from sleep. Doesn't matter what bios version or if you clock manually or use OC Genie. I've wasted a week trying to resolve it with no success. So it's going back, and I'm going back to Asus... Too bad, so close to being a good product.

Pros: So far this board has worked like a charm. - Color scheme is just what my lady needed and wanted. - Small simple yet feature packed - Easy intuitive Bios - All the commonly used connections are exactly where they should be. - Six usb 3.0 available along with the header for some case header additions. Clearly I only have had this board for about a month now. Once it sees more use if anything is to happen I will make a point to come back here and make it known.

Cons: No cons really at this point.

Pros: This motherboard has everything I needed in the right places and isn't so big that I couldn't place all I have on it and more if need be. Gone are the days of needing a full size ATX board. If needed I could place another video card in SLI, but there is not a game out that slows this thing down. I have tried the OC button and it makes the system run a little faster but it's not needed.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I7 4790 GTX 770 16 GB ADATA 1600 PNY PRO 480 GB SSD EVGA 1000W PSU MSI Z97M

Pros: The Board looks Great , Fast Over clocks very easily tons of features , My first MSI board and they made Me a Fan Boy

Cons: looks too good to hide had to buy a window for My case to show it off

Pros: There is just not enough space in these short reviews to cover everything... So, after re-reading my review I have some additions and corrections. Corrections: 1. I meant to say Digital VRM, not PWM! Doh! 2. To be more clear about the Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 software issue....the preset profiles allow you to change how the sound is processed but any settings you make don't stick between reboots. Changes made to the Custom profile do get saved. However, there is only one Custom profile. Additions: 1. Four PWM fan headers are on board. The first two are CPU-centric (one is meant for a PWM CPU fan and the second for something along the lines of AIO water cooler pump head OR if your HSF uses two PWM fans). The second set are for case fans. All can be set to operate based upon temperature in BIOS and have the ability to run set at full blast or according to a profile, and this can be done by fan header so you have a great deal of control. 3. Killer E2200 on-board NIC did not pose any issues for me. Some people don't like them, but I don't use the packet prioritization capability of this device so I cannot speak to the more advanced capabilities of this NIC. It has not caused me unusual problems, so that is good. One thing to note is no variation of Windows will have a default driver for it. You will need to load a driver from the install CD or have the latest and greatest driver already on your own prepped-up driver CD/USB thumb drive. One final item of note here is that you cannot load "drivers only." You get the utility portion whether you like it or not. 4. This motherboard supports M.2 form factor SSDs. Yes, you can boot from them. The M.2 form factor SSD in question must support that, however. The slot is electrically wired to support either PCI-E or SATA variations. You WANT to use a M.2 SSD that has native PCI-E support otherwise you get the same speed as if you were using the traditional method of hooking up a SATA SSD via cable. SHOP CAREFULLY...if is not always apparent as to which M.2 SSD comes with a native PCi-E controller and which relies on a SATA based controller. No, I did not test the M.2 slot. I am waiting for more options to hit the market for SSDs and I am waiting for the tech to mature first. If you do use the M.2 slot, two of the on-board SATA ports are disabled automatically. That would be SATA 5 and SATA 6. 5. Yes, the package comes with the MSI M-Connector which makes hooking up your FP leads much easier. Cannot think of anything else at this point. Will post more if more comes up.

Cons: N/A

Overall Review: N/A

Pros: The Board itself looks fantastic and the heat sinks that it comes with work very well. -Plenty of SATA data transfers available. -Military class components allow it to work at very high temperatures -Has plenty of USB 3.0 integrated on the board -Comes with very helpful Software including my favorite which is the MSI Command Center which helps you control fan speed, voltage directed to the CPU and DRAM. -Overall a very high quality Motherboard

Cons: None so far...

Overall Review: Very Good motherboard if you want a smaller, more compact build