Three-Way X99 LGA 2011-v3 ATX Motherboard Shootout

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Buyers of Intel's X99 platform, which supports Intel's Haswell-E and new DDR4 memory, were probably prepared to pay a premium for mid-market boards. Are any of these $240 to $300 models worthy of Intel’s latest CPUs?

MSI X99S Gaming 7 Software

"MSI Gaming App" is a shortcut to one overclocking profile, in this case 3.7 GHz at 1.05 V, which was already on the installation DVD when we received our motherboard sample.

MSI Command Center wasn’t included on the X99S Gaming 7’s installation DVD, but that’s probably because the firm needed a few more days to update its overclocking and management suite. By the time we did our tests, version 1.0.0.79 was available on the motherboard’s download page.

Changes to CPU base clock and core voltage were quickly detected by CPU-Z, but DRAM ratios were stuck. We also had to wait a few seconds for the application of clock multiplier changes.

MSI’s RAMDisk software made a nice little partition on some of our spare memory.

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Additional voltage controls are available through an “Advanced” pop-up menu.

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The “Settings” button links to extra fan and system logging pop-ups.

MSI Mobile Control provides remote access to overclocking functions briefly mentioned in our previous motherboard round-up.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dgingeri
    "LGA 2111-v3"??

    Did something change?
    Reply
  • west7
    In the 3D gaming page it should been i7-5760x not i7-4790 and fix the LGA 2111-v3 typo and why there in no SLI/crossfire test?!
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    12 Phases Six Phases Eight Phases what!
    Reply
  • Daniel Ladishew
    Can't wait for them to review some of the other manufacturer's products in the X99 category. The ASUS board especially.
    Reply
  • chiefpiggy
    Noob question: would my socket 1150 i5 4670k work with one of these motherboards or do I need one of the Haswell-E processors?
    Reply
  • sportfreak23
    14199415 said:
    Can't wait for them to review some of the other manufacturer's products in the X99 category. The ASUS board especially.

    +1
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    14199118 said:
    "LGA 2111-v3"??

    Did something change?
    LGA 2011 uses DDR3 while LGA2011-3 uses DDR4 so the sockets are different to prevent people from putting the wrong CPU in the wrong motherboard.

    I think there were other changes but this is the big obvious one.
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    it should be mentioned (and maybe it was, just not on the first page) that you only get the 40 pci e lanes if you purchase the two higher tiered haswell-E chips. The lowest end model does not support 40 lanes, I think it supports 28.
    Reply
  • dgingeri
    I was commenting on the typo of "2111" vs "2011".
    Reply
  • vincevdc
    The MB grid on page one shows that the MSI X99S Gaming 7 mb has an Intel Z97 Express chipset. This is a typo...
    Reply