Product Showcase
The MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK motherboard is to be considered the more high-end class solution in that enthusiast segment of X299 series motherboards. The motherboard is still built using MSI's famous Military class standard, assuring high reliability and proper components usage.
The motherboard includes all of the standardized X299 enhancements with two (new model) two M.2 SSD slots and will support SLI and Crossfire. Your PCIe lane configuration will be highly dependant on the processor you purchase, unfortunately. Only the 10-core (and more core versions) CPU will get a full 44 PCIe lanes available usable for your graphics cards. The board follows a 12 in. x 9.6 in. (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm) ATX Form Factor.
The I/O panel of the X299 Gaming M7 ACK reveals eight 3.1 ports with one type-c connector. Intel does not have native USB 3.1 Gen 2 support from the processor hence the motherboard manufacturers make use of external 3rd party controllers such as ASMedia's 3142. USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) is coming from the chipset though. The motherboard features four PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 expansion slots. A Realtek ALC1220 audio codec is the source for audio which will uses enhanced quality capacitors, used on most motherboards these days. There is a single PS/2 combo port that can be used for either a keyboard or mouse.
- 1 x Clear CMOS button
- 1 x BIOS FLASHBACK+ button
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse combo port
- 3 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
- 2 x Wi-Fi Antenna connectors (optional)
- 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports
- 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
- 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port
- 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port
- 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector
- 5 x OFC audio jacks
The board gets one 10/100/1000 Killer E2500 Gigabit LAN controller. Fitted for WIFI is a Killer Wireless-AC 1535 module offering 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual band (2.4GHz,5GHz) up to 867 Mbps speed and Bluetooth 4.1.
The board is powered by one 8-pin ATX power header to the processor, then a second 4-pin connector is present and can be use optionally. Depending on your processor you can opt for dual and quad channel memory. Kaby Lake-X is limited to dual-channel and Skylake-X processors will support quad channel memory. This board features support for up to DDR4 4266 MHz memory (overclocked), you may install up-to 128 GB of it. If you look at the overview of the board you'll spot a nice black design with dark shielded styled elements on the heatsink IO and slots. The DIMM and x16 PCI-Express slots all have metal shielding, making them more sturdy for heavy graphics cards as well as adding a certain aesthetic appeal.
Included in the bundle is standard kit as well as two WIFI antennas and an RGB extended LED cable. Also included is a SLI bridge, this is the new HB (high-bandwidth) version. Nice to see that MSI has stepped that up as well. See that box to the upper right? It holds plastic plates that you can swap out the heatsink shields with. Personally I like the standard carbon ones.
