MSI’s Next Haswell-E Teaser: X99S Gaming 9 AC
by Ian Cutress on August 7, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- 802.11ac
- X99
The increase in leaks and teasers regarding X99 makes for some compelling reading. Shortly after showing off their X99S SLI PLUS on Facebook, a couple of Gaming 9 AC renders seem to have been posted as well. The X99S Gaming 9 AC, as the name suggests, represents the top member of MSI’s gaming motherboard range if previous range identifiers are to be continued. Along with the 802.11ac support, the board looks like it will have eight DDR4 slots, five PCIe slots with SLI and Crossfire supported, an M.2 slot up to 2280, SATA Express, ten SATA 6 Gbps ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, upgraded audio and a Killer E2200 series network interface.
Right in the middle of the motherboard is a feature called ‘Streaming Engine’, which is plugged into what looks like a mini-PCIe slot. Current internet chatter is wondering if this is some new proprietary feature from MSI, or something akin to onboard WiDi allowing video streaming without wires. MSI is remaining tight lipped until the full release.
It is interesting to see SATA Express and M.2 on X99, and we are still in the dark as to whether these features have shared bandwidth via the PCH due to Intel RST limitations or can be used concurrently.
Pricing is unknown, and will most likely be in the higher echelons of the X99 price bracket in. If MSI is going to release an X99 XPower type of motherboard, it will be either the XPower or the Gaming 9 AC that would be the most expensive.
Source: MSI US Facebook
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redwolfe98 - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
i agree.. i will not buy a board with a "killer" NIC because its software conflicts with some av-programs..RaistlinZ - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
They must be locked into some long term contract they can't get out of. I avoid MSI boards exclusively because of all the crap I've heard about Killer NIC.nathanddrews - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
If it actually emitted radiant particles like that, I would buy it.willis936 - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
The marketing guys might be able to cook something up for you. "Quad channel DDR4 mode activates hyper LASER particle effects with high end ambient occlusion and triple phase modulation!"QuantumPion - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
Does it support pci-e ssd's?jwhannell - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
do you mean as a bootable device? I am sure that it supports them as disk drives - that support has been around forever...willis936 - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
I think it's obvious that he's asking about nvme and sata express.bigdog1984 - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
Soooo...you can give me enough PCIe for quad Crossfire, TBs of solid state storage, the speediest of WiFi...and only 1 NIC? I just dont understand the choices that get made sometimes.Redstorm - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
Whats the big deal with only 1 nic, its not like your using it as a router. or teaming it for 2Gb, Its a waste of time as most internet connections are 10x slower than 1Gb anyway.Gigaplex - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
I'd team for 2Gbit if I could, as 1Gbit network transfers are by far the biggest bottleneck for data transfer to my network storage.