Stefan Mileschin

With the dust settling from the recent Intel X99-E releases, there is a general view there will be no mITX motherboards. When you consider what's in the Intel X99-E's spec, it is unlikely to ever be something to cater for the mITX gamers, so what's the alternative?

Well, a few years ago mITX and even mATX motherboards were not aimed at the gaming or modding scene. Since then and with a parallel maturity with small form factor chassis, we are a couple of generations into some decent product lines for both chassis and motherboards in the mid to smaller form factors.

With the looming SteamOS and Steam Box releases a mITX is going to be a perfect solution to size and space if you want to tuck a Steam Box away under your 40 inch TV. In January MSI replaced its highly rated Z87I AC Gaming mITX motherboard with the Z97 Chipset version.

We run a Z87I AC Gaming motherboard in one of our gaming rigs and we also used it in our recent BitFenix Phenom review, it is a very good motherboard and it is a very good companion to the Phenom.

The two generations of Chipset are very similar and for some they may just want to know if it is worth the update. Today we are reviewing the MSI Z97I AC Gaming mITX motherboard and also put it head to head with the Z87 version in synthetic and real life benchmarks to find out.

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