What's the difference in MSI boards?

[Drtro]

I'm looking at the MSI motherboards and when comparing them on the website, they are all the same.

What is the difference between the X99A SLI and X99A SLI KRAIT Edition? And what is the difference between those and the X99A Gaming 7? They all have the same specs and product descriptions on their website. Is it just color preference?

I have 2 MSI 980Ti video cards, an Intel PCIe SSD, and a 5 slot USB 3.0 add on card. I'm wanting to upgrade to the X99 Intel CPUs and I don't know what Motherboard to get. I've had MSI motherboards for the past 6 years and never had any issue with them. But now theres X99A, X99S, X99this, etc. I don't know the difference. They are all the same specs and descriptions on their website, and I can't find anything on Google.

 

[Tradesman1]

Differnt audio and LAN chipsets and of course color scheme, think thats about it

 

[Drtro]

Differnt audio and LAN chipsets and of course color scheme, think thats about it

I'm assuming Gaming 7 has better lan and audio? "Fer gaymen"

 

[Tradesman1]

I was referring to the A SLI and A Krait with the Krait having better/newer the 1150 Audio codec and the I210-AT LAN chipset, the Gaming 7 is better (supposedly) with the Qualcomm Killer E2205 and has additional Onboard USB headers

 

[Drtro]

I was referring to the A SLI and A Krait with the Krait having better/newer the 1150 Audio codec and the I210-AT LAN chipset, the Gaming 7 is better (supposedly) with the Qualcomm Killer E2205 and has additional Onboard USB headers

How would you rate the MSI X99A Gaming 7 against say the Asus X99 Deluxe? It's the only other board from other brands that I really see to compete with it in the price range.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd go the Deluxe from Asus, very good mobo and Asus has much better QC, I myself won't build on MSI due to their poor QC, I will only use Asus, the Rock and GB mobos for client builds.

 

[Drtro]

I'd go the Deluxe from Asus, very good mobo and Asus has much better QC, I myself won't build on MSI due to their poor QC, I will only use Asus, the Rock and GB mobos for client builds.

I've never had any issue from MSI products in 6 years. On the other hand, AsRock was always garbage for me. More DOAs than working products. Seeing the circlejerk over them now, I guess they got their shit together.

 

[Tradesman1]

I've long favored Asus and GB and used a ton of MSI till about 2011, when I started noticing their QC slipping (as well as their sales). Think the Rock really came into their own with the 1155 socket, plus their sales were already climbing, think they passed MSI in 2009/10 and have continued to grow while MSI has continued to slip. As a builder I stick w/ Asus, Rock and GB as fewer problems, plus I get more problem calls on MSI mobos than any two other manufacturers put together, and it's generally odd ball stuff which tells me their QC isn't getting any better

 

[Drtro]

I've long favored Asus and GB and used a ton of MSI till about 2011, when I started noticing their QC slipping (as well as their sales). Think the Rock really came into their own with the 1155 socket, plus their sales were already climbing, think they passed MSI in 2009/10 and have continued to grow while MSI has continued to slip. As a builder I stick w/ Asus, Rock and GB as fewer problems, plus I get more problem calls on MSI mobos than any two other manufacturers put together, and it's generally odd ball stuff which tells me their QC isn't getting any better

I got 2 DOAs from AsRock in a row, so said screw it and go a MSI board. No problems with it. I've had 4 MSI video cards over 6 years with no problems too. Only other video card I tried was a Zotac which was awful. No matter what settings I changed, it always had a yellow hue to everything. I'm pretty brand focused on Crucial RAM and EVGA SuperNova PSUs as well. I've always got Samsung SSDs but I'm thinking of getting an Intel PCIe SSD for this build. Why bother changing if it all works. I used to get Gigabyte motherboards but they never really have cool extra stuff like MSI and Asus does in their gaming motherboards. It's pretty barebones stuff, but affordable. I'm thinking I'd rather want the Asus Deluxe but the white color scheme is ugly. I'll look into the Gigabyte line up though and see if I can find something that looks nicer.