ASRock Z97X Fatal1ty Killer VS
MSI Z97 Gaming 7
Test Machine
• INTEL Core i7 4670K
• CORSAIR Dominator
Platinum 2x4GB DDR
2666MHZ C10
• EVGA GTX 780Ti Classified
K|NGP|N Edition
• INTEL 730 480GB SSD
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M2
1500W
• Windows 8.1 64-bit SP1 (FW
337.61)
• Z97X Killer BIOS: 1.01B
• MSI Z97 Gaming 7 BIOS:
26 The OverClocker Issue 30 | 2014
Z
97 has been with us for
a few months and we’ve
seen plenty of boards and
will continue to do so in the
coming year. Many of these,
we’ve noticed are geared
towards gamers. All four
vendors have similar Gaming
boards and that makes them
ideal to compare directly to one
another. These two in particular
are similarly priced and with
just $32 odd dollars between
them, they go about offering
their gaming features in similar
ways but ultimately they are
two distinct components and
you’ll have to decide which one
you prefer for your needs and
budget.
AUDIO
MSI’s audio technology is
called Audio Boost 2 while
ASRock ushers in its second
generation Purity audio 2. They
are both based on the Realtek
ALC1150 115dB SNR codec and
in each case both make use of
Japanese Nichicon capacitors.
Amongst the differences is the
choice of headphone amplifier.