When comparing Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK vs MSI Z97 Gaming 5, the Slant community recommends MSI Z97 Gaming 5 for most people. In the question“What are the best Intel LGA 1150 motherboards for gaming?” MSI Z97 Gaming 5 is ranked 1st while Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose MSI Z97 Gaming 5 is:
There is an M.2 port on this board which allows one to use a M.2 SSD for storage. These SSDs allow for faster read and write times over a SATA SSD (can be over 50% faster), which translates to faster boot and loading of games.
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Pros
Pro Fast storage solution
There is an M.2 port on this board which allows one to use a M.2 SSD for storage. These SSDs allow for faster read and write times over a SATA SSD (can be over 50% faster), which translates to faster boot and loading of games.
Pro Good multi-graphics options
This board is able to use 3 way and 2 way Crossfire as well as 2 way SLI. It has 2 PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (one runs at x8), 1x PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot (runs at x4), 3x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots as well as 1x PCI slot. This gives many options not only for PCIe devices but GPUs in particular.
Pro Fast storage solution
There is an M.2 port on this board which allows one to use a M.2 SSD for storage. These SSDs allow for faster read and write times over a SATA SSD (can be over 50% faster), which translates to faster boot and loading of games.
Pro Prioritizes gaming traffic
The networking built into this board allows for a smart filtering of traffic which can make for a better experience where latency is concerned. When gaming the board can differentiate between traffic for communication apps as well as connection to gaming servers over regular traffic that is at the time a game s being played low priority.
Pro Stable voltage out of USB ports
This is good for those that use a USB digital-to-analog converter for their sound system. Many motherboards have issue with outputting a constant voltage, which can cause issue with USB sound devices such as DACs. MSI has addressed this with this motherboard as it uses technology to output a constant 5v to each USB port.
Cons
Con No power button on the board
Many high end boards include a power button on the board in order to test it before assembling the whole PC in its case. That is not an option here, which can cause issue if something is faulty as everything will have to be torn down to return it.
Con Hard to access SATA connectors
When using the 16x speed PCIe port for an installed graphics card, the graphics card will cover some of the SATA ports. While they are not unusable, they will need to be plugged in before the graphics card is installed. They will also be inaccessible after that point unless the GPU is taken out.
Con Brown color
While it may be difficult to tell from pictures, the color of the board is actually brown. For those that like to match the colors of their system this may be off-putting as this fact may not be realized until the board is in hand. It will also be difficult to match as Red and Brown is not the most common of color schemes for components.
Con Using M.2 disable 2 SATA ports
If you do choose to use the M.2 slot on the board it will disable the #5 and #6 SATA ports on the board. This is something to consider if you want to use the M.2 but need more than 4 SATA ports.
Con On board audio static
Some users have reported audio static when using the onboard audio out. While this is not unheard of for onboard sound solutions, there may be better options out there if this is a concern.