For those in the gaming community, MSI's perception as a gaming brand is now rooted through the gaming PC components and gaming notebook segments.
If there's one thing we can certainly offer kudos to MSI for, it's how to build a gaming brand quickly in a non-constant marketplace. Semantics of the industry aside, the Gaming 6 is part of MSIs ever growing Gaming line. The Z97A Gaming 6 is one such motherboard and distinguishable through the Z97A part but also the Gaming 6 was never a model name for the base Z97 product line. Otherwise the new products still act as a base for new builds and for early USB 3.1 adopters. If Broadwell is a success, then sales will fly.
We reviewed some aspects of the Broadwell CPU launch here for quick reference.ĭespite this, USB 3.1 alone gave reasons for motherboard manufacturers to refresh their product lines. It ended up aligning at about the time of the launch on Intel's Broadwell CPUs to which Z97 was designed for, and although motherboard manufacturers prepared revision 2 products with USB 3.1 on for it, the CPU launch was muted with a lack of availability, a reduced product stack and only a few reasons to upgrade. Onboard controllers that supported USB 3.1 became available in Q2 of 2015, significantly after Intel's Z97 launch and several months (assumed) before that of the 100-series motherboards. USB 3.1, while appreciated, came at an odd time in motherboard cycles. As a result we get devices such as this, the MSI Z97A Gaming 6, to review. While the Intel 9-series (Z97) platform has had a rough ride, motherboard companies always see the need to refresh to new designs periodically. Most people rely on price, brand experience, perhaps specific features and online reviews to help decide what fits best. Problems can arise when your hardware device is too old or not supported any longer.Choosing a motherboard is not as easy as it sounds. This will help if you installed an incorrect or mismatched driver. Try to set a system restore point before installing a device driver.
It is highly recommended to always use the most recent driver version available. Intel C600 Series Chipset SATA AHCI Controller Intel 7 Series/C216 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI/RAID Controller
Intel 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI/RAID Controller Intel 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI/RAID Controller Intel Rapid Storage Technology Release is designed to provide functionality for the following Storage Controllers:
Incorrect texts shows in license page of IRST Install wizard. UI erroneously exposes option to increase size of a >2TB volume if is created via the OROM PreOS binaries incorrectly copies an invalid CacheMode for a RAID device that is not SRT Midleware: PCIe link Speed and width return incorrect value Invalid AhciPort used in miniport for CSMI Pass-through & CSMI Get SATA Signature System hang on Metro UI screen when restart system with SRT enabled in Maximized mode SMART Event drive automatically rebuilding in Raid volume HDD Registry DiskPnPID incorrect after SRT enabled Not able to get spin count from IOCTL_TMP_AOAC_GET_PUIS_SPIN_COUNT
Partially locked Opal drive can be used to create a volume in UI PCIe SSD can be used as part of RAID volume when using simple create SRT performance in SRMU decreased compared to 12.0 driver RST and Download Microcode format 0x3 - SECTOR COUNT error 0X5 WHQL: BSOD 0xA0 during PM test cases on Siler ZPODD BSOD Page Fault in Nonpaged Area (iaStorA.sys) New chipsets missing or strings incorrect in AHCI INF RST driver is experiencing performance loss compared to legacy due to command submission algorithm BSOD 50 and BSOD 3B with 8GB Cache SSHD while performing hard drive stress test. Driver: Page Fault in Nonpaged Area BSOD after removing SSHD Rapid Start not functioning as expected while using the min cache size D1 BSOD on production system due to indexing outside of array bounds when running CPU burn-in test Internally generated non-NCQ read log sent while NCQ commands outstanding on SSHD
No C600 Series Chipset SATA AHCI Controller drivers Siler RST driver forces PUIS enabled on SSHD (hybrid) drives for every boot UI won't open when remapped with certain PCIe-AHCI device attached. 9F occurs when Transport layer I/O queue gets out of sync with the Ahci controller Driver - system produces BSOD when removal of SSHD from RAID volume occurs BSOD 0x7E in 13.0 to 12.0.inbox driver downgrade scenario Invalid response returned for successful ATA pass-through commands