MSI Z97 Gaming Motherboard Giveaway

On Sunday Intel lifted its embargo on its Haswell refresh, including the updated Z97 chipset. From a high level, Z97 looks a lot like last year's Z87. Z97 primarily adds official support for M.2 and SATA Express, as well as RST support for PCIe storage devices. This year we'll see the transition to native PCIe/NVMe SSDs, so Z97 marks the beginning of a platform transition to a world where PCIe storage is more widespread. 

We'll be publishing Z97 motherboard reviews over the coming days, but to kick off the launch MSI is giving AnandTech readers the chance to win one of four Z97 motherboards. We've got two MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC motherboards and two Z97 Gaming 7 boards to give away.

The Z97 Gaming 9 AC is a standard ATX motherboard with integrated Intel 802.11ac WiFi as well as Killer's E2205 gigabit Ethernet. The board features a single M.2 connector and three PCIe x16 slots (physical). 

The Z97 Gaming 7 drops the 802.11ac but keeps most of the other features, including the M.2 slot. 

Both are high-end options for your next Haswell build, either with one of the existing SKUs, newly refreshed CPUs or upcoming Devil's Canyon parts.

We'll be accepting entries for the next three days. To enter you must be a US resident – simply leave a comment below (please leave only one). We will randomly choose four winners, two will receive a Z97 Gaming 9 AC and the other two will receive a Z97 Gaming 7. We'll choose the winners/prize combinations at random. Good luck!