MSI Pro Series Intel X299 LGA 2066 DDR4 USB 3.1 SLI ATX Motherboard (X299 SLI Plus)

It had been a long time since I used MSI, but have to tell you, I really love this board. It's configuration and layout is excellent for an MATX board. It booted right out of the box with no issues on a 7820X with 32GB of Corsair LPX ram at 3000 XMP. I did install the latest BIOS. It is an extremely fast board that looks and feels of high quality. I am running in a fairly small Silverstone PS07 case with no heat issues. I am running at stock speeds with an AIO cooler and getting around 28 C degrees at idle once it warms up. After being a fanboy for a particular brand (Not MSI), I was pleasantly surprised at this board and it's capabilities. A couple of things to mention - if you are not running multiple video cards, there is no reason to power the PCIE connector on the board. I love how the USB 3.0 connector is horizontal - it just works better in smaller spaces. The only con I can think of is that with the board speaker installed, it does not beep when it posts. That is OK if you can see the post codes, but in my case, the PC case prevents me from seeing those. If there is an issue with posting, it certainly beeps with codes, but a normal post does not verify that it is posting ok per the beep codes. To me, this board is way more substantial than the other choice in the market right now. I would recommend this board for an X299 build in a MATX case.

First time buyer from Australia, Amazon customer service responded quickly to initial query, item shipped quickly and delivered quickly, good experience.I went the X299 route as the alternative at the time for a suitable Ryzen mATX board was not what I was looking for. Paired the MSI X299M with an i7 7820X, Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 500GB SSD, Corsair Vengance 3400MHz (4 x 8GB) and a MSI GTX 1080 Ti. Loaded latest BIOS firstly, then Windows 10 and booted flawlessly, the BIOS seems smooth. Set the RAM to the XMP setting, now running at 3400MHz flawlessly as well. The board sits in a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv mATX case and the CPU is cooled by a Corsair H110i GTX AIO.All in all, I have not had a single issue with the board, albeit it has only been running for approx. 5 days now at time of writing this review. The VRM temps do seem to run a little hot however this seems to be a general X299 trait rather than an specific issue with this board. I don't plan to set high overclock with the board anyway and if I did I would seriously look at a custom water loop rather than the AIO as I think it would struggle keeping the 7820X under control.Recommended board if a mATX X299 was on your list to build.

I bought a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (RR-212E-20PK-R2) as my cooling solution for my Intel Core i7-7740X Processor. The aforementioned heat sink and fan are advertised to work for this socket (LGA 2066), but the mounting screws are too short. I just got off the phone with MSI’s tech “support.” The first of two options they gave me was to remove the backing plate that came attached to the motherboard, so that the screws would reach the supplied aftermarket backing plate. I’m a little bit wary of doing that because the original backing plate appears to be holding the socket housing to the motherboard. I could be wrong. The second option was to go to pcpartpicker.com, and search for cooling solutions that pcpartpicker.com deems compatible with this motherboard. I chose the second option and it said the cooling solution that I originally chose is compatible. So, either I do need to pull the original back plate off, or I can’t trust multiple sources as to what cooling solutions are compatible with this motherboard. Tech “support” told me that this motherboard socket was a LGA 2011-3. It isn’t a LGA 2011-3. It’s a LGA 2066. There are attached photos to illustrate some if not all of this. If allowed I will raise my review rating once this issue is resolved.Edit: I found that the screws supplied do NOT have to pass through the motherboard the thread into the front housing. That was not included in the instructions.There is, however, a new issue I’m having with this motherboard. There’s a USB port on the motherboard that stopped working with my ‘Logitech G9’ mouse back in September 2018. I plugged a cheap Microsoft mouse into the port and it “worked”.The Microsoft mouse had its own issues that I won’t get into here. I recently bought a ‘Logitech G502 Hero’ thinking that the Logitech G9, was dead. When the Logitech G502 Hero, wasn’t working I plugged it into the USB port on the front panel of my PC. It’s working fine in that port. Now I have my Logitech G9, plugged into the front port and it’s working fine. I guess other than diagnostic purposes this new mouse was a waste of money. Hopefully I can return it to amazon for a full refund.Moral of the story: Steer clear of MSI motherboards. MSI Pro Series Intel X299 LGA 2066 DDR4 USB 3.1 SLI ATX Motherboard (X299 SLI PLUS)

This is a great motherboard. BUT, be careful. You have to get the right RAM, especially if you want to go up on capacity. If you only want to run 16 gigs of Ram, no problem, as long as it is DDR 4.. no problem. If you want to run 128 gigs, the chipset and motherboard get really picky. It will start to tweak until you lower it down, unless you fun only approved RAM by Intel. And good luck finding the list of approved Ram, not easy to do. Also, make sure you use the same, model, make, speed, manufacturer of Ram, or it will tweak also. But again, love the motherboard.

Lovely board. With release BIOS was able to properly detect all of my RAM even though I am using the lowly I5 CPU. Unlike the gigabyte board I had previously that was riddled with problems this unit is amazing.The only downside is that the backplate does not fit on my Inwin 303. A full 5MM too wide which I thought might be my case not conforming to standards however atleast 2 other boards backplates (I/O shield) have fit without issue.Had the backplate actually fit it would be a 5/5 no problem.

The Board is good for the money and the BIOS switch is a nice touch when trying to find a stable OC. Only down side I had was that the bracket used to hold the CPU fan in place was designed for the stock fan. I had to use a HACKSAW to cut out the tiny holes so I could put the water pump ove the CPU. I know that could be the fault of the Liquid Cooler manufactures as well, but my prior board easily accommodate the pump.

Goods not as expected and not working as it should. Motherboard was sold to me damaged.I sent it back for a full refund.

Great! High, reliable performance, it is superb.

I purchased this as I wanted an All-In-One solution and future upgradability.Few things you CAN do with this motherboard:1. Remove the existing Intel-Wifi card from M.2 connector and replace with any Broadcom based wifi card for easy Hackintosh.2. Run SLI/Crossfire with both the GPUs running on x163. Remove default NVMe heatsink completely and use your own heatsink for NVMe drives.4. Add Thunderbolt 3 PCIe card for Thunderbolt 3 support obviously.5. Add 4 RAM modules of same speed to run on Quad Channel memory.6. Make a perfect Hackintosh if you follow internet tutorials.Cons:1. This motherboard is a poor overclocker because of insufficient cooling for VRMs (Voltage Regulator Modules). All of internet says to avoid this motherboard if you want to set overclocking records.2. Slow POST bootup with NVMe drives.3. 1st M.2 slot for NVMe comes under the GPU... I mean seriously What The Frack? Who designs this nonsense?4. Factory BIOS is unstable and needs to be updated to latest one from MSI website as soon as possible.Few tips to enjoy pure UEFI booting experience:1. Update to latest BIOS (v1.80 as of May 2018) and reset to factory defaults. Reboot.2. In BIOS Disable CSM3. Enable Windows 8/10 WHQL support4. Fastboot Enable. (Don't enable MSI Fastboot. You loose access to BIOS most of the times because boot process becomes too fast to press Del to enter setup.)4. For Hackintosh, BIOS -> OC Settings -> CPU settings -> CFG Lock -> DisableOnce up and running, everything is stable.Rock and roll

This board was shipped quickly and arrived in excellent condition. Quite a nice sight to see the carbon. Love it. Worked well out of the box and it was a pleasure to set up after I had to take my Asus Sage out that was badly made and had the one blue screen after the other.The board is fast. One can tune it well and work excellent.

I have not experienced any random reboots / crashes or any problems with my rig which includes this motherboard.