Conclusion

With no corners cut MSI has delivered a motherboard which strikes up a well thought-out balance between features, pricing and unique aesthetics

Coming to market at £90 ($125) the MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition motherboard symbolises the company's current aggressive pricing strategy. For PC users lacking the budget for a custom paint-job the Krait Edition motherboard is a well-suited and refreshing alternative to the red and black monotony.

The Z97S SLI Krait Edition certainly isn't going to bowl prospective buyers over with its feature-set - the motherboard sticks to the baseline Z97 specification, but that isn't necessarily an issue for most PC users. An abundance of storage options and support for dual-GPU configurations should give even the most demanding user enough platform-longevity to avoid upgrading for many years.

The market of black and white PC hardware is growing all the time and there are some noteworthy products that would team up well with the Krait Edition motherboard. Galax has its white Hall of Fame Edition video cards, of which the GTX 970 is the most appropriately priced for this motherboard. Kingston offers white Fury Series memory modules and SuperFlower has all-white variants of its Leadex power supplies, not to mention there are countless white PC cases available.

Bringing customised styling down to the most accessible of price points the MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition shows just how versatile the Z97 platform can be. With no corners cut MSI has delivered a motherboard which strikes up a well-thought-out balance between features, pricing and unique aesthetics.

The Good		The Bad
Unique colour scheme Well-rounded BIOS Aggressive pricing		Redundant legacy PCI slots

HEXUS.awards

MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition

HEXUS.where2buy*

The MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.

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Is there a reason manufacturers keep putting analogue video ports on motherboards?

I cant say that having a legacy PCI slot is a bad thing. Would have loved to have been able to keep my PCI soundcard when I upgraded but there isn't really many options for that these days.

That motherboard looks beautiful.

Black and white is the best color combo ever.

bridges009
Is there a reason manufacturers keep putting analogue video ports on motherboards?

Mine doesn't have any, I found myself asking the opposite question. I understand the need for more digital ports, but there isn't really a need to remove analogue ports.