MSI X99S XPOWER AC (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard Review

BIOS

The MSI ClickBIOS4 is something I am fairly familiar with. MSI use the same BIOS style on all their 3 board series (the OC series, the Gaming series and the Classic series). The OC series is more or less identical to the others except it comes with a yellow skin. The BIOS is fairly simple in design and does all the core things you’d expect without any fuss. Personally, I still have a few gripes with the way the UI is presented: I think the tab design uses space more efficiently whereas this design MSI have chosen wastes space by showing six large tabs all the time, a boot order menu at the top along with massive spaces for the OC Genie button and other things. MSI should be more efficient with space here and I also feel the OC tab is a bit thin on options for a flagship overclocking board, especially compared to the BIOS on a rival product like the ASUS Rampage V Extreme. The BIOS is okay but I think this is one of this board’s weaker aspects, I wanted to see more innovation from MSI in the BIOS department. Don’t let my words sound too critical though: the BIOS is still functional and mostly intuitive. You’ll find overclocking is fairly straight-forward and it certainly doesn’t disadvantage the advanced user in any way.