MSI X299 SLI PLUS Motherboard

MSI X299 SLI PLUS ATX Motherboard - S2066 8xDDR4 4xPCI-E 2xM.2 U.2 SLI/CF,TypeC TPM

Overview

• Supports Intel® Coreâ„¢ X-Series Processor Family for LGA2066 Socket
• Support Quad Channel DDR4-4133(OC)+, Dual Channel DDR4-4500(OC)+
• Dual Intel® LAN: The best solution for both Intranet and Internet through hardware design and bandwidth management offering the lowest latency.
• M.2 SHIELD: Keep M.2 SSDs safe while preventing throttling, making them run cooler & faster.
• DDR4 BOOST: Give your DDR4 memory a performance boost.
• Designed for Extreme Performance: TURBO SOCKET with OC Genie 4, DIGITALL POWER Design
• Lightning Fast Experience: TWIN TURBO M.2 and Intel® Optane Memory Ready, Turbo U.2, LIGHTNING USB 3.1 GEN2
• MYSTIC LIGHT: 7 mixed color schemes / 8 LED effects controlled in one click
• SYSTEM SAVER: 3 easy-to-use options to successfully boot your system again.
• AUDIO BOOST 4: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive audio experience
• MULTI-GPU: With STEEL ARMOR PCI-E slots. Supports 3-way NVIDIA SLIâ„¢ / AMD Crossfireâ„¢
• VR READY: Best virtual reality experience without latency, reduces motion sickness
• EZ Debug LED: Easiest way to troubleshoot

MAKING YOUR LIFE EASIER IS OUR BUSINESS

Combining quality you can rely on with top performance and clever business solutions are key aspects of the MSI PRO SERIES motherboards. Engineered to gratify even the most demanding professional, these motherboards will fit in any PC. Making your life easier and supporting your business with super stable, reliable and long-lasting top performance.

1. Clear CMOS & Flash Back Button
2. BIOS FLASHBACK+
3. Lightning USB 3.1 Gen2
4. Dual Intel LAN
5. Golden audio jacks with S/PDIF
6. Professional I/O cover Stunning looks, protecting the I/O ports  
7. Heavy plated heatsinks with RGB Mystic Light Leading heatsinks design, for maximum cooling
8. DDR4 Boost Optimized traces and isolated memory circuitry
9. PCI-E Steel Armor Protecting VGA cards against bending and EMI
10. Twin Turbo M.2 NVMe support, up to 32 Gb/s using PCI-Express Gen3 x4
11. M.2 SHIELD Thermal enhancement for M.2 devices for best performance
12. Audio Boost 4 with amplifier Optimized audio using the best components, 120 dB SNR 32-bit

COOLING STAY COOL

Cooling your PC is essential for reliable performance. We've made sure to include enough fan headers with full control to allow you to cool your system to the max.

LOOKING COOL WHILE KEEPING COOL

High quality materials and smart fan optimizations contribute to cooling all essential components, which is key to making sure your system runs stable at the best performance during long gaming sessions.

FULLY CONTROLLABLE FAN HEADERS

MSI motherboards let you manage speeds and temperatures for all your system and CPU fans, giving you full control to set up a cool & silent system. The fan headers are conveniently placed with the most popular CPU coolers in mind.

DC OR PWM MODE WITH HYSTERESIS

MSI fan headers automatically detect fans running in DC or PWM mode for optimal tuning of fan speeds and silence. Hysteresis also makes your fans spin up fluently to make sure your system stays silent, no matter what.

OTHERS:

• Spiking fan speeds
• Annoying sound levels

MSI:

• Smooth fan speeds
• Smooth sound levels

TOTAL CONTROL IN BIOS AND SOFTWARE

Total Fan Control allows you to take control of your fans and check your primary system characteristics in a simplified graphical interface. You can also set up to 4 temperature targets for CPU and motherboard, which will adjust the fan speeds automatically.

OPTIMIZED FOR WATER COOLING

Designed to support the most popular All-In-One & custom water cooling solutions on the market. A dedicated water pump PIN header supports up to 2 amp, giving you full control of the water pump speed. A clearly marked keep-out-zone allows for easy and safe installation and a perfect fit.

ENJOY THE LATEST VIDEO STANDARDS

NVIDIA® QUADRO® SLI SUPPORT

Unique Steel Armor and optimal PCI Express slot placement ensure perfect stability and compatibility for heavy duty computing. Designed and optimized for NVIDIA® Quadro® SLI for the best rendering efficiency.

WANT MORE PERFORMANCE? TRY MULTI GPU!

Gaming enthusiasts are always looking for more performance to get the ultimate experience. Using multiple graphics cards is a great way to find out just how good it gets. MSI GAMING motherboards fully support multi GPU technologies and have optimal PCI-E slot placement for the best thermal performance.

BE THE FIRST TO BOOT UP IN THE MORNING

This MSI product supports all the latest storage standards. This allows you to connect any ultra-fast storage device, giving you noticeable benefits. Start programs faster, load data faster and increase productivity.

INTEL OPTANEâ„¢ READY

This new technological marvel brings game-changing performance to memory and storage devices. Allow Optane caching to boost your storage devices for an even faster system!

M.2 SHIELD DELIVERS BEST SSD PERFORMANCE

Cooling your NMVe SSD delays throttling which results in higher overall performance. Additionally, M.2 Shield protects your M.2 device and makes it look cool.

2X TURBO M.2

Enjoy a blazing fast system boot up and insanely quick loading of applications and games with MSI motherboards. Delivering speeds up to 32Gb/s per device using Gen3 x4, Turbo M.2 is over 5 times faster than a regular SATA III connection!

NEXT GENERATION SSD READY: U.2 CONNECTOR WITH STEEL ARMOR

Next generation SSDs demand a next generation connector. U.2 delivers just that with performance up to 32 Gb/s per device. The U.2 connector on this MSI motherboard also features Steel Armor for enhanced protection.

XBOOST YOUR STORAGE PERFORMANCE

This great little tool is very simple to use and automatically detects your storage devices connected to the system. When enabled, X-Boost optimizes your SSDs to keep your system fast and maximize storage performance, saving you a lot of time when loading or transferring data.

EASY RAID SETUP WITH M.2 GENIE

Looking to go all out in terms of raw data speed and put multiple SSDs in RAID 0? Setting this up can prove to be quite the challenge. Thats why we created M.2 Genie, a brilliant feature to make setting up RAID 0 for M.2 and U.2 much easier and less time consuming.

SATA MASS STORAGE

We made sure each MSI motherboard comes with enough SATA ports to connect loads of HDDs for long term storage of large files and system backups.

ULTRA-FAST PERFORMANCE

All of the fast SSD connectors support NVMe, the fastest storage standard in the world. Simply put, MSI motherboards offer the best of the best in storage options & performance. Instantly load your most used software and reduce waiting times with MSI.

PROFESSIONAL SOUND QUALITY

Get the most immersive sound experience. MSI Audio Boost delivers the highest sound quality through the use of premium quality audio components. This lets you enjoy breathtaking, game-changing sound to create the most dynamic soundscapes.

RAISE YOUR SOUND QUALITY WITH AUDIO BOOST 4

Built on years of experience in building motherboards dedicated to providing true Hi-Fi sound. Audio Boost has developed into a high quality audio unit, offering a clear improvement in sound quality.

ISOLATED AUDIO DESIGN

Audio Boost operates like a dedicated soundcard by being physically isolated from the rest of the motherboard circuitry to ensure the purest audio signal possible.

SEPARATED AUDIO LAYERS FOR CLEAN LEFT & RIGHT CHANNELS

Using separated layers in the PCB ensures equally pristine sound quality for both left and right audio channels.

DE-POP PROTECTION

Audio Boost protects your ears by eliminating those annoying loud popping sounds when you plug/unplug devices or turn your PC on/off.

NEXT-GEN HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO PROCESSOR

Audio Boost 4 is powered by an EMI-shielded High Definition audio processor with built-in DAC, making sure you enjoy the purest sound quality in both stereo and surround sound. 120dB SNR / 32-bit Supports DSD Super Audio CD playback & recording (64x better than regular CD quality)

DEDICATED HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER THAT AUTO-DETECTS IMPEDANCE

The built-in dedicated headphone amplifier rewards audiophiles with headphones up to 600 impedance by delivering studio-grade sound quality from your gaming PC. Audio Boost 4 automatically detects the optimal impedance for your headphones and adjusts the output for the best sound quality.

CHEMI-CON AUDIO CAPACITORS FOR A WARMER SOUND

By dedicating golden audio capacitors to the front output, a high fidelity sound experience with exceptional acoustics and realism for studio level headphones is ensured. The Chemi-Con audio capacitors are widely considered to be one of the great choices for the best sound output.

PREMIUM CONNECTORS FOR OPTIMAL 7.1 SOUND QUALITY

With premium audio connectors you get the best possible signal output with the least chance of distortion. Using gold also prevents any corrosion or oxidation in the long run, which could impact signal quality.

IMMERSE YOURSELF INTO VIRTUAL WORLDS

Integrating the very best of cutting edge technologies on MSI hardware provides a smooth VR ride. Through joint efforts with major VR brands, combined with unique MSI features geared to VR, MSI brings gamers and VR professionals a vivid and realistic experience in which content truly comes alive.

GET READY TO BE OVERWHELMED BY THE REALMS OF VR

From the start of Virtual Reality, MSI has been deeply involved in making VR Ready hardware in each of its product lines. Whether it's a feature-rich motherboard, a framerate boosting graphics card or a blazing fast complete gaming system, a huge set of VR-supporting features awaits you.

OPTIMIZED FOR THE BEST VR BRANDS

Want the best VR experience without any compromise? By closely working with the industrys leading VR vendors, we offer everything you need when exploring the possibilities of VR.

STABLE, SECURE & FAST NETWORKING

Optimized for professional and multimedia use, this generation comes equipped with a high quality network solution ready to serve you with 24/7 reliability when transferring big data.

LOW LATENCY LAN POWERED BY INTEL®

This model is equipped with dual premium network solution from Intel. The combination of two high quality Gigabit LAN networking components is optimized for professional and multimedia use with outstanding performance to deliver a secure, stable and fast network connection.

STABLE, SECURE NETWORKING

The Gigabit network adapter on MSI Professional motherboards offers fast, reliable and secure networking.

Featuring Network Genie for easy to use bandwidth optimizing

• Allows you to change applications' traffic priority
• Perfect for cloud computing and data syncing

LAN PROTECT TO SHIELD YOUR SYSTEM AGAINST POWER SURGES

Featuring 15KV anti-surge protection to shield your network from lightning strikes and static electricity, the LAN Protect connector is designed to give you a reliable networking experience.

UNMATCHED MEMORY PERFORMANCE

MSI motherboards are crammed with features to fuel your gaming rig's memory with more speed, higher overclockability and increased stability.

ENHANCED STABILITY WITH OPTIMIZED MEMORY LAYOUT

Optimized traces and a fully isolated memory circuitry ensures perfect stability and performance, so you never have to worry about your system crashing.

MEMORY SPEED IMPACTS PERFORMANCE

The technical enhancements of DDR4 Boost allow for more stability at higher memory speeds compared to other brands. Enjoy the additional boost in operational performance or when working with large video and photography files.

EXTREME STABILITY & COMPATIBILITY TESTING

MSI conducts thorough memory testing with the most popular memory brands under extreme conditions to ensure your system runs stable no matter what. Our memory partners include brands like Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, G.Skill and many more to optimize memory modules, configurations and even improve overclocking.

 EASY XMP LED

The XMP LED highlights if your Extreme Memory Profile is active for the best memory speed and stability.

DESIGNED FOR LIMITLESS TUNING

Founded on experience and with a long history of creating the best performing motherboards packed with smart features, you can count on this motherboard to deliver the best performance under the most extreme conditions. Countless system tuning and troubleshooting tools are at your disposal to push your system to new heights and satisfy even the most demanding tweaker.

FOR EXTREME OVERCLOCKING

OC ENGINE 2

This external clock generator gives you more freedom in BCLK adjustments to achieve the maximum overclock for your setup. It also offers lower jitter & power consumption resulting in a rock solid system under extreme conditions.

OC PCB

Leading PCB design and added layers allow us to optimize all traces for overclocking. Power and signal traces are isolated, resulting in higher efficiency, steadfast stability and top-notch performance.

BIOS FLASHBACK+

Simply flash an old or new BIOS version and start overclocking within minutes. BIOS Flashback+ even works without a CPU, memory or graphics card installed!

FOR POWER USERS

PREMIUM POWER PHASES

High quality components used in MSI motherboards ensure a stable and optimized power delivery for the best performance.

LOAD-LINE CALIBRATION

What you set, is what you get. LLC makes sure your CPU voltage remains 100% stable under any load. This greatly improves stability when demanding more CPU performance.

DIGITALL POWER DESIGN

A fully digital power design allows for faster and undistorted current delivery to the CPU at pin-point precision. Creating the perfect conditions for CPU overclocking.

DEBUG LED

Run into trouble? The digital LED display will indicate the source of the problem so you know exactly where to look to get up and running again.

EASY BUTTON

This motherboard features accessible physical buttons for instantly resetting and powering up/down your system. The buttons are illuminated so you can easily spot them in a dark environment.

OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION

Prevents potential short-circuit damage to the CPU and other critical components.

MAXIMIZE YOUR USB DEVICE PERFORMANCE

Transfer lots of data, music and movies over USB faster than ever. MSI offers a wide variety of options to connect and boost your USB 3.1 devices, delivering lightning-fast transfer speeds!

DOUBLE BANDWIDTH WITH LIGHTNING USB 3.1 GEN2

Using multiple USB 3.1 devices has never been faster! Featuring the Lighting ASmedia 3142 USB 3.1 Gen2 controller, MSI motherboards offer never before seen USB speeds when connecting multiple USB devices at the same time. The Lightning USB connectors are covered with gold to ensure a bitter signal and performance.

FASTER PERFORMANCE WHEN USING ONE USB DEVICE OR DOUBLE WHEN TWO

TYPE-C REVERSIBLE CONNECTOR FOR NEXT-GEN USB

Get all the performance benefits from USB 3.1 combined with the convenience of the USB Type-C connector. This reversible USB connector allows for effortless connecting of USB devices.

X-BOOST YOUR USB PERFORMANCE

When enabled, X-Boost optimizes your devices for even better transfer speeds and can provide up to 30% increase in USB performance, saving a lot of time when transferring data. This handy tool is very easy to use and automatically detects & optimizes the USB devices connected to your system.

SUPER CHARGE YOUR PHONE & BATTERY-POWERED GEAR

MSI Super Charger USB ports charge any connected device faster. It delivers more power than regular USB ports to your smartphone, tablet, USB peripherals or other battery-powered gear.

FRONT SIDE USB FASTER THAN EVER WITH USB 3.1

Ready for next generation cases and perfect to use with the latest smartphones, the onboard front side USB connector now offers ultra-high speed through USB 3.1 with Type-A.

THE BEST USB SIGNAL WHEN USING LONG CABLES

Get rid of input lag when gaming with Racing wheels or other devices using long USB cables. The special USB 3.1 re-driver chips strengthen the USB signal, enabling you to use longer USB cables without impacting performance.

DOUBLE ESD PROTECTION

Never worry about damage caused by defective USB devices. The USB ports on MSI motherboards are shielded by a set of protective ICs to prevent damage caused by Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) from plugging/unplugging USB devices.

APPS TO GREATLY IMPROVE EFFICIENCY

With years of experience in creating performance enhancing tools that are easy to use, only the highest quality applications are at your disposal. Use these tools to get the most out of your motherboard and time spent.

X-BOOST YOUR STORAGE

This unique and exclusive software allows you to boost the performance of any storage or USB device connected to your system. Simply use X-BOOSTs Easy or Advanced mode to tune your system for up to 30% increased speeds, higher system responsiveness and faster loading of data.

MANAGE ALL MSI APPS THROUGH THE CONVENIENT APP MANAGER

Use this smart tool to keep an easy overview of the available applications for your system to help you configure, tune and set up your system to your personal preferences. Simply click on icon to install additional apps such as COMMAND CENTER, GAMING APP, LIVE UPDATE and many more.

TAKE COMMAND OF YOUR SYSTEM

MSIs Command Center software is the perfect tool to get the most out of your motherboard. With an intuitive interface, Command Center allows you to tune settings to increase system stability, maximize performance and optimize your systems cooling features.

ALWAYS UP-TO-DATE

Never miss out on important updates. MSI Live Update automatically downloads and installs the latest drivers, BIOS and software so you can focus on your game. "...the best update package available on any motherboard." - Anandtech

SSD NOT FAST ENOUGH? TRY MSI® RAMDISK

MSI motherboards include RAMDisk, allowing you to create a virtual drive from your system RAM memory. Instantly load your software, speed up your browser or your page file to significantly speed up your system!

• Speed up system performance, over 25x faster than a SATA SSD
• Speed up games, apps and browser
• Increase SSD lifespa

INSTANT SYSTEM STARTUP WITH MSI FAST BOOT & GO2BIOS

With the latest operating systems supporting UEFI fast booting methods, we have added a Fast Boot option to take full advantage of this. Simply enable Fast Boot either in the BIOS or with the convenient application for faster boot times.

Avoid having to mash your DEL/F2 button to get into the BIOS with the Go2BIOS button in the MSI Fast Boot application. Your PC will automatically go to the BIOS on the next reboot for quick. Some models even have an onboard Go2BIOS button.

M-CLOUD

BUILT ON EVERLASTING QUALITY

Using only the finest quality components and integrating the latest technological innovations delivers the best possible professional experience. Rigorous quality testing under the most extreme conditions ensures a super reliable, long-lasting and high performance motherboard.

M.2 SHIELD DELIVERS BEST SSD PERFORMANCE

Cooling your NMVe SSD delays throttling which results in higher overall performance. Additionally, M.2 Shield protects your M.2 device and makes it look cool.

FORTIFY YOUR SYSTEM WITH PCI-E STEEL ARMOR

MSI PCI Express Steel Armor slots are armed with more solder points on the motherboard for a stronger hold, preventing any damage due to heavy-weight graphics cards. Steel Armor also protects PCI Express signals against electromagnetic interference to provide a pure and reliable signal for the best performance, even when turning it up a notch.

ULTIMATE MOTHERBOARD PROTECTION

Weve made sure you can enjoy your system endlessly. MSI motherboards feature Double ESD protection with double layer grounding around the motherboard mounting holes, preventing Electrostatic discharge (ESD) surges from damaging the motherboard.

DOUBLE ESD PROTECTION - BEST

SINGLE ESD PROTECTION - AVERAGE

SEMI ESD PROTECTION - POOR

SUPER STABLE WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY COMPONENTS

MSI uses Military Class 6 components, which is the latest evolution of the industries highest quality standard. These high quality components are shielded by the best protection to make sure your system runs smoothly under the most extreme conditions.

TITANIUM CHOKE II

Ti choke II is smaller in size and has improved a 30% power efficiency and power delivering, allowing for better overclocking and stability

DARK CAP

A key ingredient in high-end motherboard designs, Dark Caps have lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) and an increased lifespan of over 10 years.

DARK CHOKE

A special core design allows the Dark Choke to run at a lower temperature offering better power efficiency and stability.

WINDOWS 10 CERTIFIED

With MSI you benefit from great compatibility and a worry-free user experience when using Microsoft Windows 10. With a true dedication to performance, our R&D team has made sure everything works as intended when using the latest version of Microsoft Windows on any MSI product.

A USER-FRIENDLY BIOS

We made sure our BIOS contains all the latest options and is easy to use for everyone. The extensive features found in CLICK BIOS 5 let you fine-tune your system to deliver reliable maximum performance.

EASY TO READ, HI-RES BIOS FONT

An award-winning, high-resolution, scalable font is used to make CLICK BIOS 5 easy to read, no matter what type of screen you use. The clean design layout, together with this great font makes CLICK BIOS 5 a true next gen UEFI BIOS.

OTHERS

Low res, non-scalable

CLICK BIOS 5

Sharp, hi-res, scalable design

EASY MODE FOR QUICK TWEAKS

When you just want to get back to work, EZ-mode presents you with basic BIOS settings and functions for some quick adjustments. If you feel like spending more time fine-tuning options to boost your systems performance, the Advanced mode is the way to go.

EASY SEARCH & FAVORITES

Can't find a specific BIOS setting? Dont worry, a permanent search option in the top right corner can be used to find what you need. Want quick access to important settings? My Favorites gives easy access to selected Favorite settings, supporting up to 5 groups of Favorites.

HARDWARE MONITOR WITH FAN CONTROL

Hardware monitor lets you take control of your system and check your primary system vitals in a simplified graphical interface. You can also set up to 4 temperature targets for CPU and motherboard, which will adjust the fan speeds automatically.

MAKE YOUR SSD AS FAST AS NEW WITH SECURE ERASE+

When using an SSD, its performance will slowly decrease over time as more and more data is written onto it. This will slow down Read/Write speeds and increase access times of your SSD, making your system feel sluggish. Using an optimized formatting algorithm, Secure Erase+ lets you enjoy your SSD at maximum speed, making your system feel brand new!

BOOT UP GUARANTEED

Run into trouble when updating your BIOS or somehow corrupted it? Dont worry, SYSTEM SAVER offers 3 easy to use options to successfully boot your system again.

CLEAR CMOS

The ClearCMOS button helps to restore the BIOS default settings which helps in 99% of the cases to successfully boot again. ClearCMOS will not restore the original BIOS code (will not revert back to the original bios version).

EASY BIOS RECOVERY WITH BIOS FLASHBACK+

Run into trouble when updating your BIOS? Simply flash the old BIOS version back and continue gaming within minutes with BIOS Flashback+. BIOS Flashback+ even works without a CPU, memory or graphics card installed!

STEP 1 No CPU/DDR/VGA required

STEP 2 Connect power

STEP 3 Insert dongle with BIOS file

STEP 4 Use Flashback hotkey/button

DUAL BIOS

Still arent able to successfully boot? Having 2 physical BIOS chips allows to have a plan B. Simply move the onboard switch to select the secondary stock BIOS and try booting from there. The second BIOS chip contains the factory default BIOS.

INSTANTLY OPTIMIZE AND BOOST YOUR PERFORMANCE

CLICK BIOS 5 provides easy access to XMP memory profiles to optimize your system's memory timings and speeds for maximum stability and performance. Safely overclock your CPU with a single button for more performance using MSI OC Genie.

OC GENIE 4

XMP

Specifications