MSI H97 GAMING 3 Intel H97 Socket H3 (LGA 1150) ATX motherboard

Intel H97 Express, DIMM x 4, DDR3, 1066/1333/1600 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered, PCIe 3.0 x16, PCIe 2.0 x16, 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1, 3 x PCI, PS/2, LAN, 2 x USB 2.0, 4 x USB 3.0, VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort, ATX Let the games begin

MSI® GAMING motherboards are designed to provide gamers with best-in-class features and technology. Backed by the imposing looks of MSI's Dragon, each motherboard is an engineering masterpiece tailored to gaming perfection.


The best gaming weapons at hand

- Amazing sound with Audio Boost 2, powered by Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2
- USB Audio Power
- The highest frag and the lowest lag with Killer™ E2200 Game Networking
- Push your SSD to the limit with M.2 & SATA Express
- Show off your gaming skills to the world with XSplit Gamecaster
- SteamOS ready out of the box
- Military Class 4 components
- Super stable with Guard-Pro
- Specialized production lines just for GAMING motherboards
- OC Genie 4
- Gaming Device Port
- Boost your FPS with the MSI GAMING APP
- Click BIOS 4 (click here to visit our dedicated BIOS page)
- Optimized for multiple graphics cards (CrossFire certified)
- Take control with Command Center & Live Update 6

Reward your ears with true quality

Get ready for ear-drum shattering sound, with MSI Audio Boost 2! With Audio Boost 2 we're delivering the highest audio quality with the use of Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 so you can enjoy crystal clear sound and music through 8-channel HD Audio.

Isolated Audio PCB

With traditional onboard audio the signal is distorted by electromagnetic signals from the rest of the PCB. Audio Boost 2 acts like a dedicated soundcard by physically isolating the audio circuitry which is separated by a red LED path. Less interference gives you a more clear audio signal.

Direct Audio Power

Enjoy a heavy caliber audio experience with Direct Audio Power. A dedicated power input to Audio Boost 2 allows for a more powerful and stable power delivery, resulting in a more explosive and pure sound experience.

Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2

Thanks to Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2, you're getting amazing surround sound with just stereo headphones or speakers.
Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2 enables you to clearly hear specific sounds in gaming environments. Hear your enemies perfectly, make your ears a decisive tool to finish on top.

EMI Shielding

To shield the audio core from EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) caused by other add-in cards the audio chip is protected by a high-grade EMI cover with backlight illumination.

Dual Headhpone Amplifiers

Prepare for an eargasm. The built-in dual headphone amplifier rewards your high quality headphone with the most amazing studio level sound quality up to 600Ω delivered from your gaming PC.

Tired of having to connect your headset in difficult to reach places? MSI GAMING motherboards are designed to be easy to use, featuring front & rear audio outputs fueled by Audio Boost 2.

High Quality Audio Capacitors

With the use of professional Nichicon Japanese capacitors, specially designed for audio purposes, MSI GAMING motherboards provide the highest possible audio signal filtering. Delivering high fidelity crystal clear sound with exceptional acoustics and realism.

- Acoustic series
- Lower Tolerance
- Lower Dielectric Absorption
- Lower ESR
- Lower Leakage Current
- Higher Stability

Golden Audio Connectors

With golden audio connectors you get the best possible signal output with less chance of distortion.

- Up to 600Ω crystal clear sound with exceptional acoustics
- Dedicated amplified output (red) optimized for studio-grade headgear
- Superb signal conductivity and will not wear over time

USB Audio Power

When connecting multiple USB devices, most motherboards will be unable to deliver a strong 5V power signal to all USB ports. This is highly noticeable with high-quality external USB DACs where sound quality degrades as the motherboard is unable to deliver a perfect USB signal.

Only MSI USB Audio Power continuously delivers a stable 5V to the USB ports on motherboards, making sure you can continue to enjoy the crystal clear audio standard you expect.

Benefits

- Enhances USB Audio Quality
- Stable 5V Power & Better Signal Transmission over USB

Killer™ E2200 Game Networking

The Killer™ E2200 Intelligent Networking Platform is built for maximum networking performance for online games and high-quality streaming media. Featuring Advanced Stream Detect™, Killer E2200 automatically detects and accelerates game traffic ahead of other network traffic for smoother, stutter-free in-game performance and the competitive edge. With this exclusive, automatic traffic prioritization, games and real-time chat get priority over low-level system chatter, giving you the lowest latency for game data on the most controllable network hardware available.

Network traffic

- Game traffic
- Other traffic

Through the detection and prioritization of gaming traffic you can finally fully utilize your network without fear of being kicked from an on-line game because of high ping. This enables true multi-tasking without manually enabling or disabling applications, updates and installations. Killer networking actually allows you to use your PC 24 hours a day.

Push your SSD to the limit

Enjoy a blazing fast system boot up and insanely fast loading of applications and games with MSI GAMING motherboards. We offer the next generation of high speed storage support through M.2 and SATA Express. M.2 and SATA Express transfer data through a PCI Express 2.0 x2 interface up to 10 Gb/s, making it 67% faster than SATA 3.0 solutions.

Faster storage solutions with M.2

M.2 is the successor to mSATA, offering a 67% performance increase up to 10 Gb/s. M.2 is packed in a small form factor and is compatible with 3 different sizes to fit most storage solutions. All latest generation Intel® based MSI GAMING motherboards feature M.2 storage.

Flexible fast storage with SATA Express

SATA Express introduces a new solution in high speed storage through PCI Express, providing more bandwidth for the latest generation SSDs. We offer flexible solutions with an M.2 to SATA Express converter for more convenience.

M.2 to SATA Express (Optional)

Want to show off your skills or just make a fun GAMING video for your friends?

XSplit Gamecaster & Broadcaster V2 lets you easily record your gaming moments and broadcast your live gameplay sessions to Twitch, YouTube, UStream and more.

It's simple, easy to use and ideal for sharing your gameplay with friends, family or the world - Or for capturing those perfect gaming moments, just for the heck of it.

So what are you waiting for? Join the revolution and start streaming and recording with XSplit Gamecaster today.

Assemble and edit your recordings using the simple and straightforward video editor. Game Capture Auto Detect allows for automatic streaming when starting a game.

Webcam & chroma key

Add a webcam and show your game face

Share your broadcast

Share your broadcast and conquer the world

Realtime notes

Draw attention whilst casting with in-game annotations

Record & Stream

Use XSplit Gamecaster to stream & record all of your gaming activities

SteamOS support out of the box

MSI is committed to PC Gaming and that is why MSI GAMING motherboards support SteamOS by default. Because of this, MSI works close with numerous tier #1 system integrators that released their popular SteamBOX PC's.

Military Class 4 components

Military Class 4 is the next step in high quality components. The Super Ferrite Choke and Dark CAP will make sure that your PC runs more stable under extreme gaming conditions.

Super Ferrite Choke

Super Ferrite Choke uses a Ferrite core that is Super-Permeable. This allows the Super Ferrite Choke to run at a 35 degree Celsius lower temperature, have a 30% higher current capacity, a 20% improvement in power efficiency and better overclocking power stability.

Dark CAP

With their aluminum core design, Dark CAP`s has been a staple in high-end design mainboard designs and provides lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as well as its over-10-year lifespan.

ECO Power

With MSI ECO Center you can physically cut the power to unused chips to save up to 29% power usage.

Circuit Protection

Carefully selected materials, multiple PCB layers and shielding result in the best circuit protection for our GAMING motherboards.

Humidity Protection

10% Reduction in moisture absorption helps prevent "Conductive Anodic Filament". Untreated PCB's can have 10x higher failure rate.

High Temperature Protection

All key components used in MSI motherboards have all passed military testing ensuring stable operation in the harshest environments.

ESD Protection

Each and every I/O port is protected against the hazards of Electro Static Discharge.

EMI Protection

All MSI motherboards comply with stringent American FCC regulations and reduce the impact of Electromagnetic Interference.

Focus on quality

We put extra effort in increasing customer satisfaction. Our RMA rate has drastically decreased in the last few years.
To achieve the highest quality the MSI GAMING motherboards are developed by our most senior engineers on the most advanced production lines.

We are continuously improving our customer services, so in case you might run into a problem you can be assured we offer a fast response to your questions and hand you in depth information on the subject.

Gaming Device Port

MSI Gaming Device Port is optimized to deliver the best connectivity for high end gaming mice to fully utilize it's speed. This results in a much faster and smoother mouse response in games.

Gaming benefits

- More responsive
- Smoother gameplay
- Faster reactions

Technical benefits

- 3x more gold than regular connectors
- 10x longer lifetime when plugging/un-plugging
- Prevents oxidation

OC Genie 4

OC Genie is the world's first built-in hardware overclocking technology on motherboards. With this one-second overclocking option we're giving you even more performance. Just hit the button and your PC gets another adrenalin shot. Delivering up to 20% of free extra performance for the CPU, memory and iGPU.

BOOST YOUR FRAME RATE

Outperform your competition with the MSI GAMING APP which allows simultaneous control of both your Motherboard and Graphics Card's overclocking.

Simply select your preferred mode with the click of a button:

- Silent
- Gaming
- OC

This allows you to tune the system to your pleasure without any technical knowledge of overclocking.

Click BIOS 4

The MSI Click BIOS 4 is the latest UEFI BIOS with optimizations for Windows 8. Not only that it also reacts faster, runs smoother and has better mouse support. And this all comes with many cool features. Click on the button on the right to visit our dedicated BIOS page and learn more.

Optimized for multiple graphics cards

Get up to 2 PCI-Express x16 slots, with optimal placement for better fitting and airflow. That way, you can enjoy the best graphics at the highest framerate jumping off from your screen when running the AMD CrossFire™ gaming setup.

Software

Live Update 6

MSI Live Update is renewed! Our popular software automatically downloads and installs the latest drivers, BIOS and software. Rest assured while your system is always configured using the latest software so you get the maximum performance and stability.

Command Center

MSI's Command Center software is a very powerful tool to push your motherboard to the max. With a very intuitive touch ready interface, Command Center allows users to tune settings to increase system stability, maximize overclocking performance and adjust cooling features.

Unlimited RAMDisk

MSI Command Center integrates an unlimited RAMdisk. With a RAMdisk you can create a virtual drive from your system memory enabling speeds 20x faster than a modern SSD.

- Speed up system performance
- Load complete game images
- Speed up games, apps and browser

Smart Fan Control

Smart Fan Control gives you complete control of all your fans on the motherboard, convenient for gamers and overclockers;

- Users can real-time monitor the status of the fans
- Set profiles
- Record fan speed, voltage and temperate status into a log file.

Dragon Heatsink

With an awesome product comes an inspiring heatsink! Styled after the iconic MSI GAMING Dragon. The heatsink is oversized to provide the best thermal transfer and heat dissipation to enable your PC to just game 24 hours per day.

Connectivity

Be sure to take full advantage of all the GAMING weapons by connecting your devices to the optimized ports.

Audio Boost 2

- 30µg Gold plated Audio Connectors
- Amplified Audio

USB Audio Power

- Optimized stable 5V USB ports
- Best sound quality for external DACs

Gaming Device Port

- Optimized for high-rate gaming keyboards and mice
- Triple gold plating for extended lifetime

Triple gold plated PS/2 and USB ports

- 10x longer lifetime when plugging/un-plugging
- Prevents oxydation

Package content

What’s in the box? Check it out for yourself! Besides a plethora of necessary cables and connectors you also get a cool Do-Not-Disturb door-hanger, a slick MSI GAMING case badge, a set of cable labels and the stylish all black M-shield.

Front side of I/O panel

- I/O Panel Ports Label
- Dark coating

Back side of I/O panel

- Force Absorbing Layer (NEW)
- Aluminium Interference Shielding
- Steel Shielding

Case badge

Door hanger

Cable labels