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SATA
For SATA 6Gb/s testing we use a Kingston HyperX 3K (SandForce SF-2281) SSD.
SATA 6Gbps performance is where we would expect it to be for performance from Intel's 9-series chipset ports.
M.2 connector
We use Plextor‘s fast M6e 256GB M.2 SSD to test the speed of a motherboard's M.2 connector. We reviewed the 512GB Plextor M6e (and its PCIe x2 adapter card) HERE.
Using a PCIe 2.0 x2 SSD, such as the Plextor M6e, MSI's Z97A Gaming 6 has no problem delivering sufficient bandwidth.
A faster, PCIe 3.0 x4 drive (such as Samsung's SM951) would be bottlenecked by the 10Gbps port, although that is a known compromise for the bandwidth-limited Z97 platform.
USB 3.0
We tested USB 3.0 performance using the Kingston HyperX 3K SSD connected to a SATA 6Gb/s to USB 3.0 adapter powered by an ASMedia ASM1053 controller.
Solid USB 3.0 results are delivered by the Z97A Gaming 6. The drive almost hits the USB 3.0 limit of an operating system without UASP support.
We examined the performance of MSI's USB 3.1 solution over here. The performance for the Z97A Gaming 6 motherboard's USB 3.1 Type-C port is likely to be almost identical due to the same ASMedia ASM1142 chipset being provided by two PCIe 2.0 lanes from the chipset.
Audio
We use RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) to analyse the performance of the motherboard’s onboard audio solution. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested.
At the heart of MSI’s Audio Boost 2 system is the Realtek ALC 1150 codec. Accompanying the widely-used codec is a pair of Texas Instruments OPA1652 op-amps and Nichicon capacitors.
RMAA rates the audio system on MSI's Z97A Gaming 6 motherboard as “Very Good”. The system's dynamic range and noise level results are particularly strong.
