MSI X99S SLI PLUS On Linux

BIOS/UEFI:

The BIOS/UEFI setup utility for the X99S SLI PLUS is very similar to other recent MSI motherboards. From there is the full assortment of motherboard settings, the vast overclocking options, and the ability to flash the motherboard using M-Flash. While it's possible to flash the BIOS/UEFI from the Linux desktop with the small AMI command-line utility, it's more encouraged to flash the motherboard within M-Flash. The overclocking options for this X99 motherboard are of course plentiful and there's both simple and advanced overclocking options, which paired with MSI's OC Genie should make for a nice overclocking experience. In my basic overclocking, it's worked out fine, but that's not a big focus at Phoronix with focusing on Linux support and other factors while elsewhere you can find in-depth content about overclocking, etc.

Linux Support:

Assuming you're using a modern Linux distribution, the MSI X99S SLI PLUS should run fine. Unfortunately the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 kernel is too old for networking support, but with the EL 7.1 update there should be the network support. For Ubuntu Linux and other distributions shipping with a ~3.12 but ideally 3.15+ kernel, the support is ideal. I've been running Fedora 20 (with updates), Fedora 21 Rawhide, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 14.10 on the X99S SLI PLUS without any Linux-related issues.