MSI MEG Z490 ACE review - Introduction

MSI MEG Z490 ACE review
Not a MEGalodon, but pretty darn impressive.

In this review we look at the MSI Z490 ACE. The new series is aimed to become the more high-end solution priced in a 439 USD ran ge, it comes with AX WIFI, and has that intel 2.5 Gbps ethernet jack. That and some pretty awesome design choices from an aesthetic point of view. MSI motherboards these days are sorted into four categories: the MEG series, MPG series, MAG series, and there's a PRO series as well. The MEG being short for 'MSI Enthusiast Gaming'. This MPG board is positioned in the mainstream to a higher-end region of the DiY PC desktop segment.

That and some pretty fancy design choices from an aesthetic point of view. Ready for 10h Gen processors this board is about performance and aesthetics, the CPU socket has dual 8-pin ATX power connectors. The pin connectors indicate a strong VRM, and this motherboard as such has 16+1 phases backed by 90A power stages (!). MSI applies a super nice dark-colored PCB. It has hidden/cooled M2 slots, three of them. The motherboard has been fitted with the usual suspects and then some, including a 2.5 Gigabit ethernet and then WIFI6 in the form of AX. When it comes to the audio you will run into a Realtek ALC1220 Codec + ESS SABRE9018Q2C combo DAC. 

With the new Comet Lake-S you can expect a handful of K model processors predominantly become popular in demand for the PC gamer, as each and every one of the processors will offer proper gaming performance if your graphics card is fast enough. Intel is able to boost the Turbo frequencies towards that 5.3 GHz domain for the flagship processor, the Core i9 10900K. Intel is releasing these series processors initially with a spread of CPU core choices:

• Core i5-10500K (4 Core / 8 Threads)
• Core i5-10600K (6 Core / 12 Threads)
• Core i7-10700K (8 Core / 16 Threads)
• Core i9-10900K (10 Core / 20 Threads)