MSI MEG X399 Creation Preview
Up Close
We often mention how tiny ITX motherboard packaging is. This is definitely the opposite of that. It’s a serious box for a serious motherboard. If you pay close attention to the pictures you might see that this comes with a PCI Express M.2 expansion card, and yes we’ll be looking at that on page four.
The attention grabbing design of the heatsinks might be the only element of the MEG X399 Creation which divides opinion. We think it will look better once it’s lit up with the RGB lighting that forms the basis of all aesthetic considerations these days. Fortunately it’s not all for show as beneath the design is some heavyweight heatsinks and even heat spreaders for the M.2 ports. If our choice was this design, or acres of blackness, we’d take this.
Any time you get 8 DIMM slots there is always a problem with getting everything else in its place around the CPU socket, yet the MSI designers have done a spectacular job. It not only looks fantastic but it isn’t missing anything nor is anything placed oddly. We’ve lost count of the amount of skin we’ve scraped off when trying to put in the 12v CPU power cable on less cleverly designed options, so having both 8pin power inputs easily accessible scores big points with us.
You could spend a whole afternoon counting off the fan headers and pump ports on the MEG X399 Creation. Managing to squeeze so many on whilst also giving us three front panel USB connectors and a wealth of SATA ports is nothing short of miraculous. MSI have still managed to find room for their on-board buttons and OC dial too. It’s like a 4D PCB, there appears to be more room on it than physical restrictions should lead you to believe.
We’ve seen a lot of high power motherboards at the enthusiast end of the market but even we think this has to be the most jaw-dropping setup we’ve seen. Not only is it massively impressive in raw number terms but the detail work of fitting everything onto the PCB, without placing capacitors harum-scarum manner. It is as serious from an artistic standpoint as it promises to be from a performance one.
