MSI MEG X570 ACE Review
Up Close
The first MSI Dragon range of products leant heavily upon the red and silver aesthetic of the Dragon logo, but with their new premium products MSI are going all in on a gold effect. How successful this is largely depends upon whether you feel that gold is something which demonstrates taste and sophistication, or whether it makes you think of the nouveau riche.
When we come to look at the motherboard piecemeal in a moment it will seem like there is too much gold lettering all over the place, and whilst we think there just about might be, when you look at the motherboard as a whole it makes more sense. We’d prefer a darker backdrop to the gold but aesthetics are always a matter of personal taste.
The top half is dominated by two things in our view. Firstly there is the big light panel that forms the basis of the MSI Mystic Light system. Secondly there is no getting away from that extra heat pipe running from the top heatsink to the chipset cooler. It’s subtle enough that you might not catch it at first, but your eye does become aware that the count of shiny things around the DDR4 slots is suddenly an even number and you do a double take.
The lower side is a whole array of M.2 heat spreaders, shields for the audio and the actively cooled chipset heatsink. Whether you like the use of the gold lettering is very much a matter of personal taste but we think it’s just the right side of okay. Certainly doesn’t need any more otherwise it would become gaudy. Then again judging from social media gaudy is the new black, so maybe it’s just us who are wrong. The PCI Express 4.0 slots are protected with the MSI PCIe Steel Armor which gives protection to your slots and extra stability whilst also providing EMI shielding.
If you want to extract the maximum performance from your new 3rd Gen Ryzen CPU then you’ll need plenty of power to keep it satisfied and with an 8+8 CPU 12V setup the MSI MEG X570 ACE utilised the Core Boost technology to push you to new heights of performance.
The top right hand corner of the ACE has all your cooling needs covered, with three fan headers and the de rigueur Pump header for your AIO. You can also see how tightly the extra heat pipe sits against the steel armoured DIMM slots.
