MSI MEG Z490 Ace Preview

Up Close – Top and Right

The gold accents on the Ace are more subtle than some of the ones we’ve seen on MSI motherboards before and we think it’s all the better for it. It’s there if you like a little glitz, but not dominating things if you’re not very keen on it.

Starting as always with the top left of the MEG Ace and we have two 8 pin CPU 12V power inputs, vital for keeping the Ace fed with power so you can reach new overclocking heights.

Above the VRM heatsink we have the two fans for your CPU cooling, including one that supports your AIO pump, or even a full waterloop pump should you be fortunate to own such a thing. Next up is the Corsair header for the cable we looked at on the previous page.

Moving along from the Corsair header we mentioned above there is a more universal Rainbow RGB LED strip header sitting next to the a case fan header. Naturally there is another one on the bottom right of this particular image.

If you’ve ever overclocked to the ragged edge of your motherboard and processors capabilities you’ll appreciate the change to monitor the voltages more accurately than the motherboard sensors can, if only because you can follow the volts in real time.

We’ll move further around on the next page, so for now you’ll have to content yourself with the front USB 3.2 Gen2 connector, and a chance to look at the armour on the 4800MHz DDR4 slots.