MSI MEG Z790 Ace Max Review
Up Close
Up Close
Certain colour schemes become so familiar that any time a manufacturer strays from it we’re surprised. MSI’s Dragon logo is so famously either black or silver on a searing red background that to see it as understated as it is here on the box is a shock. Placing the Ace in blue is similarly unusual, but perhaps is a nod towards the Intel platform and their colour choice.
Here is the MSI MEG Z790 Ace Max in all its glory. There is a certain pleasing way that all the lines are so straight and carefully placed together. It’s difficult to quantify, but even at a glance everything looks just right. The diagonal lines match up nicely, nothing looks over designed beyond the pattern on the chipset heatsink, and the use of different blacks and greys leave it looking harmonious without becoming monolithic.
Anything with this many fins and chunks of metal on top must be a serious setup, and sure enough the MSI MEG lives up to its place in the MSI range with 24 (Twenty-Four) 105A SPS Power Phases, alongside 1 VGT and 2 AUX DRPS ones. We love the crisp MSI Dragon logo on the blended heatsink to backplate section, and the MEG and Ace branding is similarly clean.
It is a sign of how quickly M.2 storage options have come to dominate the market that so much of the lower half of modern motherboards, and the Z790 Ace Max in particular, are given over to heatspreaders for those drives. We love how it looks.
Beneath that huge VRM cooling stack beats the heart of the MEG Ace Max. 24+1+2 SPS power stage boasting 105A means you’ve got plenty of power for overclocking exploits. The heatsink stack itself has a direct-touch heatpipe in a U configuration. You can see one end on the left of the picture below, with the other end poking out on the right. This is fully U-shaped too. No gaps hidden beneath that heatsink. 7W/mK thermal pads keep everything connected and cool.
It isn’t only the heatpipe that is part of the VRM cooling on the MSI. The stacked fin array is huge, both in height and fin density. This ties to an aluminium backplate keeping everything stable and spreading the heat around.
