MSI MEG Z790 Ace Max Review
Conclusion
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Conclusion
Every manufacturer has a set of products that are at the peak of their range. The silicon equivalent of a S Class Mercedes or Porsche GT3. For MSI that series is known as their MEG range. The MAG set they have sit in the more affordable end, and consist of products such as the Carbon or the Tomahawk. Their MEG range is very much at the premium end of the scale being the Godlike and today’s review, the MSI Z790 MEG Ace Max. Should you find the new release of the Z790 motherboards blending in with the models currently available then you’ll be pleased to note that MSI have suffixed all their updated models the Max.
As we’ve said throughout today’s reviews, the performance of all the latest 14th Gen compatible motherboards is extraordinarily close. This is thanks largely in part to how consistent the Intel 14th Gen CPUs and Chipsets are, and how much of their tech is built into them. It means that the motherboard design has a lessened effect on raw performance. This means that the MEG Ace Max has to win you over with it’s other features. And boy has it got them by the bucketload.
High speed devices are the cornerstone of the new Z790 motherboards and the Ace Max sports two Thunderbolt 4 ports which offer you 40Gb/s transfer rates and support for 8K monitors. At the front there are two USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ports with their 20G bandwidth, and one of them can be upgraded to 60W power delivery. Should you want to charge your Tesla with your PC. They are supported by 8 further Gen 2 ports and anotehr 4 Gen1/USB 2.0. Those of you with a lot of things to plug in for streaming or multiple genre gaming are catered to nicely.
It’s not only connectable things that are fast on the MSI MEG Ace Max. With 1 Gen5 x4 M.2 and four Gen 4 M.2s there is a lot of speedy storage available. The inclusion of two 2.5G LAN ports handle wired networking needs, whilst 5.8 Gbps WiFi 7 is as fast as wireless networking currently gets.
The power stage, and how it cools them, is key to any high performance system. The Ace Max boasts 21+1+2 power stages of 105A SPS. That’s a huge amount of power delivery potential. As you saw from our pictures the VRMs are cooled with a huge heatsink and heatpipe arrangement. By using a full U-shaped heatpipe the whole VRM section is tied together. It’s an elegant solution.
With high performance, a wealth of features and wrapped up in a pure aesthetic the MSI Z790 MEG Ace Max wins our OC3D Performance Award.
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