Published: October 17, 2023 | Source: MSI | Author: Tom Logan

MSI MEG Z790 Ace Max Review

MSI Meg Ace Max In Detail

Starting with a clockwise tour of the motherboard in close up, we start with the top left corner and the… oh. CPU power isn’t here.

Regular readers will know how much we think motherboards and their VRM heatsinks have out-grown the regular placement of the 8pin 12V CPU power connectors, and MSI agree. By placing them above the DIMM slots they’re much easier to build. Most PSUs give us too little cable anyway, so this will alleviate that issue. Elsewhere three fan headers, including one that doubles up as a pump header, and the voltage monitoring points for those of you who really push the performance envelope.

The PCIe 6pin extra power connector is also moved to just below the 24 pin one. All your front panel USB connectors are here too, for easy access.

The heatsink that fits between the DIMM slots and the ATX 24pin doesn’t appear to be for anything other than aesthetics.

We love the performance of the high end M.2 drives, we’ve all still got a lot of old SATA drives around. Having a place to install them helps trim something from your rebuild – or fresh build – budget. The MEG Ace Max has six, which is a step on from the four we’ve seen so far.

The bottom right corner has all the front panel elements we’ve come to expect, as well as a few others. There are a lot of jumpers to be found, for slow modes and a host of other features. We’ll always like onboard power and reset switches. Front panel USB 2.0 ports have seen a new lease of life with so many AIOs and RGB devices requiring them.

The MEG Ace Max is replete with fan headers, including pump and water flow monitoring ones. We like a hardware switch to disable the lighting too. When the motherboard looks as stealthy as the Ace Max it might be a nice choice to keep things on the down low.

Here at OC3D we’ve always said that a full IO section is indicative of the quality of a motherboard. A mere glance at the Ace Max shows exactly how high up the MSI Z790 range it belongs. Mini DP in. Thunderbolt. Superspeed USB in both Type-A and Type-C. Twin 2.5G LAN ports. WiFi 7. It’s got it all. Those of you with a surfeit of peripherals are well catered to.

The bottom half of motherboards show how many M.2 slots are available on premium motherboards these days. Removing the heatspreader from the bottom of the MEG Z790 Ace Max only highlights how far we’ve come. 4 Gen 4 slots and a single Gen 5 mean you’ll never be short of data transfer bandwidth.