Along with other manufacturers, the Taiwanese company MSI presented its motherboards for Comet Lake-S processors of the LGA1200 design, and there are many different ones at once. In total, the company's assortment includes 11 motherboards from a simple and inexpensive to elite , the flagship of MSI's branded extreme overclocking models TO (MSI Enthusiast Gaming). There are four models in this series, and on any of them you can get the most out of existing Intel processors if you have very, very efficient cooling and a successful processor instance. However, it is the "god-like" MEG Z490 Godlike that is at the top of this hierarchy - and it is from it that we will begin our acquaintance with MSI boards based on the Intel Z490.
Motherboard overview MSI TO Z490 Godlike
Specifications and cost
| MSI MEG Z490 Good | |
|---|---|
| Supported processors | Intel Core i9 / Core i7 / Core i5 / Core i3 / Pentium Gold / Celeron processors in the LGA1200 version of the tenth generation of the Core microarchitecture; support for Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 and Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technologies |
| Chipset | Intel Z490 |
| Memory subsystem | 4 × DIMM DDR4 unbuffered memory up to 128 GB inclusive; dual-channel memory mode; support for modules with frequencies from 2133 to 2933 MHz and from 3000 (OC) to 5000 (OC) MHz; support for non-ECC DIMMs without buffering; support for Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) |
| Graphical interface | Integrated graphics core as part of the CPU + Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller: – 2x Intel Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C ports), DisplayPort and Thunderbolt video output, maximum screen resolution 5120 × 2880 @ 60Hz, 24-bit color depth; – Support for DisplayPort version 1.4, HDCP 2.3 and HDR; – maximum shared memory up to 1 GB |
| Connectors for expansion cards | 3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4 operating modes; 1 PCI Express 3.0 x1 slot |
| Video subsystem scalability | AMD 3-way CrossFireX Technology NVIDIA 2-way SLI Technology |
| Drive interfaces | Chipset Intel Z490: – 6 × SATA III, throughput up to 6 Gb / s (support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug); – 2 × M.2, each with up to 32 Gb/s bandwidth (both support SATA and PCI Express drives from 42 to 110 mm in length). Intel Processor: – 1 x M.2, throughput up to 32Gbps (only supports PCI Express drives from 42mm to 80mm). Support for Intel Optane Memory Technology |
| Network interfaces |
Aquantia AQtion AQC10 107 Gigabit network controller; Realtek RTL2,5B 8125 gigabit network controller; Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Wireless Module (2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) with Wave 2 support, dual band 2,4 and 5,0 GHz, Bluetooth 5.1 ); MSI Gaming Lan Manager Utility |
| Audio subsystem | Realtek ALC7.1 1220ch HD Audio Codec: – ESS E9018 combo DAC; – Chemicon audio capacitors; - Dedicated headphone amplifier with 600 ohm impedance; – protection against clicks; - dilution of the left and right channels in different layers of the textolite; – PCB insulation; – gold-plated audio connectors; – support for Nahimic 3 surround sound technology |
| USB interface | The total number of USB ports is 19, including: 1) Intel Z490 chipset: – 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on the rear panel, 4 connected to the connectors on the system board); – 3 USB 3.2 Gen2 ports (2 Type-A on the rear panel, 1 Type-C connected to the PCB connector); 2) Intel JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 controller: – 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-C, rear); 3) ASMedia ASM1074 controller: – 8 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports (4 on the rear panel, 4 connect to two connectors on the system board) |
| Connectors and buttons on the rear panel | Clear CMOS and Flash BIOS buttons; two USB 2.0 ports and a PS/2 combo port; four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports; USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A/C ports and 2.5G network port; USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A/C ports and 10G network port; two SMA connectors for antennas of the wireless communication module (2T2R); optical output of S/PDIF-interface; five gold-plated 3,5mm audio jacks |
| Internal connectors on textolite | 24-pin ATX power connector; 2 8-pin ATX 12V power connectors; 6-pin PCIe power connector; 6 SATA3; 3 M.2 socket 3; USB Type-C connector for connecting a USB 3.2 Gen2 10 Gb / s port; 2 USB connectors for connecting four USB 3.2 Gen1 5 Gb / s ports; 2 USB connectors for connecting four USB 2.0 ports; 4-pin connector for the CPU cooling fan; 4-pin connector for the CPU coolant pump; 8 4-pin headers for case fans with PWM support; 3-pin Water Flow connector; a group of connectors for the front panel of the case; two connectors for temperature sensors; connector Chassis Intrusion; TPM module connector; 4-pin RGB LED connector; 2 3-pin Rainbow LED connectors; 3-pin connector Corsair LED; POST codes indicator; CPU/DRAM/VGA/BOOT LEDs; reset button; power button; OC Fail Save button; OC Retry button |
| BIOS | 2 × 256 Mbit AMI UEFI BIOS with multilingual interface and graphical shell; dual BIOS support; support SM BIOS 2.8, ACPI 6.2 |
| I / O controller | Nuvoton NCT6687D-M |
| Form factor, dimensions (mm) | E-ATX, 305×277 |
| Operating system support | Windows 10 x64 |
| Warranty manufacturer, years | 3 |
| retail price, RUB | 69 999 |
Packaging equipment
The large cardboard box that the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike comes in has a vertical orientation and a plastic carrying handle. On its front side, the board itself is depicted, next to it is the name of the series and model.
On the opposite side of the box, the key features of the product are described, its brief characteristics are indicated, and a list of interface panel ports is provided.
The board's features are detailed under the top flap of the box.
On a paper sticker on one of the ends you can find the serial number of the product and a very brief listing of technical specifications.
Two more flat boxes are placed inside the main package. In one of them lies the board itself, and in the other - components. Among them are all kinds of cables and accessories, antennas for a wireless communication module, instructions and stickers.
|
|
|
Also included is an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 S expansion board for additional NVMe M.2 storage. We will get to know her in the course of the article.
Since the name of the new MSI board - MEG Z490 Godlike - is consonant with something sublime, the company did not waste time with its cost: you can buy this model at the price of a more or less decent laptop, that is, no less than 70 thousand rubles. Also for this amount you will receive a three-year warranty on the board.
Design and features
MSI MEG Z490 Godlike is made in the best traditions of flagship motherboards on any system logic sets: E-ATX form factor (305 × 277 mm), "armor" almost over the entire area of the textolite and a weight of one and a half processor supercoolers.
|
|
|
There are no bright details in the design of the board, but thanks to the smooth mirror surfaces of the inserts and chopped heatsinks on the ports of the M.2 MEG Z490 Godlike drives, it looks interesting, modern and strict.
|
|
|
A protective and reinforcing Chest Plate is installed on the back of the textolite, as well as heat-distributing plates on power circuits.
The board's interface panel has everything you need for any tasks, except for the video outputs, which lose their meaning on boards of this level. There are BIOS update and CMOS reset buttons, a combo PS / 2 port, 10 USB ports of various types, two network sockets, connectors for antennas of the wireless communication module, an optical output and five gold-plated audio connectors.
All ports are marked with pictograms or signed, and USB in addition to this is highlighted in color.
Without heatsinks and a plastic casing, the board looks like this.
The MSI MEG Z490 Godlike is based on an eight-layer textolite, and the mounting holes in it have a double ring of ground points - this should guarantee enhanced protection against electrostatic discharges.
The board is complex and, perhaps, even oversaturated with components and controllers, which will help to understand and the layout of the main elements from it.
The LGA1200 processor socket on the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike differs from the socket on other boards with Intel Z490 in a different location and number of stabilizing capacitors, as well as a hole for a thermal sensor.
|
|
|
The list of processors compatible with the board includes in design LGA1200 processors, from the 35-watt Intel Pentium Gold G6500T to the flagship Intel Core i9-10900K with its official but not real 125-watt TDP.
The power supply system of the central processor is built according to a 16-phase scheme.
|
|
|
Each phase consists of 99390A Intersil ISL90 MOSFET and third generation titanium coil
Thus, in total, the board can supply 1440 A to the processor, which is enough for any current and future Intel processors (just prepare a more powerful power supply). Another power phase of exactly the same layout is assigned to VCCSA.
Power management is implemented by an eight-channel Intersil ISL69269 controller with Intersil ISL6617A doublers symmetrically soldered on the back of the PCB.
Below the processor socket, you can see two more power phases, which, apparently, are assigned to VCCIO.
To provide power to the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike, there is one 24-pin connector, a pair of eight-pin and one six-pin connector at the bottom of the PCB.
|
|
|
It is recommended to connect a cable to it only when two video cards with a high level of power consumption are installed on the board. There is no need to talk about the installation of three video cards on boards with the Intel Z490 chipset due to the restrictions on the number of PCI-Express lanes (only x8/x8/x4 scheme is possible).
By the way, about the chipset. On the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike, it is covered with a flat heatsink with a plastic overlay and a thermal pad. Its traces are visible on the chipset crystal.
The resources of the Intel Z490, along with the resources of the CPU, are distributed in the following block diagram.
Four DIMM slots for DDR4 RAM have a Steel Armor metal shell that reinforces the slots and protects the contacts in them from electromagnetic interference, as well as additional solder points to the textolite. Module locks in slots are located only on the right side.
On the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike, the memory is organized according to the Daisy Chain topology. The board supports work with modules with an effective frequency of 5,0 GHz, examples of which are already in , and proprietary DDR4 Boost technology should make overclocking easier and improve stability. Let's add that the memory power supply system is single-channel.
Like the RAM slots, all PCI-Express 3.0 x16 are also dressed in a Steel Armor shell, which strengthens them four times.
Note that the first slot is located far from the processor socket area, which means that it will not interfere with the installation of overall supercoolers. It is he and the second slot that are connected to the PCI-Express processor lines and can work in x16/x0 or x8/x8 modes. Slot switching is implemented by Pericom PI3EQX16 signal amplifiers.
The lower PCI-Express 3.0 x16 can only work in x4 mode, and besides it there is also a small PCI-Express x1 for expansion cards. Variants of distribution of chipset and processor lines between PCI-Express slots and M.2 ports are given in the table.
Here we add that, according to official information from MSI, the MEG Z490 Godlike board supports the high-speed PCI-Express 4.0 bus, which will be activated simultaneously with the release of new Intel processors and a BIOS update.
In terms of ports for SATA-type drives, the board does not stand out in anything special: the Intel Z490 chipset implements six SATA III ports with a bandwidth of up to 6 Gb / s.
But with M.2 ports for SSD, the situation is much more interesting. The board itself has three Turbo M.2 ports, each of which can reach up to 32Gbps throughput. The first two ports are powered by the chipset and support both SATA and PCI Express drives from 42mm to 110mm in length.
The bottom slot uses processor lanes and can only handle PCIe drives from 42mm to 80mm in length. All drives in the M.2 ports have double-sided heatsinks with thermal pads.
The M.490 Xpander-Z Gen2 S expansion card included in the MSI MEG Z4 Godlike kit will help to further increase the number of high-speed drives, and immediately with native support for the PCI-Express 4.0 bus.
|
|
|
It can install two more actively-cooled SSDs with a length of 42 to 110 mm.
Like other flagship boards, the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike is equipped with a 10 Gigabit Aquantia AQC107 network controller, as well as a 2,5 Gigabit .
|
|
|
The module is responsible for wireless networks with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 support. The utility will help distribute network flows .
The developers of the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike equipped the board with nineteen different types of USB ports at once. The interface panel has 10 ports, including a pair of USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-C), implemented by the Intel T803A900 controller (Thunderbolt 3 interface with a bandwidth of up to 40 Gb / s).
Two USB 2.0 headers (4 ports), two USB 3.2 Gen1 headers (4 ports from the hub ) and one high-speed USB 3.2 Gen2 for the front panel of the system unit case.
|
|
|
The Realtek ALC1220 appears to have monopolized the high-end audio market, as we're already testing our third flagship on the Intel Z490, and it's back with this particular audio processor.
To improve the sound quality in hardware, the ESS E9018 combo DAC, Chemicon audio capacitors, a dedicated 600 ohm headphone amplifier, cable click protection, and isolation of the audio component zone from the rest of the PCB with a non-conductive strip are designed to improve the sound quality.
Let's add gold-plated connectors and support for surround sound technology to the same piggy bank .
Multi I/O and monitoring functions on the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike are implemented by the Nuvoton NCT6687D-M controller.
You can connect 10 fans with PWM support to the board - or without it, then the speed control will be carried out by voltage (DC).
In addition, a three-pin Water Flow connector and two connectors for temperature sensors are provided.
The set of tools for overclocking the processor is also quite sufficient: LED indicators, various buttons and a multifunctional POST code indicator have been added to the contact points for measuring voltages and jumpers.
|
|
|
The latter is implemented in a rather original way, as it is adjacent to a small display, which can display various kinds of information, including monitoring data.
Of course, the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike did not do without backlighting - well, where now without it, dear? The area of the chipset heatsink is illuminated and, especially beautifully, the area of the casing of the interface panel (the dragon in the first photo in the article is from there). The proprietary lighting system is called and supports an uncountable number of modes of operation.
Three RGB LED connectors will help to expand the backlight of the board with LED strips, two of which are addressable. In addition, the board has a 3-pin Corsair LED connector for connecting and controlling the backlight of Corsair products.
Most of the connectors are located at the bottom of the PCB board. In the same place, in addition to the already demonstrated buttons and connectors, you can see a small BIOS selection switch.
The MSI MEG Z490 Godlike dual BIOS with the ability to automatically restore the image from a backup chip and update without using the processor and RAM.
To cool the VRM circuits, a double radiator with a heat pipe is provided, and the plate on the back of the board performs only a protective function and strengthens the board for bending.
|
|
|
There are two small fans mounted on the VRM heatsink.
We have serious doubts about the effectiveness of their work, since they suck in air from nowhere and throw it out to nowhere. It's good that they turn on only when the VRM circuits reach a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius and above.
Of particular affection in these fans is the ratio of the diameter of the rotor and the effective area of the blades, which are more like saw teeth than fan blades. MSI would be better off without those little turntables altogether.
UEFI BIOS Features
The MSI MEG Z490 Godlike flagship board is equipped with an AMI UEFI BIOS with a multilingual interface, a graphical shell and the brand name MSI Click BIOS 5. The latest version available at the time of testing is 7C70v11 was dated May 20 of this year. The board starts in the EZ Mode basic settings mode, where you can not only find out information about the system and basic settings, but also activate the Gam Boost processor auto-overclocking mode and XMP RAM.
When you switch to advanced mode, the top panel of the window remains unchanged, but six main sections appear in the lower two-thirds of the screen.
The first contains settings for peripheral devices and controllers of the board, boot and security settings.
Since these settings do not require additional comments, we will simply provide BIOS screenshots with them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Much more interesting is the BIOS section with the speaking name OC. There is a place for an overclocker to turn around: any parameters of the processor and RAM are available for change, including adjusting voltages and limits.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We will show the possibilities of changing the main voltages in the BIOS of the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike motherboard in the table indicating the maximum and minimum values, as well as the step of changing them.
| Voltage | Minimum value, V | Maximum value, V | Step |
| CPU Core | 0,600 | 2,155 | 0,005 |
| CPU VCCSA | 0,600 | 1,850 | 0,010 |
| CPU VCCIO | 0,600 | 1,750 | 0,010 |
| CPU PLL | 0,600 | 2,000 | 0,010 |
| CPU PLLOC | 0,600 | 2,000 | 0,010 |
| CPU PLL SFR | 0,900 | 1,500 | 0,015 |
| RING PLL SFR | 0,900 | 1,500 | 0,015 |
| SA PLL SFR | 0,900 | 1,500 | 0,015 |
| MC PLL SFR | 0,900 | 1,500 | 0,015 |
| CPU ST | 0,600 | 2,000 | 0,010 |
| CPU STG | 0,600 | 2,000 | 0,010 |
| DRAM | 0,600 | 2,200 | 0,010 |
Also in the BIOS it is possible to change all the timings of RAM that exist on the planet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
In a special subsection, memory settings related to the so-called training of chips during their overclocking or fine tuning are grouped.
Of course, there is also a subsection with voltage stabilization adjustments, where the main parameter - CPU Loadline Calibration Control - has eight levels of stabilization with a graphical representation of the degree of this very stabilization. During board testing, we will touch on this topic separately.
There are detailed BIOS information windows for the CPU and memory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The configured BIOS of the board can be saved in six profiles, although eight would be desirable. However, for the current generation of Intel processors, this "problem" is irrelevant.
The BIOS also has a built-in utility for monitoring and configuring fans connected to the board, as well as a board browser.
The only BIOS bug in this version that we were able to fix during setup was a shell freeze when trying to disable the Thunderbolt 3 controller, but otherwise it works smoothly and quickly. The display of changed settings when exiting the BIOS is also present here.
Overclocking and stability
The stability, overclocking potential and performance of the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike motherboard was tested in a closed case of the system unit at a room temperature of 26,8 to 27,2 degrees Celsius. The test stand configuration consisted of the following components:
- motherboard: MSI MEG Z490 Godlike (Intel Z490, LGA1200, BIOS 7C70v11 from 25.05.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX);
- CPU: 3,7-5,3GHz (Comet Lake-S, 14+∞+nm, Q0, 10×256KB L2, 20MB L3, TDP 125W);
- CPU cooling system: (two 140mm Noctua NF-A15 fans 770-1490 rpm);
- thermal interface: ;
- Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Ventus XS OC GDDR6 6GB/192bit 1530-1815/14000MHz;
- RAM: DDR4 2×8GB G.Skill TridentZ Neo (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN), XMP 3600MHz 18-22-22-42 CR2 @ 1,35V;
- system disk: Intel SSD 730 480 GB (SATA III, BIOS vL2010400);
- disc for programs and games: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB (SATA II, 10000 rpm, 16 MB, NCQ);
- backup drive: Samsung Ecogreen F4 HD204UI 2 TB (SATA II, 5400 rpm, 32 MB, NCQ);
- sound card: ;
- body: (six 140 mm [BL067], 990 rpm, three for blowing in, three for blowing out);
- control and monitoring panel: Zalman ZM-MFC3;
- PSU: Corsair AX1500i Digital ATX (1,5kW, 80 Plus Titanium), 140mm fan.
Testing was carried out under the operating system Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (1909 18363.900) with the following drivers installed:
- motherboard chipset Intel Chipset Drivers - from 16.05.2020;
- Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) - from 13.05.2020;
- video card drivers from 26.03.2020.
We checked the stability of the system during overclocking with the stress utility 29.4 build 8 and other benchmarks, and monitoring was carried out using HWiNFO64 version .
Traditionally, before testing, we will give the characteristics of the board using the utility .
We first tested the board's automatic BIOS settings by only enabling XMP RAM and disabling unused controllers. The processor started in normal mode and worked at frequencies up to 5,3 GHz.
We conducted the first Prime95 test without using AVX instructions - and as a result, it immediately became clear that even with automatic BIOS settings, the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike board removes the processor's TDP level restrictions (215 watts at peak load at 125 watts in Intel Core i9- 10900K).
Automatic settings BIOS (AVX off)
The processor core voltage in the load was kept at 1,188 V, and its maximum temperature reached 80 degrees Celsius. Let's especially note that with automatic BIOS settings, the board does not overestimate the VCCIO and VCCSA voltages, unlike the flagship solutions from other manufacturers based on the Intel Z490 logic set. VRM circuits are heated no higher than 56 degrees Celsius, their radiator fan does not work.
Next came the turn of the Prime95 test with activated AVX instructions.
Automatic settings BIOS (AVX activated)
With such a load, the processor frequency is kept at around 4,9 GHz at a voltage of 1,195 V and the peak TDP level is slightly higher than 281 watts. Temperatures, as you can see, are significantly higher than without AVX, which is to be expected. Nevertheless, even with such a significantly increased load, the VRM circuits of the board warmed up only to a modest 67 degrees Celsius, and the fan still did not turn on.
Further, before moving on to overclocking attempts, we checked the efficiency of the algorithms for the voltage stabilization function on the processor core - Loadline Calibration (LLC). We managed to test three LLC levels - from the weakest, 8, to a below average level, 6. The processor worked in nominal mode, and AVX instructions did not participate in the load. The results turned out to be quite interesting.
|
|
|
|
With the minimum LLC level, the board stabilizes the processor in the same way as with automatic settings, that is, the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike uses the minimum LLC algorithm if nothing is changed in the BIOS. The next (seventh) level increases the voltage on the processor core in the load from 1,188 to 1,213 V, and the maximum temperature increases by 7 degrees Celsius. The sixth LLC level behaves even more aggressively, at which the voltage increased to a clearly excessive 1,272 V with an increase in temperature to 96 degrees Celsius. Well, our attempts to test an even higher, fifth level of stabilization ended in overheating of the processor after just three minutes of the Prime95 test.
Overclocking our Intel Core i9-10900K instance on the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike board ended up with exactly the same result as on the flagship ASUS and Gigabyte boards: 5,0 GHz simultaneously for all cores at 1,225 V and LLC 4.
At the same time, the temperature of the hottest processor core increased to 88 degrees Celsius, and the temperature of the VRM circuit elements did not exceed 60 degrees Celsius.
At a slightly higher frequency, 5,1 GHz, the processor needed 1,285 V (LLC 4), but after 3-4 minutes of the test, it simply went beyond 100 degrees Celsius even under a supercooler. It was pointless to assemble a custom LSS for these additional 0,1 GHz, so we moved on to testing the RAM on the top MSI motherboard.
True, on the MEG Z490 Godlike, as well as on the two previously tested boards, you can get more than 3,6 GHz from two eight-gigabyte G.Skill TridentZ Neo modules with a nominal value of 18 GHz with initial timings of 22-22-42-2 CR3,8 with a decrease in the main timings up to 18-21-21-43 CR2 and correction of secondary delays, we failed. Obviously, the problem is with the memory modules, not with the motherboards.
Performance
Now let's check the system performance on the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike in the nominal mode and when overclocking the processor / memory in several benchmarks.
| MSI MEG Z490 Good Intel Core i9-10900K auto, ring 4,3 GHz DDR4 2×8 GB G.Skill TridentZ Neo XMP (3,6 GHz 18—22—22—42 CR2) |
MSI MEG Z490 Good Intel Core i9-10900K 5,0 GHz, ring 4,7 GHz DDR4 2×8 GB G.Skill TridentZ Neo tweak (3,8 GHz 18—21—21—43 CR2) |
| AIDA64 Extreme 5 cache & memory benchmark | |
|
|
|
| WinRAR 5.91 beta 1 | |
|
|
|
| 7-Zip 20.00 alpha | |
|
|
|
| Handbrake v1.3.1 | |
|
|
|
| EZ CD Audio Converter 9.1 (1,85 GB FLAC в MP3 320 Kbps/с) | |
|
|
|
| Blender 2.90 Alpha | |
|
|
|
| Corona 1.3 | |
|
|
|
| CINEBENCH R20.060 | |
|
|
|
| 3DMark 2.11.6911 s64Time Spy CPU test | |
|
|
|
Despite the fact that for obvious reasons we did not achieve serious success in overclocking the processor and memory, we managed to increase the performance quite noticeably in most tests. If we compare the results obtained on the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike in benchmarks with the same tests from articles about и , you can see that there is practically no difference in performance between these three boards.
Conclusion
The flagship MSI MEG Z490 Godlike has on board everything you need to create a gaming system with one or two video cards. The board can be equipped with the fastest gaming processor, which it will provide with an extremely powerful power system with passive or active cooling. Getting the most out of the existing hardware will help support five-GHz RAM, as well as three drives in M.2 ports on a PCB and a couple more on an expansion card, a debugged BIOS with wide voltage adjustment options, and numerous overclocking tools. The board has three of the fastest network controllers, a hardware-enhanced sound processor, 19 USB ports, and all sorts of other optimizations.
We could not find any serious shortcomings in the MSI MEG Z490 Godlike, and frivolous shortcomings too. Of course, they could include, for example, the very high cost of the board, the limitations of the Intel Z490 system logic set, or the meager overclocking potential of Intel Comet Lake-S processors. But only the first of these can be shouldered by MSI (and the price for it is in the market), and the second two do not depend on the company, and the MEG Z490 Godlike cannot do anything with them. Yes, and this coronavirus undermined the sales of motherboards. So in our time it is difficult not only for ordinary motherboards, but for godlike models too.
Source: 3dnews.ru