My Opinion on the MSI Z790 ACE

[@eclipticsight]

Thank you for bringing up the memory issue on MSI Z790 boards. I have the MSI Z790 Carbon and got 7200MHz kit from their QVL list and can not run it stable at the rated speed. I even did lots of tweaks and read lots of post and many others are having the same problem. I got it can get fixed on the bios but have settled for 6800MHz with tight timings.

[@GewelReal]

maybe it's your CPU that can't handle it

[@rulik007]

best memory OC on 4dimm is Gigabyte Z790 boards

[@danielabbott9312]

That's funny you say that I have the same issue with my z690 carbon it can run 2 sticks at xmp no problem but on the MSI page the xpg Lancer 6000mhz no rgb, for some reason the rgb version only says 2, but the non version is one of the of a handful that sats it says it can run 4 dimms at advertised speed, but I can only get it to 5800mhz but it let me crank the timing from 40-40-40-77 to 32-34-34 70 while at 5800mhz, 13900k cpu

[@AliComputering]

@@rulik007 on previouse versions I always find MSI Carbon series very good at memory OC and tighting timings (vs ASUS , GIGA etc in same price range) and good build quality with lot of features (in some series it was cheaper than ASUS Strix-F with more features) Im talking about Z270-370-390-490-590 from Z690 to now MSI increased this series price and its purchase value dropped I overclocked 3200mts single rank dual channel CL16-18-18-40 to 4800 CL 19-21-21-35 and 4400 CL 17-19-19-32 on MSI Z370 Gaming pro carbon + 9900K while on ASUS Z390 Strix same kit didnt boot at all, I had to use higher timinings to boot. same as Z590 carbon + 10900K (while ASUS Strix couldnt boot with those numbers I tried another sticks too with 3200. 3600, 4000, 4133 speeds. different modes: single rank, dual rank, single channel, dual channel., and different brands like corsair Vengeance PRO. LPX. Dominator, XPG D20. D30. D60 , Team group Night hawk, Delta, Xcalibur and Gskill Trizent Z, neo ofcourse single stick, single rank were best specially with SAMSUNG and Sk Hynix chips. ADATA XPG D20 3600 was astonishing! very cheap ram with great overclocking potential for its range (D20 is low tier just 1 level higher than D10, while there is 30-40-41-50-60-D80 too) Corsair rams were like lucky toys, same models with same speed (everything same) might be single rank or dual, Micron or Hynix! (there is no way to find which is it like serial number or some word at end of model like H for hynix for example. nothing! in DDR4 Elpida < Nanya < Micron < Sk Hynix < SAMSUNG in DDR5 if u wanna best overclocking potential and quality but rams with Sk Hynix chips. in DDR5 Micron < SAMSUNG < Sk Hynix Corsair Vengeance has good price/Speed value, but poor overclocking, Dominators are expensive and doesnt worth to buy because with same price of like 32GB Dual 5200 CL40 Dominator u can buy same capacity Vengeance 6400 CL 40 or 6200 CL 36 or Veangeance RGB 6000 CL32

[@rulik007]

@@AliComputering it was on DDR4, z490 unify OC better than maximus XII hero/formula and gigabyte was trash. But with DDR5 is different

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Pretty sure the rear displayport connectors are for plugging your gpu output into the mainboard so the thunderbolt type c ports have video based off the dGPU

[@HuntsChris]

I have this board, it is very good. I do think the I/O shield cover is a bit plasticky and cheap compared to the rest of the board. Another important consideration is that the m.2_1 slot, with the tool less removable heat sink is taller than other slots and so when you try and horizontal mount a gpu with a waterblock and active back plate, there isn’t enough clearance because of the heat sink height. Also beware pci slot use reduces pci slot speed and channels of the first pci slot and also some of the m.2 slots.

[@fredEVOIX]

addintional info that is often wrong from pros when the manual says pcie1 slot goes to x8 it means x8 period not "5.0 bandwith x8" (manufacturers dishonestly keep repeating 5.0 everywhere to fool customers) on a 4090 you'll get x8 4.0 on a 1080ti x8 3.0 so yes it's a problem for high end 7900xtx or 4090 gpus those 4k 100+fps or 350fps in 1080p do need bandwith

[@Jedtgill]

I have this mobo and a 4080 on the way. I have 3 gen 4 ssds but could go down to 2 if I had to. Is there a way to build that will not cause this reduction?

[@Anthony-fd8mh]

So I know this is 2 months old but a question for you if possible I have a NVME 980 Pro and 2 SSD drives and one 3 and half inch HDD drive (old I know but still works) so where would the NVME be installed on this board as to not interfere with he SSD's and the HDD? Is it possible?

[@Jedtgill]

@Anthony just put it in slot 1 on the mobo since its linked to the cpu

[@Anthony-fd8mh]

@@Jedtgill ok great, so that also won’t interfere with whatever size GPU I use as well? (Was thinking of getting a 24GB 4090 at some point).

[@saman5986]

Honestly, your channel is the best!

[@diversify210]

Was looking for a motherboard to for my 19-13900k build and was considering this exact motherboard. Loved the dual port lan, even though it should be 10G for a 550 dollar motherboard. I also did the usb-c display port and thunderbolt connections right on the I/O. What killed it for me with this motherboard is the black and gold color scheme and MSI big ass dragon logo. Cant stand it so I just went with the Gigabyte Aorus Master X instead. 10G Lan though a second 2.5g lan port would have been nice. Would have liked to see a Usb-c display port but I can live with out it. No thunderbolt on the I/O but does have the thunderbolt add on header. All in all I think it was a good choice. For people like me, choosing a motherboard is difficult since most of the PC parts are targeted towards gamers. So Im always left with sifting through all the high end gaming motherboards to see find which one fits my specific feature set needs. Really wish gigabyte would do a higher end Aero motherboard in black. Id be all over that

[@bryantallen703]

You can clearly see the one single different SPS at the top right for the iGPU and a 90A SPS is plenty for iGPU usage. Plus, the 2 mini Display Port "in" ports at the back give it away. USB-c to USB-c video out, HDMI or DP2.1 out is capable and labeled on the back. DB losing his ways with the mainboard....lol. At least he caught it at the end. This is the MEG ACE series which always had onboard iGPU support. Its the GODLIKE that did away with the iGPU.

[@madd5]

Roman, finally got your ryzen 7000 delid tool! Thank you for creating this tool

[@dbascb]

Excellent, MSI MEG ACE has about everything I want without being too expensive. 10G Network make this board perfect. Thank you

[@jadams2289]

When you go into bios for memory OC and there's an "I'm feeling lucky!" button... Never change, MSI.

[@antoniohagopian213]

Lucky is the dragon's name

[@delatroy]

It's amazing that we still have double side disks. Just they are as floppy as they used to be

[@AM-qc3vk]

The 'ACE' M.2 toolless feature is nice if you need to replace a storage drive quickly. But it's definitely just a 'nice to have' feature.

[@apex_chris]

I just bought this motherboard and installed it on a build. The button is ridiculous and nearly impossible to take off. It most assuredly DOES NOT come off with ease and was a total waste of design time and effort. Meanwhile, all the other shields have m.2 screws in them on the boards ... lol!

[@SilentWhLsper]

@@apex_chrisdid you figure out how to take off I’ve had the same issue and tried for 5 hours before just stopping completely any idea how you fixed it?

[@danielabbott9312]

Igpu connects with a straight pass through, through the number 9 c port (the top cport if your looking at the rear io). With a cport to display port cord you can connect from the motherboard straight to the dispay without any thunderbolt non sense, also currently running corsair vengeance 4x 16gb 6600mhz set overclocked to 7400mhz

[@Scribbby]

That sleeve is looking better and better as you get more work done on it. And I'm not talking about cable sleeving. I wonder who the artist is and where you're getting it done.

[@reloadingdontshoot1]

Black and gold literally goes with everything lol; probably the best two colours to put together to appease 99% of customers. It's so subtle it's not even a problem. One thing I'd zonk on this is no 90 degree 24pin header. it's 2023, and you're paying like $1000 for this board...come on (I only use MSI boards so this zonk is just a general one overall). All SATA, USB3 and 24pin headers need to be 90 degrees by now on all boards

[@GewelReal]

or make the headers at the back, like some upcoming motherboards

[@madmadz1624]

in some cases 90 degree 24pin not so practical

[@ResurrectedDarokun]

​@@madmadz1624 just add 90° adapter in the MB package, they are not that expensive...

[@madmadz1624]

@@ResurrectedDarokun ye I do guess that’s true

[@cokeforever]

nah, black and silver works for any rgb as silver is simply a mirror; "gold" is dark yellow so not so much, mixing of colours would happen; black with black or white with white are even better options ;)

[@TimLongson]

LOVING these in-depth spec hardware claims testing videos! Speaking of memory timings and motherboards, I have a question; I heard that because of the infinity fabric AMD use, that it's a bad idea, even with the latest 7950X3D CPU, to go over 6,000MT/s RAM. But having looked at some of the high-mid range motherboards, I see they list support for higher RAM speeds, like the ASRock X670E Taichi says supports DDR5 6600MT/s, the ROG STRIX X670E-E says supports 6,400MT/s, and the Gigabyte X670E AORUS Master says supports 6,666MT/s. Other than being more expensive, is there any reason I shouldn't get say a 6,600MT/s 64GB (2x32GB) kit (with the lowest CL I can find) along with an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard and a 7950X3D CPU? As a bonus question, which DDR5 64GB (2X32GB) 6,600MT/s RAM kit would you recommend for the 7950X3D setup, if performance is more important than price? And mu Google search for "best motherboard for 7950X3D" suggested ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard (if budget isn't a bif factor); is this something you agree with? Thanks in advance. :)

[@zebrapluto530]

With AMD 7000 series CPUs you want DDR5 6,000MT/s, which is 3,000MHz so that the Infinity Fabric (IF) can run at 2,000MHz in a 3:2 ratio. Faster DDR5 would cause the IF to clock slower. Overall DDR5 6000 is best. The RAM kit I'd recommend is G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5-6000 CL30-40-40-96 1.40V (F5-6000J3040G32GX2-TZ5N

[@BarbaricMouse]

My Z790 Godlike reads the same 13900K under name and 13900KS under specification. Probably because the KS is just a "Binned" K that wins the Silicon Lottery. This video has helped. I now know to move some M.2 drives off the CPU. Thanks, it kind of defeats the point of having a 4090 only to give up PCIe lanes to an SSD you really do not need.

[@hadleys.4869]

With the 13th gen 13900k it has 20 pciex lanes, which is enough for full speed gen4 4x nvme m.2 SSD and a gen5 16x GPU. The only time you reduce bandwidth of the GPU is if you use a 2nd nvme m.2 in another m.2_X slot that’s attached to the CPU. This causes the 16x GPU to reduce to 8x.

[@mrfilipelaureanoaguiar]

Good review video, I like to see how they build those boards. MSI seem to build good motherboards, with that dual sided nvme pad, not all boards have that. For that internal GPU, overclock and heat plays with but if you need to screen record, is it good while gaming on a dedicated GPU. Mostly Intel advertised that after 11th Gen, internal GPU should work in pair with their opencl3.0 dedicated GPU. 1.5tflops or not, it is more power, but yeah, more heat.

[@ChrisGR93_TxS]

9:10 Something similar with the Gigabyte Radeon RX 6750 XT 12GB GDDR6 Gaming OC GV-R675XTGAMING OC-12GD The thermal pad for the vrm chokes at the display output side was not touching at all, zero imprint from the inductors.

[@poepflater]

7XX boards have crazy prices... 80% of people never overclock past any "easy , click here" options... I was thinking of getting one with a 13th gen chip so I could give my B660 12100f setup to my daughter, it has wifi and bluetooth and all and a fraction the cost of an entry-level new set.

[@AliComputering]

7xx doesnt worth at all! 6xx are far more valuable, cheaper (and can find with good percent off too) same features (sometimes even more) same upgradibility, just in max ram speed (only in DDR5 version they lack behing) while 6666+ for high Z690 is high enough, and even those support less can work with faster rams too (with enabling overclock) and in my opinion for now and these price if anyone wants buy DDR5 rams, 5200 & 5600 sticks have good price, faster rams are expensive yet and 7XX nd 6xx total PCI-E lanes numbers are same (just 7xx switch some of gen 3 of 6xx to gen 4 in chipset) which is useless for most users, while cpus 20 lanes are enough for most users which use 1 GPU + 1 M.2 NVMe SSD = 20 Lanes (all board lanes remained untouch) and SATA H.D.D or SSD s doesnt use PCI-E lanes. so if someone wants to use more 2 M.2 SSD s or 2nd PCI-E Cards there is still enough lanes even in B660 (Whatever H670 or Z690) and I checked some of 6XX boards has more features too like more SATA (in comparison of same version 7XX model) more back panel portsand etc.

[@poepflater]

@@AliComputering even 6600m is a 6th more expensive, where the 6XXX series beats it, it is like 2 or 3 fps, not sure if it is worth the 15% extra. with newer titles the 6600 might be better but I looked at the games i personally play before I chose.

[@username8644]

Not only that but the CPUs have low number of pcie lanes and only support up to 4 memory dimms and run as dual channel. $700 is significantly more expensive than what x299 and threadripper motherboards costed, and those all had more pcie slots, double the memory slots, more io ports, 10Gb lan (even 5 years ago), etc ,etc. And the cpus for those mobos could actually utilize all the expansion on board.

[@poepflater]

@@username8644 It is not just the grafix card manufacturers screwing us over... I'm still sour at current prices for everything. my 12100f cost R1,973 in May 22 it is now R2,367 ! HOW\????????????

[@fredEVOIX]

bought msi z790 but....the ddr4 tomahawk i can use 4 dimms, main pcie slot stays in x16 even with 2 other pcie card and I still have 4 m.2 connected on the board, in 4.0 only tough and it was almost half the price of the meg ace which is....worse really

[@jonascoscom]

My MSI z790 tomahawk never gave me a problem running 4x 16gb ddr5 at its rated speed 6000mt. So you would think this should be able to handle almost anything

[@leovbernardo]

12:45 hey Roman, reduce the memory dump size to small in the advanced settings to avoid unnecessary writes to the ssd during BSODs 😊

[@ferdynandkiepski5026]

Will you be making RAM OC content? I know that there are many voltage controls that you can tweak to make memory more stable and some small timing tweaks as well.

[@Tobez]

lol I love that your cat around the 11 min mark is just looking at you like, who are you talking to

[@Bluelagoonstudios]

If you compare those temperatures with older systems, that this is mind-blowing they press out these, CPU, GPUs to the limit, for testing, in school, we did these tests till break point from heat. CPUs did go max up to 85°C the die fell off and started to disintegrate. And now... 80, 90, to 100°C is "normal" unbelievable.

[@nopenope7088]

I live near a fast food restaurant called Der Wienerschnitzel and they serve chili dogs and chili cheese fries. It’s pretty good! Anyway that’s what your channel name reminded me of

[@ChrisGR93_TxS]

my m13a the highest I've seen was 55c max vrm tenp with 370+ watt 10900kf at 5.3all core (1.22 under load on direct die contact and liquid metal) I guess case flow matters*

[@forbiddenera]

@12:25 just like a lot of BIOS options, I wish everything was documented properly. Even a lot of thunderbolt options that are on a ton of boards are not documented anywhere (except probably in Intel NDA docs that the manufacturer gets) and it's frustrating AF

[@3d1e00]

I thought you never had threads on stacked components like that if they have a heat cycle? Always thought it can cause issues with thread damage/crossing so you thread the base only?

[@mikeford963]

Did no one else notice the mini Display Port outs on the rear IO?

[@RathOX]

my OC KS pulls around 400w on my apex with a mora

[@hadleys.4869]

I have the exact same motherboard and 13900ks cpu and could only get 7200 stable as well. I ordered a new Asus ROG Maximus Z790 APEX and it just got delivered from the UK. It wasn’t in stock anywhere in the US where I live. Tried to get a G.Skill 8000 32gb kit for this board, but they aren’t in stock anywhere in the US. I had to get a 7800 kit instead and I’ll try to OC it to 8000 maybe.

[@victorkelante420]

What's your experience so far despite the news about ASUS recently?

[@starfuxer]

@@victorkelante420 Been wondering the same... Got the Z690 Formula that was affected by the really bad BIOS update 2305 in early April. My MB Formula, CPU i9-13900K and 2x 16GB RAM GSKILL Trident DDR5 6000MhZ sticks got grilled. All is in RMA now. Been thinking to get a new board that has 2 bios for safety and the APEX Z790 could fill that role. Would anyone safely buy the Apex Z790 after all the clusterfuck that ASUS is going into lately?

[@victorkelante420]

@@starfuxer rip man, I was loving the mirror finish on the ASUS Z790 Hero but I've always been with MSI, currently building and I already got the MSI 4090 Suprim Liquid with the MEG 1300w PSU, also from MSI. Right now I'm thinking of going with the Tomahawk Z790 (non-RGB build).

[@starfuxer]

@@victorkelante420 I've got the 4090 Suprim X non liquid and I love it! Got Asus Thor 1200W for PSU and Asus Helios white case. Love my PC but I'll be having PTSD for the Formula board though

[@starfuxer]

Which I'm evaluating options... Stay with Formula, get the z790 apex or the msi meg ace z790...

[@deadadam666]

for £700 plus ..... this comes across as a crap deal , in fact id go as far as to say super high end parts these days look more and more scam/cash grab'y. they never seem to deliver on what they advertise , always have clear cost cutting measures and generally seem to focus on odd things that very few people actually want ?

[@chloedevereaux1801]

5:26..... the right bottom M.2 clearly states it goes to the chipset...... only the left one is CPU.....

[@lewisner]

I'm not sure about the screwless M2 feature. I've had countless hours of fun searching for screws using my fingernails and a torch with a dodgy battery. I would miss that.

[@leeblackharry]

I'm having an issue where Windows won't boot if I restart the computer. This is a brand new build. Windows will only boot if I turn the PSU off and then on. I checked all the cable connections and made sure the graphics card and all ram chips are seated. I checked compatibility and all seems good. I flashed the bios also. I can't seem to find anything else on the web that I haven't tried. The motherboard has a LED bios post display and it gets stuck at 16. This code refers to Pre-Memory System Agent initialization (System Agent module specific). The only other thing I haven't tried is taking the CPU off and try reseating it again. Has anyone had any problems like I have?

[@theconsummatenerd]

Le Chat Orange: "Tell me of zis board. I wish to be an ace too!" Super funny.

[@gamingedition5165]

That thermal pad issue not making proper contact could easily be fixed by using slightly thicker thermal pads on that area.

[@Xfade81]

Yes that's why he said that MSI should take note. Should not be something a user needs to do.

[@gamingedition5165]

@@Xfade81 did I say that’s something user needs to do? Just mentioned what could be done to fix it.

[@--_DJ_--]

Having threads in the cover and the board is just begging to have people cross-thread those screws. Very strange method of achieving a captive screw.

[@bthjf12003]

Did you use a Contact Frame on the socket or kept the original "Intel"'s one ?

[@der8auer-en]

just stock in this case

[@bthjf12003]

@@der8auer-en merci

[@Nixima81]

I'm in the market for a new rig so i looked up the board just for fun it's a bit to much money but seeing the memory settings reminded me of one ting i don't fully understand and that it cash latency. As a regular gamer do i care for it or am i just blowing money?

[@roboman2444]

I dont like the recent trend of putting big pieces around the PCIE slots. Blocks some of the airflow, and you will never see it anyways.

[@DoObs]

When will motherboard manufacturers consider adding more TYPE-C inputs over USB3 ports. Or at least consider having half and half.

I was upset that I bought TG 7600MHz and they are not stable on ASUS STRIX Z790-E. I expected this board from MSI to be better at DDR5, but the ASUS HERO runs just fine at 7400MHz. STRIX runs fine in Windows at 7600MHz, but the game crashes after about 30 minutes. I haven't seen the blue death yet. Personally, I think that this instability is due to an untuned BIOS. But someone says that it could be a calf. But the maximum temperature is 48-50C, I think it's not a problem. ASUS and MSI should work on a better BIOS and not just make a good BIOS on ASUS APEX.

[@fredEVOIX]

msi bios are trash :/ I know I have 2 ! the problem is that asus pcb layout and way to split the available bandwith is trash so i always end up with msi...really dont recommend msi unless like me you need lots of rear usb-a 3-4 m.2 etc..the msi tomahawk ddr4 z790 is basically an intel version of the asus x570 crosshair viii dark hero but with an horrible bios

[@alpenfoxvideo7255]

why not power the iGPU? its useful for a lot of tasks

[@MrKentaroMotoPI]

The iGPU power draw and fluctuations can be destabilizing at very high clock speeds.

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Roman, Shiek & Makita, 😍I enjoy watching reviews of these Awesome Motherboards & how they perform, 😱I don't enjoy seeing how much they cost when I look at sellers websites, 😂but I end up having a laugh that the high end has gotten this extreeme. 15:51 🤨So maybe it should be Unlucky Mode? & yeah I think MSI should get that 7800MHz+ changed to 7200MHz

[@ICANHAZKILLZ]

10:45 I love how the ginger cat is watching you exactly how we are ahaha. Great vid as always :)

[@katzicael]

It's a Gorgeous looking board.

[@dangingerich2559]

1:30 - You have obviously just worked on an open air bench too often. Swapping out an NVMe SSD in an assembled system can be a real pain in the behind, especially with those horrible designs where the heat spreader screw is also the retainer screw for the M.2 slot. (I have that design in my main system now, with a Asus Dark Hero X570 motherboard. I have actually removed the heat spreader and use a heatsink right on the SSD because of the pain that design inflicted on me.) Believe me, toolless swapping of NVMe SSDs is a godsend.

[@gabest4]

I'm pretty sure I'd need a x1 pcie card before my fifth m2 disk (comes with the bogus 2.5g intel controller). I don't understand the priorities here.

[@treyquattro]

Der Bauer/Roman, did you try changing between Gear 1 and 2 in the BIOS? 7800 MT/s might have been possible at Gear 2.

[@treyquattro]

I just found out from BuildZoid (Actually Hardcore Overclocking) that Gear 1 doesn't work for DDR5! I wasn't previously aware of that and it explains why my i9-12900 5200MT/s DDR5 MSI Carbon won't boot when I try Gear 1.

[@Del_UK]

As with all motherboard manufacturers these days, plenty of nice features and lots of connectivity, that you cannot use without losing performance. How many PCIE M.2 slots? 5 and if you install a drive in each one, you lose performance. For the money you are paying, you would expect an additional PCIE controller. I also had a look at the specification for memory. Hmm, 1DPC 1R Max speed up to 7800+ MHz, nice one MSI 🤣

[@MarkWebbPhotography]

You lose just a smidge of performance, I have all 5 populated and it runs perfectly fine.

[@Del_UK]

@@MarkWebbPhotography Thank you for the reply and information.

[@AliComputering]

u wont lose performance even if u use all 5 M.2s + 1 graphic cards, there is enough PCI Lanes in CPU + PCH for those but if u want to use other PCI-E slot too + 1 GPU and M2s yeah u will lose some performance and DMI will reduce to X4 too, but its wrong platform for someone wants to use all of these things, he must go with X670E high end boards (or threadripers) in intel he must go for HEDT like X series CPUs and MBs like X299 (which I dont recomand for now because its old and weak vs AMD offer for same price)

[@MarkWebbPhotography]

@@AliComputering actually came from a 3960x for the single threaded performance haha. Adobe is happier with intel

[@AliComputering]

@@MarkWebbPhotography I know, but I was talking about lacking PCI-E lanes with intel mainstream series (if put SSD in all 5 of them and use another PCI-E card with Graphic card) which hit performance on Z790 boards + intel K series, and intel HEDT X Series are old now (saphire will be out soon but its very power hungary and hot (more than before) and slower than new threadriper by far)

[@grant5227]

I could see the screwless m.2 being very useful if you are trying to swap a drive with a massive air cooler and video card in the way. Getting those tiny screws in there is a pain in an already built system.

[@-opus]

Agreed, although it seemed to come off dramatically, looking like a good way to skin your fingers on the cooler.

[@MacA60230]

That's such a niche case, I doubt the added cost of the mechanism (and new failure point) are worth it

[@Elmiond]

For me its not losing the tiny screws. They are sometimes different lengths, even on the same MB :/

[@treyquattro]

I think I'm one of the few that doesn't like nor trust the "EZ-install" M.2 clips. If you don't have a cover over the M.2 drive I don't trust the lever not to come loose and cause electrical connectivity problems.

[@gjkrisa]

Something I miss from my asus striker ii is the glowing io panel wish that stayed more main stream

[@iiNNeX]

I have this board and am in the process of selling it. Ordered my ROG Apex today, the Ace simply sucks in memory OC. Can barely maintain 7200 on most kits, good luck with anything higher.

[@bigiron4018]

my z690l ROG strix did the same thing to my board with the threads in the covers. I just drilled it out, thought that was so weird. If you want it to be captive use a clip.

[@obakamaster]

Thanks for the review. I'm thinking in getting this mobo for my build. One question that I have is: what's the max MTs supported for 4 RAM sticks? I need a build with 128gb for video edition and programming and currently I have a Z790 Edge DDR4 with 128gb and I want to see if it's worth the upgrade. Thanks so very much in advance for the help and for the review. Your videos are really helpful.

[@no_one682]

Personally I think getting 128gb past 4800 is going to be tough but this is probably your best bet for a Z790. I currently have four 16gb sticks of dominator platinum 6200 that run stable at 5800. I was honestly impressed it could do that, I was expecting to be stuck at 5600 or lower but I've run this for hours on y-crucher, prime95, and aida and it's perfectly stable. Of course you're still subject to the silicon lottery.

[@obakamaster]

@@no_one682 thanks for the reply. I think so, I've watched in other videos that Kingston Fury 64gb kits x2 works at 6000MT/s but I'm not sure about their stability. Probably if I set them at MSI's supported frequency of 5800+ they could do fine. Either way it's better than DDR4 128gb at 3600MT/s.

[@no_one682]

@@obakamaster I don't trust a lot of those videos because from my testing it can take several hours before a failure if it's not totally stable. Cinebench and game benchmarks will run just fine but prime95 or Aida will eventually fail. From all the research I've done this board seems like the best possible chance to get 4 sticks of ram working on Z790. In any event I wish you good luck.

[@Estebanmn]

I can confirm it will at least do 128GB at 4800, but I never tried higher. It has been stable for video editing since putting it together last November with two Kingston Fury 64gb kits (KF548C38BBK2-64). I got this board at launch so there were only a the few kits listed on their compatibility list that were confirmed for 128GB at 4800, maybe there are more now and at higher speeds.

[@umutdegismen]

Would you recommend to use the ssd's with or without heatsink?

[@nthomsen9111]

Is it me or I would rather more pcie lanes for ad on card like video capture or network or even a m.2 expansion card instead of all the m.2 slots on the motherboard.

[@WiFeYBurGLeR1]

I went through 2 boards before I settled on the Z790 Apex from Asus. All these manufacturers are advertising memory speeds that are nowhere near what their boards are capable of. They blame it your chips memory controller when you send them an email about the situation, meanwhile it's the board. I guess they figure they use these juiced up speeds for marketing purposes and rely on most people not knowing how to check the quality of their silicon. This is literal false advertising. After this gen I'm sticking with Asus, I always felt they were overpriced, but at the end of the day their board works as advertised. Running 8000mhz rock solid with a big smile on my face lol

[@massfusion]

what a lovely board i should buy it for my 12100f

[@casper75559]

They selling the Meg z690 for like 230 or 240. Something like that. It’s a pretty good deal if you ask me

[@italianbasegard]

Now if only adequate VRM cooling solutions like this became the standard.

[@hovant6666]

VRMs are so overbuilt these days that you can safely remove the heatsinks and OC on them uncooled. VRMs absolutely do not need better cooling, see BZ's vids

[@kreozello]

_'MSI engineers is the ones who _*_deisgn power button but does not include it_*_ in the final product.'_ That phrase I formed after seeing their notebook PCBs and no jumper for many ports below for 700usd board.. Like it's not a big problem, not many would use it anyways? However even then I am still being MSI fan, I love their company afterall. Even have my own gaming rig based on their components & do suggest people to pick it if they didn't got enough money for ASUS. Each vendor makes a mistakes once or twice anyways.

[@forbiddenera]

@10:25 ugh that sucks. iGPU may not be great but like, I personally run a lot of displays on my machine and was even more before 3 got replaced by a neo g9 and even still I use a lot, I have two nvidia gpus and 8 displays (was 10 before the g9) on them and use the internal gpu to ship to extra outputs to my projector in the living room and then also to my TV in my bedroom. That's 12 displays before the g9 which means I had the projector and TV sharing one (which for practical purposes is totally fine) using all 3 iGPU outputs along with both dGPUs being maxed out (even though one of my gpus has 5 ports,nvidia says you're not allowed more than 4 displays on one card unlike amd)

[@themysterytriplets8446]

What case did you use for assembling this? I am looking to get a case for this board, and struggling to find a case that will house that and a bit of a massive power supply 😅

[@lilmonster3787]

Msi sekira 500g are the best choice I think

[@Tahoedanis]

this board looks sick ! From what i see you can use a PCIe_1 x16 @ gen 5 and get G5 on the m.2_4 slot both from Cpu at the same time. The VRM is solid af. would like to see more imc samples. having a display port is nice too when you want to take a gpu out of the equation

[@benjaminramsdell8825]

no G5 on the M.2 without dropping the PCIe to x8. Seems to be the theme on the z790s for all mfgs. I just got this board and all my NVMEs are G4 any how so no big deal for me.

[@hadleys.4869]

@@benjaminramsdell8825 I think it’s because the 13th gen CPU’s only have 24 pcie lanes, while the AM5 7000 series has 28, which allows for one gen 5 m.2 and gen 5 GPU at full speed if both are occupied. Only thing I like about their x670e boards with a 7950x3D is this.

[@forbiddenera]

@6:20 what about those of us who use those jumpers to hook up external switches? (Ps. Don't do this with a bios reset switch unless you're sure the psu is switched off.. I can't say for certain but last time I did that killed my 1kw evga psu)

[@IgnusFast]

The power-stage cooling is WEIRD looking - a few of the thermal pad strips were so shiny that they almost looked like they forgot to peel off the protective plastic! Might just be a lighting illusion, but...

[@UnluckyDomino]

can you check out the Aorus Master?

[@stanpaponov]

This memory speed issue might be a CPU memory controller. It depends how lucky you get with it.

[@joelr1096]

No this board is actually trash for stabilizing memory up to 7000mt/s even with the bullshit qvls. I had that problem with this board before replacing it with an Asus z790 apex using the same CPU and ram and was able to hit 8266mt/s for comparison. It's a nice looking board but if you want easy overclocking I would avoid.

[@-opus]

"Lucky Mode" ...MSI, built for confidence 😐

[@krustyegirl7334]

Wrap around vrm looks insane

[@Kage0No0Tenshi]

On my opinion motherboard have really good cooling and would never tilt any CPU runs at stock, I have am4 gigabyte b550 aorus pro v1 and goes around 55C when my r5-5600x clocked to 4.85Ghz goes around 66C temp in gaming.

[@agoogleuser7899]

The vrm cooler solution may swivel on the heat pipe to make an improved contact.

[@johndoe7270]

Such an awesome board. I think its a lot more reasonable than the Godlike.

[@diego1694]

In what cases does it make sense to spend so much money on a mb for essentially nothing more than fluff and RGB? At that point, why not go for a W790 LGA4677 motherboard with actually good workstation features and the socket to use actual workstation CPUs?

[@gavinkidulas8648]

I'm pretty new to this pc building thing, what water cooler would fit well with this board? I'm planning on buying a 12900k and 4090 for this board.

[@isaaclawton6208]

Any AIO will fit on this board. It’s a pretty big board. If your running a 4090 I’d just go for a 13900k. Not too much more expensive and, in my opinion, if your looking to run a 4090, you might as well just go all out. Not necessary in the slightest, but if you want as much performance as possible, which sounds like what your going for, I’d just send it. What I did anyway.

[@mipcstv]

"Shit ton" exactly what I was thinking too.

[@RicardoPenders]

I have an ASUS TUF motherboard and for the second M.2 drive there's a shield for cooling the SSD but I checked with a light behind it looking from the side and I see that there's only a very small portion of the thermal pad actually touching the chips on the SSD, and when I look at the temperatures I see that the M.2 SSD with the shield on it is a little bit warmer than the M.2 SSD without the shield on it and the one without the shield is right in between the CPU and graphics card so you'd think that's the hotter one but it's just the other way around, and I have 2 M.2 SSD drives from Samsung the 980 PRO version only the one with the shield on it is 2TB and the other one is 1TB so only the capacity is different and I don't think that the one with less capacity is cooler because of that.

[@yooanto9465]

All ASUS Z690 and Z790 have issue with PCH temp. very high sometimes 90c. while in Gigabyte z790 it was 48c max. ASUS cooling solution for chipset is really bad so if you going to buy new motherboard check this out. I don't know if MSI Z790/Z690 have same problem!

[@orangetuono38]

Can you drive iGPU outputs directly to the Thunderbolt ports for a total of 3 iGPU outputs?

[@pincludestudio5562]

Does it support two RTX 4090 ?

[@m4nc1n1]

This is on sale for $499 right now. Might pick it up

[@masoudsoroush]

quick releas m.2 is useful while you want to swap or take nvme

[@genericscottishchannel1603]

The number of powerstages on motherboards these days is fucking comedic

[@joshuagreer8046]

Loving my x670e MSI pro carbon amazing board so far

[@AliComputering]

its my dream board u have, but I cant afford it and have to work with my old MB, and never gonna have enough money to buy high end systems because where I live our money values worth nothing, and a skilled worker earn about equal tp 100 USD monthly! which will gone for rent and food and more necessary things, even professional people earn 200 USD at most! so calculate how much it takes to save money enough to buy new good computer (even if we save all we earn for it and dont spend it (which is impossible) from other side inflation in very high, its 120% increase this year , mean more than double (just for essential goods) in other things like imported goods like computers inflation was about 200% increase!

[@Nobe_Oddy]

On the I/O shield, next to the Mini Display Ports it actually says "Mini-DP IN" .... So I don't think it really does have the capability for On-Board video..... except maybe using the CPU's video to capture from your main GPU or some other source....that's pretty awesome tho

[@noxious89123]

The non-thunderbolt type-C port has the DisplayPort logo :)

[@Pabula]

Imo MSI missed its mark, knowing they wont release the UNIFY Z790, they should have done a 2 slot memory ACE, would easily made it easier to swallow the $700 price tag. Second mistake.... 2x 2.5gb lans.... the X670 ACE has 2.5gb and 10gb, why the intel version don't but they cost the same. For $700 Asus Z790 Apex is a better buy, and if it ever becomes available, the Gigbyate Z790 Tachyon is also good buy for $100 less. MSI made a superb board with the Unify X, why no follow up... the Carbon is not the same. Still i prefer MSI over any brand, but their high end line is not worth it, their mid-low end is pretty solid.

[@starfuxer]

Got the Z690 Formula that was affected by the really bad BIOS update 2305. Been thinking to get a new board that has 2 bios for safety and the APEX Z790 could fill that role. Would anyone safely buy the Apex Z790 after all the clusterfuck that ASUS is going into lately?

[@Pabula]

@@starfuxer I yet to see any issues with Asus + Intel as its being shown with AMD +Asus.

[@forbiddenera]

@1:41 when my ssd failed (fortunately was able to image it, readonly mode) I didn't want to disassemble my whole system to remove it, I managed but I definitely dropped the screw so this would have been nice I think

[@Smoothoperatoritaly]

Hello. Do you do pc check up from remote?

[@j340_official]

What is the NVM version of the thunderbolt 4 controller?

[@zombl337og]

i personally dont like the gold accents just like i dont like red accents on a mobo. i prefer chrome / black so it will blend with most builds, unless your looking for a white board.

[@Condor1970]

I have a Z790-A. How do I set the CPU PL1 and PL2 to 125w and 253w respectively?

[@macspresso]

@10:18 you state incorrectly that the board has no DisplayPort for iGPU connector. One of the USB-C ports on the back panel has the DisplayPort logo next to it, and this is listed as such in the manuals. I just downgraded to this MoBo from Godlike for exactly this feature, since I am going to be doing Machine Learning on this rig and wanted 100% of the 4090 available. I'm not sure how that relates to your comments on the power stages, but if you ever recut this video (or review other ACE models), look for the small D logo after the SS logo on the back IO. Perhaps not that interesting for gaming setups, but for anyone wanting to push the data science use-case without the Workstation budgets, iGPU support is a key one to look out for, and I had to return the Godlike because I didn't expect a flagship product to lack iGPU connectivity. Would help if KZbin reviewers factored in these use-cases alongside gaming. Love your videos - thank you!

[@macspresso]

Just finished the video and saw the correction comment - nice! Looking forward to my board showing up and getting my Godlike refund :-)

[@senpaiwaifu9885]

Just discover your channel, great review by the way. Now I can put this motherboard on my list for purchase, but first gonna check other motherboard for useful features. Can you believe that, MSI disable the intel integrated graphic for the Z970 Godlike. You would need to sacrifice a port on the discrete graphic card just to enable the mini display port on the back panel. So useless and a very expensive motherboard for nothing. Most of the entry level got the integrated graphic enable. MSI was like bro, let's troll the customer this year...🤣🤣🤣!!!

[@rudiwireja]

good review

[@GoldenEagle0007]

now days its all about overpromising to the fullest and scamming

[@cokeforever]

alwaysdays, it is the best description for humankind

[@daarsena]

Is "shit ton" an official unit of measurement?

[@spinkey4842]

with the price of these MB nowadays, why don't we get color options?!?!?!