The MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC looked very similar to the Carbon Pro on paper, and in our testing there was very little to differentiate the two motherboards. Being so closely matched in price and on the acknowledged consistently-performing Intel Z390 chipset we didn’t expect there to be much difference and sure enough there isn’t.
Read more @ OC3D
If you’re someone who prefers a stealthier approach to your system build you’ll be pleased that the Tomahawk sticks firmly to the utilitarian design school. Indeed it reminds us of the old Gigabyte Sniper designs with the artists going all in on the design brief.
Read more @ OC3D
With the Z390 chipset, the MEG Z390 ACE as an ATX board supports the eighth and ninth generation Intel core processors (Coffee Lake-S Refresh). Native USB 3.1 support is already on board, so other additional chips can be omitted. The motherboard offers three PCIe x16 slots, but only one of them is connected to the chipset with all 16 lanes, while the other two are eight and eight respectively.
Read more @ Igor’s Lab
That processor, however, is more power-hungry than its predecessors and motherboard vendors have necessarily responded with higher-end power circuitry. MSI’s Enthusiast Gaming (MEG) ACE motherboard crystallises this approach with 12 phases purely aimed at powering all eight cores with overclocking.
Read more @ KitGuru
The MSI MEG Z390 Godlike is one of the most expensive motherboards on the market. It’ll set you back $599 in the US and £545 in the UK, which is a vast amount of cash to spend on a motherboard. It’s also more than its key rival costs – the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme is around $50 and £45 cheaper. Can this board possibly justify an even higher price than one of our current favourites?
Read more @ Hardware Heaven
The board sports an 11-phase power array with five doubled phases (10 if we’re feeling generous) dealing with the CPU and one for the integrated graphics. The heatsinks aren’t heat pipe-linked to even-out the heat load, but they’re reasonably substantial.
Read more @ Bit-Tech
The board is very much over engineered, which is a good thing for those looking to push their CPUs and other hardware to the limits with overclocks. It features an 18 Phase VRM (16 for the CPU), massive heatsinks, every major fitting is armoured and reinforced, and you’ve got all the latest and greatest when it comes to connectivity too.
Read more @ eTeknix
There are a total of 10 fan headers on the motherboard. Two of them are default PWM mode and located at the top of the motherboard, they are circled in red. Eight of them are default DC mode and are circled in blue. Three temperature input ports are located on the motherboard and they are circled in green.
Read more @ TweakTown
Aesthetically. the board is pleasing to the eye; a good layout with easy to reach areas making installation of components simple. The included M.2 heat spreader is welcome for dual graphics card setups as the heat from the second lower card will cause some heat issues for the NVMe drive.
Read more @ Nexus Hub
The MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC’s voltage regulator cooling is only sufficient for Core i9-9900K at stock speed, or for overclocking Core i7 or Core i5 processors. And its slot arrangement is only adequate for two double-slot cards at best. For buyers whose configurations fall within those limitations, it’s a solid deal.
Read more @ Tom’s Hardware