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For those who’ve been fascinated by a brand new construct, you’ve in all probability seen that prime finish motherboard pricing has taken one more upward step. Although not the costliest X670E motherboard when it comes to value, there are solely a handful with the next value than the MSI MEG X670E Ace. At $699 / £849 / AU$1399, it’s eyebrow elevating irrespective of the way you take a look at it. In equity to MSI, different producers’ boards are costly too, and you actually do get quite a lot of motherboard in your cash. However, is it well worth the asking value?
The MEG collection is MSI’s high-end product tier. The MEG X670E Ace is second solely to the rather more costly MEG X670E Godlike (opens in new tab) in MSI’s motherboard vary. At a ridiculous $1,299 for the Godlike, the $699 Ace appears to be like low cost compared. However it nonetheless must set itself aside if it is to justify its value, and fortunately, the Ace contains some glorious options, and a few good little touches that assist to justify that hefty value.
The very first thing I seen when taking the board out of its field was simply how heavy it’s. It’s coated in stable heavy steel together with a full cowl backplate. It’s an E-ATX board, so that you’ll want to verify your case helps it. MSI retained the gold highlights which might be frequent to earlier Ace boards. Key highlights embody as much as six M.2 slots, with 4 slots on the board and one other two PCIe 5.0 slots on an add-in card.
Add to that in depth connectivity choices, a powerful VRM with glorious cooling capability and excessive spec audio and also you’ve acquired a board that ought to see you thru Zen 5, Zen 6 and perhaps even Zen 7 upgrades. You possibly can make certain that the Ace could have years of BIOS updates forward of it.
MSI MEG X670E Ace specs
Socket: AMD Socket AM5
CPU compatibility: AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processors
Type issue: E-ATX
Reminiscence help: As much as DDR5-6666 (OC), As much as 128GB
Storage: 4+2 M.2, 6x SATA
USB: As much as 3x USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 10x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 4x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 4x USB 2.0
Show: 1x Kind-C DP
Networking: AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi 6E; Aquantia 10G LAN
Audio: Realtek ALC4082 7.1 Channel HD Audio
Worth: $699/ £849 / AU$1399
Wanting across the board, MSI has clearly gone with a much less is extra theme. The period of peak RGB is clearly behind us. I for one am proud of that, although if you happen to do love RGB, the dragon adjoining to the I/O space together with the Ace and triangle logos on the backside of the board have RGB lighting. The general design has a type of understated class and subtlety, although if you wish to go all out on RGB, there are three ARGB headers and one RGB header on board.
The board comes with 4 onboard M.2 slots and 6 SATA ports, however there’s a further PCIe 5.0 add-in card that provides you a complete of six M.2 slots, with three of them supporting PCIe 5.0. The Xpander-Z card includes a stable heatsink and cooling fan. If this factor doesn’t preserve subsequent gen NVMe drives cool, nothing will. It’s even acquired a six pin PCIe energy enter. An indication of issues to return?
The onboard major M.2 slot sits adjoining to the reminiscence slots. It’s an important concept to position it there. It sits within the path of air incoming from the entrance of the case and away from a warmth blasting graphics card. Moreover – admittedly it’s a comparatively small factor – however MSI deserves credit score for the masterful M.2 cooling mechanism for this slot. It depends on a easy latch mechanism, whereas nonetheless offering high quality cooling for a subsequent gen drive. It’s the perfect M.2 mounting configuration I’ve seen on any motherboard.
The board has eight fan headers, a entrance USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 type-C header and one other type-C header that may ship 60W of energy. To make use of this functionality, a 6-pin PCIe energy connector must be linked to the adjoining port.
Issues like twin BIOS, energy and reset buttons and debug LED are current, although very a lot anticipated on this value vary.
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The Ace features a 22+2+1 part VRM with 90A energy levels. Another boards have 110A levels, however make no mistake, the facility supply capabilities of high-end X670E boards are greater than sufficient to energy a liquid nitrogen cooled Ryzen 9 7950X CPU (opens in new tab). Even when future Zen 5 or Zen 6 processors someway find yourself consuming double the facility, the Ace gained’t even break a sweat.
I’ve typically praised Gigabyte for its finned heatsink designs. They’re proof that type and performance can mix collectively. MSI constructed the Ace with a finned heatsink design. It provides it a a lot bigger floor space that means cooling is much much less of a problem. In our testing, when looping a completely loaded 7950X, it was barely heat, with a studying of solely 45c. That’s glorious.
The rear I/O is spectacular, although notably it does lack USB4, which the Asus Crosshair X670E Hero (opens in new tab) and cheaper Asrock X670E Taichi each have. You do get a pair of Kind-C 3.2 Gen 2×2 ports although, one in every of which helps DP 1.4 with HBR3. There are at least 9 3.2 Gen 2 ports, which is sweet to see. The Ace comes with 10G LAN. Although maybe high-speed LAN is dropping some desirability with the appearance of sooner Wi-Fi 6E, it’s a godsend for customers with issues like NAS or pre-wired houses.
There’s additionally an fascinating button that MSI calls the Sensible Button. It may be programmed within the BIOS to reset the system, flip the Mystic Gentle RGB on or off, boot into secure mode or set all of the followers to run at full or default pace. Fairly useful that, although it could be of restricted use for a lot of except you have got straightforward accessibility to the rear I/O.
System Efficiency
Gaming Efficiency
As is sort of all the time the case, except there is a main downside, most boards with the identical CPU and chipset will carry out very equally to at least one one other, more often than not inside a margin of error, and that is once more the case right here.
Check rig
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
Graphics: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP Holo
RAM: 2x 16GB G.Ability Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 C30
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
Cooling: Cooler Grasp PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
PSU: Corsair AX1000
MSI’s BIOS has modified little in recent times, and why would it not? Its format is historically person pleasant whereas remaining absolutely featured.
Relatively than spend time on overclocking, which is 100% CPU cooling restricted, I examined ECO mode, which works nicely on the X670E Ace. For those who don’t like the concept of a 7950X pulling over 200W, you may set it a lot decrease. Heck you may set it to 65W if you’d like.
For all of the discuss of accelerating energy consumption and TDPs, experimenting with these instruments can considerably cut back cooling necessities and energy consumption.
A number of years in the past, a $500 motherboard was thought-about ridiculous, however now it’s no laughing matter. In equity to MSI although, it is not alone.
I just like the X670E Ace quite a bit. It’s acquired all the things you’d realistically want aside from USB4. It runs cool, it’s acquired some intelligent, progressive design options and it is acquired 10G LAN, but it surely’s additionally $699/ £849 / AU$1399 and that’s going to cease most consumers from even contemplating it when first rate non -E boards, Together with MSI’s personal X670-P might be had for half the value.
Regardless that {the electrical} complexities of PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 add expense to new motherboards, it is nonetheless dear. A number of years in the past, a $500 motherboard was thought-about ridiculous, however now it’s no laughing matter. In equity to MSI although, it is not alone. Each different producer has boards on this value vary, give or take.
However I’ve the sensation that prime pricing will not be round perpetually. Financial and provide chain points will subside (hopefully) and a board just like the X670E Ace might be anticipated to final for a few years although a number of CPU upgrades.
The Ace is Ace. It is a elegant and have wealthy product, but it surely’s not for everybody. When you have equally excessive finish elements to match with it, and you can also make use of its storage capabilities, 10G LAN and many quick non USB4 ports, you will be joyful, even when your pockets is not a lot.
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