If you happen to’ve been fascinated by a brand new construct, you’ve in all probability seen that prime finish motherboard pricing has taken yet one more upward step. Although not the costliest X670E motherboard when it comes to value, there are solely a handful with the next worth than the MSI MEG X670E Ace. At $699 / £849 / AU$1399, it’s eyebrow elevating regardless of the way you take a look at it. In equity to MSI, different producers’ boards are costly too, and you actually do get a number of motherboard on your cash. However, is it well worth the asking worth?
The MEG sequence is MSI’s high-end product tier. The MEG X670E Ace is second solely to the way more costly MEG X670E Godlike (opens in new tab) in MSI’s motherboard vary. At a daft $1,299 for the Godlike, the $699 Ace appears low-cost as compared. However it nonetheless must set itself aside if it is to justify its value, and fortunately, the Ace consists of some glorious options, and a few good little touches that assist to justify that hefty worth.
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 ensure your case helps it. MSI retained the gold highlights which might be widespread to earlier Ace boards. Key highlights embrace 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 robust VRM with glorious cooling capability and excessive spec audio and also you’ve received a board that ought to see you thru Zen 5, Zen 6 and possibly even Zen 7 upgrades. You may make sure 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
Kind issue: E-ATX
Reminiscence assist: 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 pleased with that, although in case you 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 form 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 an extra 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 incorporates a stable heatsink and cooling fan. If this factor doesn’t preserve subsequent gen NVMe drives cool, nothing will. It’s even received 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 a fantastic concept to put 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 related to the adjoining port.
Issues like twin BIOS, energy and reset buttons and debug LED are current, although very a lot anticipated on this worth vary.
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The Ace features a 22+2+1 section 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 one way or the other find yourself consuming double the facility, the Ace received’t even break a sweat.
I’ve usually praised Gigabyte for its finned heatsink designs. They’re proof that kind and performance can mix collectively. MSI constructed the Ace with a finned heatsink design. It provides it a a lot bigger floor space which means cooling is much much less of a difficulty. In our testing, when looping a totally 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 among which helps DP 1.4 with HBR3. There are a minimum of 9 3.2 Gen 2 ports, which is nice to see. The Ace comes with 10G LAN. Although maybe high-speed LAN is dropping some desirability with the appearance of quicker 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 velocity. Fairly useful that, although it is likely to 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 nearly 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.
Take a look at 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 lately, 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 effectively on the X670E Ace. If you happen to don’t like the concept of a 7950X pulling over 200W, you’ll be able to set it a lot decrease. Heck you’ll be able to set it to 65W if you would like.
For all of the speak of accelerating energy consumption and TDPs, experimenting with these instruments can considerably cut back cooling necessities and energy consumption.
Just a few years in the past, a $500 motherboard was thought-about ridiculous, however now it’s no laughing matter. In equity to MSI although, it isn’t alone.
I just like the X670E Ace rather a lot. It’s received every thing you’d realistically want other than USB4. It runs cool, it’s received some intelligent, modern design options and it is received 10G LAN, nevertheless it’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 could be had for half the worth.
Regardless that {the electrical} complexities of PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 add expense to new motherboards, it is nonetheless dear. Just a few years in the past, a $500 motherboard was thought-about ridiculous, however now it’s no laughing matter. In equity to MSI although, it isn’t alone. Each different producer has boards on this worth vary, give or take.
However I’ve the sensation that prime pricing will not be round endlessly. Financial and provide chain points will subside (hopefully) and a board just like the X670E Ace could 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, nevertheless it’s not for everybody. When you’ve got equally excessive finish elements to match with it, and you can also make use of its storage capabilities, 10G LAN and plenty of quick non USB4 ports, you will be joyful, even when your pockets is not a lot.
