MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE Motherboard Review

Brandon Dodman / 3 years ago

It’s been a few months now since the launch of the Z690 chipset which brought support for DDR5 memory clocked up to a staggering 6666+Mhz, PCIe 5.0 that supports speeds of up to 32 GT/s which doubles the 16 GT/s speed limit of PCIe 4.0, this equates to an aggregate bandwidth of 126 Gbps. The new chipset also brings support for Intel’s newest 12th Gen processors. And with a new specification, there will always be someone who comes along and sets the bar for the high end of hardware.

With that being said, I’d like to introduce you to that bar. MSI has launched the MEG Z690 GODLIKE, a motherboard that’s so fully featured that it even comes with the memory you’ll need to use it. The important question to address here though is whether the high price tag is worth it, and will it last you long enough to justify that cost? Is this board going to prove worthy of the “Godlike” name or is it merely a false prophet?

MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE

The Godlike isn’t just a motherboard, it’s a statement. It features all of the most recent specifications that a motherboard can have and a whole host of additions that have you questioning if you’re even buying this for the motherboard and not the extras. The extras in question are threefold; the new and possibly revolutionary M-vision dashboard that can be used for quick motherboard setting changes even whilst in windows and can be used as quick access to launch default programs on your PC like web browsers and the calculator, I do question this though, how much faster can it really be than clicking on the icon with your mouse?

The final two extras are simply products that can be bought separately bundled in the box, this includes a dual-stick kit of DDR5 memory and a full fat 360mm AIO liquid cooler from MSI themselves. Unfortunately, however, for the sake of fairness in testing, we won’t be using either of those last two as the other boards we tested did not have these additions, so we will be using the same memory and cooler that we have used on the other boards so we can evaluate just the board and not the things it comes with.