MSI Z490 Motherboard Preview

MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE

Tired of mucking about with those sexy high-end boards? Is it time to step up to the power of the gods themselves? Then empty your wallet and go for something like the MEG Z490 GODLIKE. Just from the picture on the front of the box, you know this is going to be something pretty special.

The box folds out, showing off the Mytic Light, Dual Thunderbolt 3, and their built-in OLED display called Dynamic Dashboard II.

You also get this M.2 Xpander-Z Gen 4S card, allowing for ultra-fast Gen4 storage over PCIe should you need to really amp things up.

Jaws on the floor, look at that beast! The heatsinks on the motherboard are as big as they could possibly be without coming out with a new form factor. I love the mirror finish on the rear I/O shield and the chipset too, albeit as you saw on the box picture, there’s a lot of RGB tech hidden behind the shine too.

Those big heatsinks need big support too, so you’ll find they’re securely braced with an extended heatsink on the back too. Plus, there are two metal strips with big screws holding the VRM heatsinks firmly in place too.

Their Frozr Heatsink design looks great, and it crams in a LOT of fins for a massively increased surface area. That’s important too, given that the power hardware can drive 90 amps through the Digital PWN 16+1+1 phase design.

All that power will come from a pair of 8-pin headers, although I would have liked to see these armoured and not just plastic.

Further down the motherboard, you’ll find three M.2 mounts, all with various shapes and sizes of heatsink covering them. However, it all merges into that big heatsink on the chipset too.

There are three full-size PCIe lanes, again they’re Gen4 ready like all the other Z490 stuff, albeit to which extent can depend on the CPU used.

Another mirror finish here, albeit it’ll show the GODLIKE logo in RGB flames when powered on.

There are built-in power controls down here, as well as an additional 6-pin to add stability to the PCIe lanes for overclocking.

There’s also an extremely well-equipped rear I/O. Here you’ll find a plethora of USB ports, as well as a pair of ultra-fast Thunderbolt ports. Networking comes in two sizes, huge and enormous, thanks to a 2.5 GbE and 10GbE LAN connector. There’s also 802.11ax WiFi thrown in for good measure.