Sunday, September 22nd 2024
MSI's Upcoming MEG Z890 Unify-X Motherboard Leaks Ahead of Launch
Detailed specifications and a somewhat blurry slide showing off all the details of MSI's upcoming high-end MEG Z890 Unify-X motherboard have leaked courtesy of @ChamberTech_ on X/Twitter. The motherboard is likely to appeal to those looking to squeeze every extra bit of performance out of their new Ultra 200K series CPU when they launch next month. You get support for memory speeds of up to 10,000 MT/s and with only two DIMM slots, it might be able to go even higher with the latest DDR5 CUDIMMs. The board also sports a 110 Ampere 20+1+1+1 VRM design on an eight layer PCB, and it also ships with what MSI calls an OC Tuning Controller, suggesting the board is targeting overclockers.
MSI has included a pair of PCIe 5.0 x16 slots for GPUs that presumably operate in dual x8 mode when both slots are in use, and a third PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates in x4 mode, as well as a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. There's also no less than six M.2 slots, of which two are PCIe 5.0 and one PCIe 4.0, as well as six SATA ports. Where things get a bit interesting is in the network connectivity, as the slide claims that the board features a 5 Gbps Intel Killer Ethernet interface, which is the first we've heard of such a thing, as well as an Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 module for wireless connectivity.
Connectivity doesn't stop there though, as the board also has a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, one front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) USB-C header with 60 W USB PD support and 10 USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) USB port, of which two are USB Type-C. The Unify-X also features a Realtek ALC4080 audio codec and a pair of old school PS/2 ports for a keyboard and mouse. Other niceties are a full set of buttons around the rear for flashing and resetting the BIOS, as well as a debug LED display, which MSI seems to prefer to place right next to the power connector, just as we've seen on the previous leak of upcoming MSI boards. Also present is the somewhat mysterious ATX 3.1 power connector for additional power to the GPU, which MSI so far is the only motherboard manufacturer to have added to its boards.
Source:
@ChamberTech_
MSI has included a pair of PCIe 5.0 x16 slots for GPUs that presumably operate in dual x8 mode when both slots are in use, and a third PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates in x4 mode, as well as a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. There's also no less than six M.2 slots, of which two are PCIe 5.0 and one PCIe 4.0, as well as six SATA ports. Where things get a bit interesting is in the network connectivity, as the slide claims that the board features a 5 Gbps Intel Killer Ethernet interface, which is the first we've heard of such a thing, as well as an Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 module for wireless connectivity.
24 Comments on MSI's Upcoming MEG Z890 Unify-X Motherboard Leaks Ahead of Launch
I MUCH prefer PS2 ports because even if the USB controller goes out you can still use it, if for nothing else than ordering it's own replacement.
Went through that with an Asus board - The USB controller went bad and the board was unuseable due to a USB "Voltage out of range" error the board was throwing.
So no, if you want it all USB that's your choice but it ain't mine and frankly I"ll pay a little extra TO HAVE PS2 port(s) if it comes down to it.
Also:
I guess you missed it about the board being for OC'ing, having the ability to use the board while disabling USB does help in some benchmarks because there are certain "Benefits" if you disable USB on the board.
I presume the Unify-X's will be the same - these are so you can run benchmarks on older OSes that no longer support the modern USB controllers like XP.
Would you have to give or take some of these items, take advantage of some of them, and ignore the others?
Boards like the Aorus Tachyon, ROG Apex and the MEG Unify-X series aren't meant for 24/7 use on your flashy gaming rig, even though they can do that - so most folks will generally be better served by opting by a board like the MEG Ace/Godlike, ROG Hero/Formula or Aorus Master/Xtreme boards instead. They're more flexible, have better audio codecs, 4 memory slots often more PCIe slots.
-has no on and safeboot buttons,
yeah... no.
I mean apart from that I avoid to oc on msi just for the sake of their godawful bios layout.
Obviously it will not "collapse" if you connect too many things. Linus Tech Tips did a video where they tried to overload the system by connecting massive amount of USB devices:
Who actually needs 4 DIMM slots these days? Is 96GB (128GB hopefully soon) not enough with two slots?
I think motherboard manufacturers could implement a thing or two from the XOC boards to most of their lineup. Starting with 1 DIMM per channel.
Memory speed matters far more than memory capacity for consumer use. Workstation and server focused boards could still use four slots.
I would say the only thing XOC boards are really lacking are USB ports. Other than that i see them as pretty much fully featured with not much missing.
I am satisfied with what these XOC boards offer feature-wise (I built a gaming PC designed for extreme performance with a singular focus on that), but they might not be the best choice for everyone given the bare feature set and very high price (they cost as much as the ultra high end board). My previous Z690 Ace was a better board in some respects, like dual LAN, more M.2 slots, etc.
With AM5 there are (were?) only three boards with Dual-BIOS. Two are MSI models costing
700+1500+ and one was made in limited quantities and is essentially unavailable. One or both of these MSI models is now EOL or soon will be and thus the absurd prices. Only one was actually with 1DPC. The others were just high end boards with Dual-BIOS thrown in (without the switches).With Intel LGA1700 there are 10 boards with Dual-BIOS and staring at less than 200 for Z790. Try imagining X670E or much less X870E with Dual-BIOS for less than 200...
Four of those are XOC boards and three of those cost around 500 which sound like a bargain compared to AMD boards. Two also have BIOS switches and with two different chipsets no less.
I also very much doubt MSI will bring back the Unify line to AM5 like they had it with AM4. And with this, Tachyon and Apex available for Intel (at cheaper prices too) i feel like motherboard manufacturers are simply not interested in AMD XOC.
Don't get me wrong. I like AMD CPU's. I use 5800X3D myself and it's amazing but the motherboard prices and features...
I swear this is hurting AMD more than any underwhelming Zen 5 launch they could do. DDR5 prices have fallen, CPU prices have fallen but AM5 motherboard prices are as high as ever. And no i don't count launching A620 that is maybe 10 bucks cheaper than B650 as some sort of great achievement.
I have not used any GB or Corsair keyboards so i cant speak to that but i've heard the Corsair iCUE software is "problematic".
My problems seem to be centered around NIC's more than anything. My current Realtek 2.5G NIC used to be fine but after moving to Win11 (after 23H2 update) it's has issues where it randomly goes down and needs to be disabled/enabled. Manually limiting to 1G reduced these occurrences but they're still there. Have gone trough like five plus different driver versions and nothing. I can only conclude that it's 23H2's fault.
Not that Intel NIC's are any better. I had previously issues with their NIC on Win10. No it was not the infamous 225 series but and earlier 211. It was a while ago so i dont remember what the actual problem was but that's when i started to use Realtek instead. Now this has developed issue too. And it's not like there's a sea of these to choose from. I will likely have to go 3rd party with an addon card like Aquantia 10G to see what that's like.
PS/2 is stable and low-latency, and works flawlessly in the BIOS menu etc. Not to mention the greatest keyboards of all time use PS/2.I assume 4 of those M.2s are through the chipset, along SATA, Ethernet, USB, etc., so you're probably running those M.2 slots at x1 lanes. (what a waste…)
But once again, they would be much better off providing these as PCIe slots, so the end-user could choose to use them for any kind of expansion cards etc.
Plus having 6 SSDs under that metal blob will result in terrible cooling. These "stupid" motherboard designs needs to end.As you allude to, 2 DIMMs per channel works poorly for DDR5 without compromising speed, whether it's mainstream, workstation or server segments. While there are probably users who don't mind downgrading speed for higher capacity, I'm fine with some motherboards dropping this. For some inexperienced enthusiasts with overclocked memory, this might actually prevent them from having major issues after adding more memory.
With current CPUs you downgrade to 4400 MHz (from 5600 MHz JEDEC speeds) with 2 DIMMs per channel. I would hope Arrow Lake moves to at least 6400 MHz (Xeon 6 supports 6400 MHz by comparison), but considering how sensitive DDR5 is at higher speeds, the downgrade with two DIMMs might be actually greater.
Whether 96 GB is enough? That depends on the user. But heavy web browsing alone can easily fill 64 GB today, and the way things are going it wouldn't be long before 96 GB is too little. I would say power users planning to use a such system for ~5 years should buy the largest DIMMs they can, as it will affect the longevity of the system.
As for comparison with the Apex Encore specifically (not sure about the OG Apex) - this Unify-X board is pretty much identical aside from the CPU socket type and a slightly better 5 Gbps NIC.