MSIMEG Z690 ACE Gaming Motherboard (E-ATX, 12th Gen Intel Core, LGA 1700 Socket, DDR5, Thunderbolt 4, PCIe 5, Dual 2.5G LAN, M.2 Slots, Wi-Fi 6E)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most expensive z690 ITX motherboard seems to be the best! Superficially, I’m a fan of the all black design and the clean backplate and installation of components is simple enough (all ITX boards are equally fiddly in this respect). For me, the big pros are:- Thunderbolt/USB4 with miniDP for direct injection of video from your GPU into the Thunderbolt channel without incurring a performance cost- excellent flexibility over storage - obviously no pcie 5 storage on z690, but I’m happy to gamble that we’re likely a few years away from peak pcie 5 SSDs and pcie 4 will suit my needs for the life of this build- solid MSI uefi interface and features- great air cooler compatibility - this was the real decider for me between this and the ASUs strix z690i, which basically requires using liquid cooling or a tiny air cooler (not ideal on a performance board). For me, a big noctua air cooler is a strong preference due to similar performance to liquid cooling, low/no risk of mechanical failure and quieter running. This board was the only premium z690 itx that fit the bill for me.Overall quite pleased - most other features are not unique to this board. I’m using a 12600k at stock, so although the solid power delivery is nice, wasn’t essential for me.A couple of minor points to consider:- the heat sink on the m.2 slot up top requires a double sided SSD to work as intended - single sided drives won’t touch the heat spreader without DIY adding thermal pads.- not unique to this board (limits of ITX) but additional system fan headers would have been nice. As it is, I run all three through a splitter off one head, which gives less fine control, but probably doesn’t make a differenceHope you find this helpful, although I know z790 is just around the corner…

Fast delivery excellent product.

The media could not be loaded. After over 12 months the motherboard just kept cutting off and then stopped working.

Chulada de Mother, lástima que no tiene conectores Argb

Todo funciona de maravilla, solo que me llegó la caja un poco malatrata, pero todo está en perfectas condiciones.

This is an awesome board. Very high end, very heavy & sturdy. It barely bends, has metal back plate to make it even more sturdy.Just built a PC with a 12th gen Intel Core i7 12700k, 48gb DDR5 RAM, and a 1tb M.2 NVME drive, it fired right up. Great BIOS.Highly recommend. I got it new for $250, so it was an incredible deal, it had everything it was supposed to come with, and completely new board with the plastic still covering chipset & heatsinks.

I originally bought this board because its the only board devoid of all the gamer graphics and ugly designs that have become commonplace. After reading a handful of reviews that people couldn't update their BIOS unless they had a 12th gen, I took a leap of faith and bought this on Warehouse. I was starting a build for a friend with the 12th gen processor anyways so I had a fallback. The BIOS version it shipped with was from 1/23 and I was able to update the BIOS to the latest 9/23, no problem.With that being said, this board has a lot of features that are outlined in other reviews. My only complaint with this board is it's in the MEG lineup, which commands a premium price. Instead of including a bunch of stickers and cables I won't use, give me two options for the I/O plate. I understand it's against the grain of industry standard, but I would've loved to see a raw metal backplate with different color sticker overlays aside from black.

In my opinion this is best Z690 motherboard and I've owned both Asus and EVGA Z690 boards also.