Review

MSI Z390 GAMING EDGE AC Motherboard Review

Today we have the opportunity to review one of the top-end and latest Gaming motherboard from MSI supporting Intel's latest 9th and 8th generation of processors , the MSI MAG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC motherboard. A feature packed motherboard for all you gamers and pc enthusiasts.

MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC is nice looking motherboard which is full of sharp and salient lines reflecting gorgeous colors design, perfect balance between appearance and performance with Extended Heatsink Design, Core boost, Twin Turbo M.2, Front USB 3.1 Gen2 connector and Mystic Light

Now let's see what this MSI Z390 chipset gaming board have for us.

Features

• Supports 9^th / 8^th Gen Intel^® Core™ / Pentium^® Gold / Celeron^® processors for LGA 1151 socket
• Supports DDR4 Memory, up to 4400(OC) MHz
• Lightning Fast Game experience: 2x TURBO M.2, Intel Optane Memory Ready. Turbo USB 3.1 GEN2
• Set Core Power Free: Extended Heatsink Design, Core Boost, 8+4 pin CPU power connector, Game Boost, DDR4 Boost
• MYSTIC LIGHT: 16.8 million colors / 29 effects controlled in one click. MYSTIC LIGHT EXTENSION supports both RGB and RAINBOW LED strip.
• AUDIO BOOST 4 with NAHIMIC 3: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experience
• Dragon Center: A brand new software which integrates all MSI tools like GAME MODE, VOICE BOOST, LIVE UPDATE  with user friendly user interface. 

Specifications

Package

Board comes packed in big Black colour theme box securely. Looking at the front of the box, we see MSI logo with motherboard model no. At the rear of the box, we find that MSI goes into great detail on the specifications of the motherboard.

Inside the box

Beside motherboard, box includes a user manual booklet, a DVD driver disc, quick installation guide, a product registration card and two SATA cables (one straight and one angled).

Looks

Board is a solid build in the great looking black PCB with black and grey colour theme running across all over the board. Motherboard also feature big heatsinks over VRM and Chipset

Layout

Detailed layout of board.

1. LGA 1151 socket supporting Intel 9th and 8th generation processors

2. 4 DIMM Dual channel DDR4 memory slots supporting max. 64GB. Supports DDR4 4400(OC)/ 4300(OC)/ 4266(OC)/ 4200(OC)/ 4133(OC)/ 4000(OC)/ 3866(OC)/ 3733(OC)/ 3600(OC)/ 3466(OC)/ 3400(OC)/ 3333(OC)/ 3300(OC)/ 3200(OC)/ 3000(OC) / 2800(OC)/ 2666/ 2400/ 2133 MHz*

3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR)

4. 8-pin ATX 12V power connector and 4-pin ATX 12V power connector.

5. Back Panel Connectors

6. 7. 15. 1 x CPU Fan connector, 1x 4-pin Water Pump connector and 5 x System Fan Connectors with EZ Debug LED

8. USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port and 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 connectors (supports additional 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports)

9.6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors

10. 11. Front panel connector

12. 2 x USB 2.0 Connectors

13. Serial ports connector

14. 2 x 4-pin RGB LED connectors, 3-pin RAINBOW LED connector and 3-pin CORSAIR LED connector

16. Front panel Audio connector.

17. 2x M.2 slots

18. Expansion Slots.

3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16/x4/x1 modes), 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots

Removing Heat-sinks

MSI used dense and big aluminum heatsink in this board. Heatsinks base is having thermal pad installed.

Component Layout

Let's now see what all components MSI have planned for this board.

1. 2. 8 + 1stage CPU voltage regulator circuit uses pair of ON Semiconductor 4C024 and 4C029 MOSFETS with combined rating of 60A controlled by UPI Semiconductor uP9521P PWM Controller.

3. 2-Phase digital memory power supply section

4. Intel® Wireless-AC 9462 card, supports 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, MU-MIMO Rx, 2.4GHz/ 5GHz up to 433 Mbps and Bluetooth® 2.1, 2.1+EDR, 3.0,4.0, 5

5. Intel GI219V Gigabit LAN controller

6. NUVOTON NCT6797D – Super I/O Chipset

7. MSI Audio Boost Audio technology is powered by Realtek ALC1220P chip which is a high-performance multi-channel High Definition Audio Codec that delivers an good audio listening experience with up to 95dB SNR.

A semi-transparent line on motherboard separates the whole audio section from the rest of the board in order to minimize interference. In addition MSI also used Chemi-Con audio capacitors.

RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) suite is used for testing MSI High Definition audio against Asus Xonar U7 Sound card. You can see clearly the difference between Noise level, dynamic rang and Total harmonic distortion percentage produced by MSI High Definition audio.

RMAA Asus Xonar U7

RMAA Audio Boost Audio

8. Intel Z390 Chipset

9. NUVOTON NUC126NE4AE microcontroller based on the Arm® Cortex®-M0 core operates at up to 72 MHz. Seems to be used for RBG LED control function

10. MSI uses Windbond 2SQ128FVSQ a capacity of 128 Mb for storing UEFI BIOS.

Testing

BIOS

Bundled Software

Benchmarks

Overclocking

Power Consumption

Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.

Pros

• Nice big heatsinks
• Lot of Fan headers
• WiFi and Bluetooth onboard
• lot of RGB LED support
• Good Overclocking

Cons

• UEFI interface have every setting displayed in central small area. Like single windowed interface.

Conclusion

At a price tag of Rs. 17K, the MSI MAG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC motherboard is little bit expensive when compared with other MSI Z390 motherboards we reviewed recently. This broad performs similar to the lower priced MSI Z390 GAMING Plus, cost 3K extra with offering Intel® Wireless-AC 9462 WiFi and Bluetooth onboard. Overall MSI has done a nice job with MSI MAG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC motherboard offering nice collection of features for a good gaming build.

Manufacturers Info

Thanks.

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