#Msi meg creation plus#
#Msi meg creation windows#

Just like the Aorus, having a large I/O shield and eight DIMM slots doesn't leave a whole heap of space around the CPU socket, and just like that board, we couldn't mount the Cooler Master Wraith Ripper heatsink and tall memory modules together. Though it is E-ATX, the mass of features makes the MEG feel somewhat crowded. The features keep on coming with onboard power and reset buttons, the debug LED, further EZ Debug LEDs, DIMM LEDs, and an easy-to-use auto-overclocking knob right in the corner you notch it round to lift the speed a reasonable amount. Is it really necessary given that it takes up a dual-slot form factor, limits the amount of multi-GPU goodness, and is in addition to three board-based M.2 and heaps of traditional SATA storage? We'd rather have seen the cash spent on improving the I/O, as we'll explain further below. These all share the same x16 bandwidth, of course, but probably give rise to the 'creation' name, because we can imagine this board being loaded with storage used in a workstation/creator environment. It is, however, the M.2 Xpander-Aero which is powered by a PCIe 6-pin cable, connects to a physical x16 slot, and offers up a further four M.2 2280 bays. If a trio of slots isn't enough, MSI includes what on first glance appears to be a graphics card in the box. The all-in-one cooling covers a trio of M.2 slots (which can be set to either NVMe or, for older drives, SATA), and comparing like for like, keeps our WD Black NVMe SSD 16вЊ cooler than if left bare. MSI has been a champion of massive cooling around the chipset and it makes sense to anyone using multiple M.2 drives. Those wanting more can take advantage of the three-pin addressable and four-pin 5050 RGB LED headers. RGB is thankfully reasonably muted out of the box, appearing on the I/O shroud, that massive chipset-cum-M.2 heasink, and on the rear of the board, albeit only halfway up the side we can't see why MSI didn't extend it all the way.

#Msi meg creation windows#

As usual, they are all 4-pin and can be set to either PWM (speed-control signal) or DC (speed via voltage change) in the BIOS or Windows utility. All are dotted around the edge of the PCB expect SYSFAN1 which sits next to the DIMM slots. The devil is in the details because there is only a single CPU header, another for AIO coolers, a further five for additional fans, and then a further four extension headers. They weigh plenty and are securely screwed in, but we actually prefer the stacked-fin cooling employed by, say, Gigabyte because it increases usable surface area over the flat, single-block heatsinks here.Дual 8-pin power connectors have become de rigeur for high-end motherboards while cooling is covered by 10 fan headers. Speaking of cooling, keeping all these phases happy under heavy load are some of the beefiest heatsinks we've seen, with the pair surrounding the CPU socket connected via a heatpipe. You will run out of cooling prowess way before the power gives out, that's for sure. That's wonderfully overkill for any board and goes some way at explaining the ВЈ470 street price. Incidentally, for one-upmanship, the same controller can run quad phases, too, leading to a possible 32 on some future model. A closer examination reveals the MEG uses 16 Infineon (TDA21472) power stages run via an Infineon 8-channel (doubled, 8+0) IR35201 PWM controller. And these aren't the cheap and cheerful kind. There are, wait for it, a whopping 19 power phases on this E-ATX board - 16 for the CPU and three for the SOC. MSI pays particular attention to the power and cooling aspects. Premium is very much the theme with the Creation, of course, and it's littered with high-performance components.

#Msi meg creation plus#

Let's take a closer look.ДЇirst off, ВЈ470 may seem like an outrageous amount to pay for a consumer motherboard but the truth is that X399 starts at around ВЈ300 - MSI has a cut-down X399 SLI PLUS at this price point - and go north of ВЈ500. New uber CPU demands new boards, right?ДЄ classic example of this approach is the MSI MEG X399 Creation - a ВЈ470 monster that has numerous bells, whistles and some of the biggest heatsink yet seen on a consumer board. AMD says they are not strictly necessary because the boards from last year are up to the job, yet the same select manufacturers of the original X399 have upped their game by introducing beefier cooling and even more features than before. The release of AMD's most potent consumer CPU ever, the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, has ushered in a number of new, shiny X399 (TR4) boards.