This review is for the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi AMD AM4 motherboard.
My review of this board is with the following attached components installed in a Mid Tower 17 X 17.5 X 7.5 inch case with the PS on the bottom. I mention this because with the large VRM heat sinks I had to move the AIO radiator installed in the top of the case, all the way to the edge to get it as far away from the board as possible just so the fans will clear the VRM heat sink and the top of the RAM heat spreaders. The top of the heat spreaders on my RAM sit 1 and 3/8 inches above the top of the RAM slot. So if your case is similar to my sized case and you use liquid cooling, it will be nip and tuck if you want to keep the fans inside the case.
See pictures of the install. You will see that the upper VRM heatsink is under the AIO fans and the fan just clears the RAM .
Power Supply-750 Watt
CPU----------AMD Ryzen 3700x
Cooling------240 mm AIO liquid
GPU----------RTX 2080 Super
RAM----------32 GB DDR4 3200 16-18-18-36
Windows 10 --1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
Storage------512 GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2, 2 X 1 TB 2.5 in SSD, 3 X 2 TB 3.5 in HDD, one 4 TB HDD and 3 USB 3.0 HDDs
I had no luck with any kind of beneficial overclocking of the Ryzen 3700X or the RAM, which seems to be the normal experience with most who try. I choose not to loosen RAM timings to be able to overclock the RAM, I'm sure the RAM could have been pushed, but it did not make sense for me. By setting the strongest of the three prefigured overclock profiles in the BIOS I was able to increase consistent all core Boost performance to a constant 4.2 Ghz vs the + or - 4.0 it ran at default BIOS settings. I did get it to run at 4.3 under sustained boost for awhile, but it crashed immediately when I tried to go higher. I think that AMD has cranked about all you can get out of it so far as amateur overclockers like myself are concerned. I didn't really put a lot of effort into it as a couple of tenths was not going to make any difference that justified the occasional crash. I have tested it under stress for long periods using Furmark’s CPU stress test, which taxes the system more than Prime 95 does. It does reach the advertised 4.4 ghz boost under varying load, but at full 100 percent on all cores it will settle in at about 4.24 ghz.
Let’s go to the chipset and M.2 cooling fan. No worries. I have mine set to run at 1300 RPM all the time. That way the chipset will not get hot and it is quiet at that speed. Under the most stringent use transferring files, HWMonitor shows the System temp at 36degrees C , the chipset at 48 degrees, MOS at 40 degrees, PCIe at 33 degrees and the 4.0 M.2 at 32 degrees. I have three fans pushing air into the case and three exhausting air. So I think with the good airflow I have, it is staying at a safe temperature.
The board was easy to setup. After enabling A XMP in the BIOS it set my DDR4 3200 RAM at the proper speed and timings. I loved the fan control in the BIOS. You can set fan speed curves, full speed, do anything you want to either fan individually or all the fans together. You can choose the component board sensor for each fan that it is tied to. I found it much better than the iCue fan software that came with my AIO liquid cooler. It has a CPU, Pump and four system fan PWM connectors. What it does lack is enough USB 2.0 on board headers. I need two for my case and one for the AIO liquid heat sink, so I had to get a USB 2.0 splitter, which I have shown in one of the pictures. The board has both a USB 3.0 and 3.2 connector for external case connections.
I am using 2 16 GB sticks of RAM. so I can't comment on if it plays well with all the slots filled. It has the RGB headers for those of you who have lit cases and components. I didn't mess with them as my PC sits in a ventilated enclosure in my desk so no body sees it. The board is a good looking board. The built in I/O cover fit properly.
So far for my use, which is media editing heavy I am really happy. It may not be the best overclocking board, or maybe my 65 watt 3700X just doesn't have a lot of overhead to overclock. I bought it mainly because I need the fast file transfer speed that PCIe 4.0 provides. Need to note that only the one M.2 slot is 4.0 the other is 3.0. I bought a 1 TB 4.0 M.2 for the system and partitioned 250 GB for the system and use the rest as a working drive to load from and save to with Photoshop. I am getting 5500 MB/sec read speeds vs 3300 MB/sec read speeds with my Samsung PCIe 3.0 970 M.2. The system is unbelievably faster than I expected. PCIe 4.0 is going to be a major player in the next jump in PC performance. I suggest that you take advantage of this fast PCIe Bus and put a PCIe 4.0 SSD on it. Also when GPus start oversaturating the 3.0 PCIe bus capability, you will be able to benefit from those fast GPUs.
There have been some complaints about the WiFi, but I updated the BIOS before I installed Windows and it has worked just fine. Even from my garage where my workbench is. Also it isn't the quickest to post, but that could be because of it having to enumerate all the drives that I have attached.
So I think this is a good 200 dollar board for those who need WiFi and Bluetooth and buy the CPU and DDR4 speed RAM that they need and just let the board make it all work together with no fuss or worry about overclocking.