Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is the second best Z490 Motherboard on the market! The first being the MSI Godlike. This is my 3rd motherboard in the MEG series and this Z490 MEG is the best one one so far. The VRAM's are top quality! If overclocking is your things, then is the board for you! I run a i9-10900K and achieve 5.3GHz all core with this board. Improvement over the Z390 ACE IMO is this Z490 has 3 frozr M.2 slots whereas the MEG Z390 ACE only had 1. The board is well laid out and the MSI BIOS IMO is the best due to it is very user friendly, easy to navigate and well thought out unlike other board MFG's such as ASUS that uses a terrible BIOS layout. The built in WIFI is top quality and i never drop my connection when using it. It also has 1GHz LAN and 2.5GHz LAN. RGB looks awesome and has a selector switch by the FP_1 header to turn it off if you wish. The only complaint on this board that changed from the MEG Z390 ACE is it only has one USB 3.0 header whereas the MEG Z390 ACE had two. So keep that in mind when selecting a case to drop this in. MSI boards are the only boards i use in my builds and they have not let me down in 15 years.

Simple setup with 10900k. Paired with Msi 360core aio worked great. Msi mystic lighting paired well with TT tower and trident royal ram.

Great product, although it should probably cost 100 less. No problems and looks great. If you're on a budget, there are cheaper motherboards with the same or better performance.

Very good performance Very good performance Very goog

I did a lot of research before buying this board. I wanted at least M.2 slots, 2 Ethernet ports, and current choices for usb including 3.2, 3.2x2 etc. I did not need a video option for onboard as I always use a discrete video card. The new 10th Generation Intel CPUs run hotter and take more power than recent CPUs, so the power solution on this board with its 16+1 phases with 90A Smart Power Stage, dual CPU power connectors and exclusive Mirrored Power Arrangement was an important factor to me. That, the features with usb options, and the over-all great quality guided my choice to this board. All the boards with similar features are in the same price range, which is higher than normal because the boards do require more power and COVID virus had backed up manufacturing. They all have the same number of SATA and a lot in common in features. The power, quality and options fit what I needed. There are some boards in the same price range that don't have the same quality power, and don't have updated features. I wasn't looking for RGB lighting, but it is kind of fun. Again, because the 10th Gen Intel CPUs run hotter, I goat and All In One water cooling solution for the CPU. I got a Corsair, and the lighting on the board happens to have a Corsair solution built in. I would have liked a couple more SATA ports, especially since using M.2 drives reduces the number of SATA ports available. A 10 GB ethernet port would have been expected at this price level as well as one video input. The trade offs to not have those but other features many did not have helped me to choose this board. The heft and quality of the board is even better than expected. I have built a lot of systems for my self and 3 teenage boys. This is easily the nicest board I have ever worked with, the nicest I've ever owned, quality and looks. And I never get cheap boards, so that is high praise. There are lots of reviews including this board and they all rate it highly and competitive with other high end boards out there, in features and performance, and it is always in the top tier for quality. I will do a follow up review on performance after this is broken in and over clocked as well. For now, I am a fan and highly recommend it as well. Great quality, easy to install and configure. Best Buy was quick to get it shipped to a local store for pickup. Thumbs up all around. SB

Pros: 1. Very good VRM so it can support extreme overclock in lower temp and stable use, 16 phase all for cpu core. 2. Nice build quality all around, even the cable for WIFI is strong. 3.Doesn't use Intel 2.5gb ethernet but Realtek 2.5Gb ethernet because some news said Intel 2.5Gb ethernet is not stable for some batches. Just in case. 4. Build-in fan for VRM cooling, and it will stop during low temp for quiet use. 5. Fully support pcie 4.0 for intel 11th cpu. Con: 1. No power for cpu's graph card, if you need quick sync from intel gpu please choose MSI Godlike for VGT support. 2. M2_1 port is not disk 0 when M2_2 and M2_3 are used, but they all work very well. Just weired index ordering: M2_2 < M2_3 < M2_1. Maybe because of PCIE 4.0 switch, IDK. Overall: If you don't need GPU from intel cpu and you don't have OCD on M2 disk indexing(not m2 disk label), it's definitely a very good product with good quality and full functions. This review is for the MSI Review Rebate Program.

USB port died after two years, for as expensive as this one is? This is horrible.

I knew I wanted an MSI board as I have had them in my last few builds and the have always performed well. I ended up with this one because of limited supply due to covid-19 but boy am I glad I did. Right away when I opened the box and removed it from the packaging I could tell that this was one board that MSI had put some effort into building. The M.2 Frozn cooling that they have built into the board just flows right into the other heat sinks which are joined by a heat pipe. Then there is a massive chest plate on the underside that complements it all, something that lesser boards do not usually have. Add in the RGB ligthing effects and this is one beautiful looking motherboard. There are 3 M.2 slots that support the latest drives with blazing speed of up to 32Gbs which I installed the newest 970 EVO plus in one of them. Then there are the 2 ethernet ports one with 2.5G and the standard gigiabit speeds, plenty more than I will need in the near future. I have to also give it up to the great intel wifi offering that this board comes with : Intels Wifi 6 AX201. Coming from using one of MSI's laptops that included software that utilized all of the wifi cards features, I wish there was some sort of software included here that let you do the same. I think that there are some features included with the Dragon Gaming software that utilizes some of the wifi features but I have not been able to use them as the Dragon Gaming software has not been wanting to play nice with the rest of my build (something that has been an issue with that software for me in the past as well). All in all I would say that if you are looking for a feature packed board that is built well then go with this one. There are many other things that it includes that I have not even touched on like the many USB ports that it has and the fact that I was able to plug in all of my case fans onto the board which also has controls for them individually. You will not be sorry if you purchase this one. This review is for the MSI Review Rebate Program.

If you're looking for a good high-end board, this is the one. Great VRM cooling and lots of new features. The only thing I dont like is Intel CPU which has terrible power consumption but other than that the Z490 ACE is incredible good board. A+

This mobo goes great with my i7. Overclocking it is a cinch and there are lots of slots for everything you could possibly think of. The wifi is also superb for a board that has it built in. I am seriously considering upgrading to the Godlike but I'm very satisfied with this one for now.

Snagged this for its features, though I probably didn't need them all. Black friday came through and the value at $305 was right. Pros: it's solid, performance is great, documentation is friendly and complete, support and registration seem good. There's a plug for everything and they're all in nice places. I didn't have to route anything underneath- every cord plugged in right at the edge and went right out the back of my case. I found everything I needed in the BIOS (I updated flawlessly). Cons: Dragon Center. I had notions about how bad it would be, but it's bulky hot garbage. I did everything I could in the BIOS rather than dragon center, but RGB is tied to Mystic Light, which is integrated into dragon center, which has bulky installs that tag along like unwanted siblings. God forbid mystic light properly integrates my RAM and GPU. Only one other immediate con: the top m.2 is right above my gpu that has intake on the bottom which has me wondering if it's air-frying my drive. I'm moving air across it best I can, and the board has built-in heat spreaders for all three m.2 slots. Samsung Magician is mad about it, but quick googling shows that my temps are actually normal. Idk. Overall: I would buy it on sale again. I would slightly change how I built it however, by grabbing all of my drivers and chipset updates direct from Intel.

Great motherboard, significantly better than Asus in my opinion.

Purchased this motherboard for a new PC build, and I couldn't be happier. Paired this with an Intel i9-10900k and have had zero issues. only downside I see is it's a little pricey, but you get what you pay for.

MSI's MEG Z490 ACE motherboard based on Intel's Z490 chipset gets fully tested. It's probably one you can add to your list.

I am very happy with this purchase. This was kind of pricey but in my opinion it was well worth the expense!

Haven’t had any issues pairing with a 10900K, everything has run smoothly.

Excellent motherboard. Make sure to do your research on any technology you plan on buying. Just because the cost is more doesn’t mean it’s the best. Some advice.