Great compared to the competition, but not so much against its cheaper siblings.
IT’S NO MYSTERY that here at Maximum PC, we aren’t exactly fans of super-expensive motherboards. In a world where bang for your buck is king, $700 super mobos that typically shouldn’t act more than a fancy interconnect aren’t what we’d consider ‘good investments’ long term. After all, these are exactly that—interconnects that are going to house the latest and greatest components. They are without a doubt luxury items, and the MSI MEG Z790 ACE MAX is exactly that—filled to the brim with the latest gadgets and gizmos built to woo that hard-earned cash from your wallet.
Asaunit,thisthingisamonster.Ataretail price of just $700 (on par with the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero), there are very few boards out there that pip this thing on aprice front, and it shows. This is absolutely brimming to the hilt with added features and extras you’re not likely to find for $300 (not in the last couple of generations of chipsets, anyway). There’s a 24+1+2 power phase design, dual 2.5Gb lan ports, WiFi 7 as standard, impressive thermal cooling solutions, aluminum backplates, aplethora of M.2 ports (including twin PCIe 5.0 slots + a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot), and support for DDR5 up to 7,800 MT/s.