Review on MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Plus: Ultimate Gaming Motherboard with 10th Gen Intel Core, DDR4, Dual M.2 Slots, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Mystic Light RGB, and 2.5G LAN by Jennifer Pimentel

Since the two reviews seem to be mixed up, I'll start by saying that this is the Z590 version. Buckle up too, as I tend to be verbose with my reviews and I'm very passionate about it! 7 months ago I decided to do a PC overhaul because my CPU was a serious bottleneck. For context, I use my computer for gaming, game recording, heavy video editing, and streaming. Of course, part of the upgrade was getting a new processor (I9-10900k). So I needed a new motherboard with an LGA 1200 slot. I initially chose the ASUS Rog Strix Z490-F because every review site has ASUS boards at the top. I thought I would "research". I recently found out that most of these websites don't use products. You just search for what's hot here on Revain, copy the spec sheet, and write the Best Motherboards article. Anyway, I received the board and other components, assembled them perfectly, downloaded all the software and raced. At least that's what I thought. Between horribly bloated software and problems with almost everything I tried to connect to USB, it took a long 7 months. I won't go into detail as this is related to an ASUS board review. I will say that after 7 long months I decided to try another motherboard and am very glad I did! be different/clearer than those in the box. Otherwise, you might miss which slots you can and can't use depending on your setup. I've seen this confuse other reviewers. Please also update the BIOS before booting Windows for the first time. It's currently a newer board and some of the early updates. It is important. This is very easy. I couldn't get the Easy Flash button to work, but it worked fine with the BIOS update option on startup (read the manual and you'll see what I mean :). I wrote the BIOS update to a flash drive and the latest drivers and software to an external hard drive while waiting for the board to arrive. I immediately noticed that there was significantly less malware on this board. There is a lot of software available, but little is needed. After installing it, I crossed my toes and started testing every device I was having trouble with. And they all just worked! Not in the way Todd at Bethesda said Fallout 76 would be, but it actually worked! It was a great relief to find a product that didn't take hours, days, months to work with the various PC components I have. Just that, but I'm not kidding, I get 10-15 FPS more in the Heaven Gaming test. Simply by switching to this board! Now I don't know if it's because it's Z590 vs Z490? Honestly I don't care. It is better! I wish I had just gotten an MSI board to start with. We used an MSI board to build my wife's PC and it has always worked. Now I know and so do you! Hooray :)