Review on MSI MEG X570 ACE Motherboard - AMD AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2, AX Wi-Fi 6, 2.5G LAN, ATX by John Kahsar

This review is for the MSI Review discount program. With the release of the Ryzen 3000, I thought it was time to update my aging i5-4670k system. I settled on the 3800X and after a very positive experience with MSI settled on the x570 ACE as it was in the price range and had the features I needed. My new system: ⦁ 3800X(8C/16T) ⦁ MSI MEG ACE X570 ⦁ NZXT Kraken x62 AIO (yes, alignment of the logo in my picture needs to be corrected) ⦁ 16 GB Patriot Steel 3600 (2 x 8 GB) ⦁ Samsung EVO 970 M .2 PCI-E SSD⦁ Sapphire Pulse Vega 56⦁ EVGA 850W G3 PSU ⦁ Fractal Define R-6 Chassis ⦁ Windows 10 1903! Unpacking The following is included: ⦁ 4 SATA cables ⦁ RGB LED splitter cable ⦁ Corsair RGB and ARGB extension cables ⦁ Corsair RGB to ARGB adapter cable ⦁ WiFi antenna ⦁ M.2 screws ⦁ User Manual/Quick Start Guide ⦁ CD with drivers/ Apps⦁ The Wi-Fi antenna sticker set is impressive in that it allows you to place it on a desk for a better signal or place it next to your computer instead of screwing on antennas that are on the rear I/O plug in the bezel. Aesthetics ⦁ I love the black and gold circuit board theme. Derived from the Z87-G45 and I prefer this new color scheme over red and black. ⦁ The board looks and feels good. Machined aluminum heatsinks cover the M.2 slots and the VRM works well. ⦁ The I/O Mystic Light Infinity Mirror has seemingly endless configurations of color schemes and patterns. They advertise with the app with 16.8 million colors and 29 effects. Notable Features ⦁ 12+2 SOC VRMs using an IR35201 PWM controller running in a 6+2 configuration with doublers. The power stages use IR3555, each capable of handling 60A for a total of 720A. That will be more than enough to overclock the 3950X coming this year.⦁ Chipset heatsink with Frozr cooling. It looks like MSI put a lot of effort into creating a good chipset cooler that will hopefully stand the test of time. There is also a heat pipe from the MOS heatsink to the chipset. Personally, I can't hear the fan even with my heatsink/video card/chassis fans set to very low speeds. ⦁ Clear CMOS button on the rear I/O panel. Great feature for overclockers without having to open the case to reset the CMOS. ⦁ BIOS update. Update the BIOS without a processor - just below the Clear CMOS button. Currently not useful IMO. Maybe that means Ryzen 4000 will also be on AM4?⦁ BIOS zip. Another big future for overclockers. Easier to troubleshoot than those stupid debug LEDs. I want the BIOS zip to be on the top of the motherboard. Below, the GPU can block your view unless you're looking directly at it. ⦁ Default I/O shielding. It's nice not having to mess around with those shields anymore. ⦁ MSI Boost Disk. A small button on the motherboard that allows you to use MSI's preset overclocking profiles. I haven't personally used this as some users report higher voltages than necessary when doing this. Specifications ⦁ 3 PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. All 3 slots support 4x PCIe - 2 are provided by the chipset and 1 by the CPU. ⦁ 4 SATA ports with support for RAID 0,1 and 10. 4 SATA ports may seem small to some people, but for me I've exclusively switched to M.2 ⦁ 2 full-length PCIe 4.0 slots (x16 or x8 / x8) from CPU and 1 full-length PCIe 4.0 x4 over chipset.⦁ 7 4-pin fan headers.⦁ Supports 4 DIMMs up to 4800MHz. I haven't tested RAM overclocking yet. Enabled the XMP profile for my Patriot RAM and it worked flawlessly. We'll check later. ⦁ 5 USB 3.2 (Gen 2, 3A+2C) + 6 USB 3.2 (Gen 1) + 6 USB 2.0 ports⦁ Intel LAN 1GbE⦁ Realtek LAN 2.5GbE⦁ WiFi/BT - Intel 6 AX200⦁ 8- Realtek -Channel audio with BIOS audio boost BIOS navigation was a very familiar scene as it resembles my Z87-G45 BIOS screen. The circuit is easy to understand, especially in the overclocking area. The only thing I have is a lag when using a USB mouse, but that is very negligible in my opinion. Overclocking The first thing I did after installing Windows/drivers/etc. tried was overclocking. As it stands, the Zen2 looks like a mediocre overclocker judging from other reviews and Reddit posts I've followed. However, I was easily able to get my 3800X at 4.4GHz, all cores at 1.325V, and all other settings on Auto. I tried downgrading from 1.4v to 4.5 but the system crashed when trying to run the stress tests. For now I'm leaving it at 4.4, but in the future I'll try to bring it up to 4.5 and play around with LLC and other voltage settings. My CPU temperature under load is around 45-50C. The chipset runs stable at 54 degrees Celsius and hardly fluctuates. Summary Overall I like this board. Judging by the looks, features, and familiar BIOS screen, I'm glad I chose MSI again. It's an expensive fee for some, but since I only renew it every 5-6 years, it's worth it for me. As mentioned above, the only complaints I have are the BIOS zip file, 4 SATA ports which may not be enough for some people, and the BIOS is slow when using a mouse.