MSI’s Z890 motherboard stack detailed and explored

Intel has pulled back the curtain on its Core Ultra 200S processors, destined for LGA 1851 sockets. Right on cue, manufacturers are now sharing the designs and specifications of their motherboards. During my recent visit to MSI, I got the chance to hold and learn about the company’s plans for Z890, the chipset debuting alongside Arrow Lake CPUs. There’s a lot to get through but plenty of exciting stuff to come.

MSI is launching eight Z890 motherboards, with its flagship MEG Godlike returning to lead the charge. Of course, the range offers something for everyone across the price spectrum. While the company is yet to disclose exact costs, its MAG, MPG, and MEG branding serve as useful indicators, alongside raw specifications, of which will be more affordable and expensive.

MEG Z890 Godlike

MEG Z890 Godlike. The big kahuna. The one motherboard to rule them all. This EATX board packs just about everything you could want from Z890 in terms of features and specifications. It has an awesomely robust 26+1+2+1-phase VRM design with 110A Smart Power Stage (SPS), as well as two Thunderbolt 4 ports spread across its front and rear I/O. It’ll naturally carry a price tag as befittingly heavy as its VRM heatsinks, but few models should be able to compete with its qualities.

Outside of the motherboard itself, MEG Z890 Godlike comes with several accessories too. Putting the board’s two full-bandwidth PCIe 5.0 x16 slots to good use, MSI includes an ‘M.2 Xpander-Z Slider Gen 5’ expansion card. While your GPU occupies the primary slot, this add-in board can house up to two PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs. Running at full capacity, this gives you the means to run up to a whopping four of the fastest drives on the market. Its detachable EZ-link design is surprisingly intuitive, speaking from experience, and its fan won’t spin unless it detects an M.2 device.

For the board’s PCIe x4 slot, MSI includes its Thunderbolt M5 add-in card. Plugged in, it gives you an additional four Thunderbolt 4 ports, increasing the total to six from two. Finally, the Dashboard LED USB accessory from previous iterations of MEG Godlike also returns.

MEG Z890 Ace

For those in search of Godlike-esque performance but with no need for the extra thrills its accessory suite offers, MEG Z890 Ace seems like the most logical option. Its specifications are similar to its bigger brother, with relatively small cuts in places like the VRM which rocks a 22+1+2+1 phase design instead. It’s also an ATX board, making it more compatible with a wider variety of cases.

Powerful as MEG Z890 Godlike will be, I actually prefer the aesthetics of Ace. It appears more refined and its golden triangles make me feel like I’m using a motherboard straight out of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I very much asked for this.

MEG Z890 Unify-X

For the stealthy enthusiast, there’s MEG Z890 Unify-X. While this board boasts the smallest VRM phase design at just 20+1+2+1, this should be on overclockers’ radars. This motherboard model has a storied history of breaking world records, with its Z690 predecessor most recently pushing 12900KS to a staggering 7,450.62MHz. Prior to that, it delivered an 8,670MHz overclock on some DDR5 RAM kits.

Strengthening its overclocking chops, MEG Z890 Unify-X also comes with an ‘OC Tuning Controller’. This little device gives you the means to power, reset, as well as tweak BCLK steps up or down via its four large face buttons, without having to interact with the board itself. It also features a clear CMOS button and a debug LED.

MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi

Sitting pretty at the top of the MPG stack, there’s Z890 Carbon WiFi. This beautiful big black block of a board’s VRM phase design is eerily close to MEG Unify-X, bar one. As such, there’s no doubt it can hang with the big boys when it comes to performance and has more than enough stones to handle Core Ultra 9 285K.

Had I a little extra cash to splash on an MSI motherboard, this would probably be my preferred option. I appreciate its stealthy aesthetic, making it easy to accommodate into a wide variety of builds. Not only that, I’m not one much for overclocking these days and much prefer knowing that my components will squeeze all they can from my processor without breaking the bank. Z890 Carbon WiFi ticks that box.

MPG Z890 Edge Ti WiFi

MSI is debuting two versions of its MPG Edge Ti WiFi motherboard, one ATX and the other ITX. The former is the most feature-rich model in the company’s lineup to feature a white colour scheme, with a 16+1+1+1 VRM phase design that should run as cold as its icy aesthetic under load.

MPG Z890I Edge Ti WiFi will have a ‘5-in-1 XPANDER’ add-in card at its disposal. It provides two additional USB Type-C ports, one 5Gbps and the other 20Gbps, as well as two SATA 6Gbps and a single PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot. It uses the board’s only PCIe expansion slot, mind, so it’s only useful if you’re forgoing a graphics card.

MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi

The peoples’ champ, and the only MAG motherboard in the stack, it’s Z890 Tomahawk WiFi. This will be the motherboard most people should watch out for. Not only will it be one of the more affordable models but its AMD counterpart, X870 Tomahawk WiFi, thoroughly impressed me earlier this year. I imagine this iteration will similarly impress.

For those of you that read my MSI motherboard factory tour, this is actually the model whose production line features in the piece. There’s a little Club386 trivia for you.

Pro Z890 WiFi

Pro Z890-A WiFi and its cutdown counterpart Pro Z890-P WiFi are less gaming motherboard and more aimed at professionals and businesses. Still, paired with something like a Core Ultra 5 processor, their specifications indicate they’ll perform just fine whatever task you throw at them.

These Pro series boards are the only other option available in the Z890 stack with a white colour scheme, aside from MPG Z890 Edge Ti WiFi. However, I expect the prices for each will be markedly different as their feature sets and specs are worlds apart (Pro Z890-P especially).

Z890 Gaming Plus WiFi

Finally, we have MSI’s entry-level Z890 Gaming Plus WiFi. It boasts all the core Z890 chipset features like Thunderbolt 4, as well as PCIe 5.0 across graphics and SSDs. However, it forgoes some of the more fanciful features you’ll find on higher-end models like EZ PCIe Release, in addition to a more standard VRM phase design of 14+1+1+1.

There you have it, everything you need to know about MSI’s Z890 motherboard lineup. We’ll update this piece with pricing as it pours in closer to release.

In the meantime, be sure to check back to Club386 for more on the latest Z890 motherboards and our upcoming Core Ultra 9 285K review.