MSI MEG Z490I Unify Gaming Motherboard (LGA 1200, Intel 10th Gen, M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2, DDR4, Wi-Fi 6, SLI, CFX, Gigabit LAN, Thunderbolt 3, Mini-ITX)

power delivery is very robust, 16 phase, looks to be in 8 phase with doubling.There is no +1 here, so keep in mind, there is no System On Chip (SOC) power delivery, this means you must use a discrete graphics card, you cannot plug into the board for video output regardless of whether your Intel CPU has an Integrated Graphics Processing Unit (IGPU) or not. Thankfully MSI did not put any video outputs in the Input/Output (IO), so you could not even if you wanted you.The board appears to be memory overclocking focused, as it uses an 8 layer Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and MSI's excellent memory topology. it also includes a CMOS reset button, an LED post code indicator that doubles as a processor temperature readout, a memory retry pin out, and general error LED's. Along with a bunch of other nice OC features. The power delivery is substantial, though input filtering seems rather lightly done considering the beefy Voltage Regulator Module (VRM). There are very few ceramic filters in the socket area, so voltage may be somewhat "dirtier" than a board with more aggressive filtering. That being said its doubtful it would matter until your well into Liquid Nitrogen levels of overclocking. Overall the board is excellent and works well with my 10700K with MCE and no power limits as well as 4400MHZ memory, well done MSI.

I'll do my review on when it worked. Simply, it was amazing. Does everything you want it to do for a high-level ITX mobo. I have an i5 10-600k and the out of the box settings are right on point. Similar with the memory XMP settings. All the bells and whistles you want. No RGB nonsense, the entire board is beautiful black - so don't expect this thing to light up, however, it does have connections for your fans/CPUs/GPUs to do it. Easy to put together with solid instructions. Board feels very quality. Decent price.Tech Support review: *Disclaimer* This was an Amazon Warehouse purchase (read: used) so this may have been an issue stemming from a previous owner.This item worked amazingly for three weeks, then started getting blue screens and freezing upon restart. I did not install any new components or adjust anything since original installation. Called support, only on hold for a few minutes. They were knowledgeable, and asked the right questions to diagnose. They recommended to RMA the board, which is likely a 25-45 day process all-in. This is my daily driver so I had to buy another board to get up and running - and yes, bought the same one because it is fantastic. I know this isnt unique to MSI, but RMAs really are a PITA. Overall good experience with Tech Support.

My previous purchase was the z490 ACE. I decided to try the Unify. After this purchase, I feel I should have bought Unify instead of ACE as the main difference between the two for a normal consumer is absence of LEDs. Even if you are an overclocker, the quality of this PCB and overclocking features are on par with ACE and its 200$ cheaper. Do not miss LEDs on MB at all tbh. Worked straight out of the box. It has the debug LEDS along with the code display which are crucial when building the PC. Has 3 ssd slots, 2.5gb ethernet, WiFi 6, Bluetooth (very very useful). I have connected my BOSE sound link to this for sound, xbox controller and a bluetooth headphones and it handles it all with ease ... wirelessly. Wifi is great if you place the PC where cable cannot reach it - highly recommend. The IO plate comes installed which is fantastic. The box comes with all accessories needed. very straight forward installation. It also has the PCIE 4 compatibility for next gen rocket lake. You can skip buying a z590 motherboard if you get this one. MSI has also been great with new features. they are already out with resize bar support for 30 series cards already. I also have dragon center and really, it hasn't given me any issues. MSI makes really good quality motherboards and has decent customer support as well. I highly recommend this to anybody thinking of building an INTEL Gaming PC and is an overclocker. Don't get into the AMD hype just yet. Software Compatibility is a boon and should be #1 for any sane PC builder!

full oc all cores16gb ram 4000mhz (CL15-15-15) 28/280 CR 1T (real 1N)the ram could probably oc more, haven't tried.it supports Intel Cryo Cooling Technology, (i.e. ML360 SUB-ZERO liquid cooling)it supports 11900k/11th gen intel CPUs, which supposedly will be able to run ram even faster.low dpc latency, pretty decent windows 7/windows 8.1 compatibilitythis supports "resizeable bar" which can increase RTX 3000 performance by 20% (and this motherboard is technically PCI-E 4.0 capable)you can choose to use the display ports on the motherboard to output video from your GPU in bios.it has intel (2.5g) ethernet, which is the lowest latency and generally best.the audio quality is fantastic, haven't had motherboard audio this nice before, they drive by DT 990 250 ohms fine with zero noise.the bluetooth is VERY fast and long rangeTHERE IS NO RIDICULOUS LGBT COLORED LEDS - you don't even need to be tech literate to realize this board is the right choice.AND it has thunderbolt 3 built in, an actual functional implementation as well. $600+ motherboards like EVGA refuse to even offer an add-in card.I never bought an MSI motherboard until now, my last motherboard was some Gigabyte Z170-gaming trash. It's clear to see that MSI is currently the only company making motherboards anywhere near a GOOD and RESPECTABLE standard. (It's funny that the EVGA DARK motherboards aren't even "dark" anymore, I suppose this is the true spiritual successor to that series.)