The MSI MEG X570 Ace Motherboard Review: Ace in the Hole at $369
by Gavin Bonshor on July 18, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- AM4
- Zen 2
- Ryzen 3000
- X570
- MEG
- X570 Ace
- 3700X
- Ryzen 3700X
Board Features
The MSI MEG X570 Ace sits towards the higher end of the range of X570 motherboards with a price tag of $369. For the price though, MSI has included a premium controller set which includes a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec, a Realtek RTL8125-AG 2.5 G port and a Intel I211-AT Gigabit port, and also includes an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax wireless interface; this also adds support for BT 5 devices too. Providing power to the 14-phase power delivery are two 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs, while the board and other componentry take its power from a 24-pin ATX 12 V power input. Its cooling comes from seven 4-pin PWM enabled headers which are split into three main sections; one for a CPU fan, one for a water pump, and five for case fans.
MSI MEG X570 Ace ATX Motherboard | |||
Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
Product Page | Link | ||
Price | $369 | ||
Size | ATX | ||
CPU Interface | AM4 | ||
Chipset | AMD X570 | ||
Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual Channel Up to DDR4-4633 |
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Video Outputs | N/A | ||
Network Connectivity | Realtek RTL8125-AG 2.5 Gigabit Intel I211-AT Gigabit Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax |
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Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 | ||
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x8) | ||
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 2 x PCIe 4.0 x1 |
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Onboard SATA | Four, RAID 0/1/10 | ||
Onboard M.2 | 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 |
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USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) | 3 x Type-A Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Header |
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USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) | 2 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 x Header (four ports) |
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USB 2.0 | 2 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 x Header (four ports) |
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Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 2 x 8pin CPU |
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Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Water Pump (4-pin) 5 x System (4-pin) |
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IO Panel | 3 x USB 3.1 G2 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 G2 Type-C 2 x USB 3.1 G1 Type-A 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A 2 x Network RJ45 (Realtek/Intel) 5 x 3.5mm Audio Jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Output (Realtek) 2 x Intel AX200 Antenna Ports 1 x BIOS Flashback Button 1 x Clear CMOS Button |
One thing of note is that this model doesn't include any video outputs on the rear panel, but it does include three USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. It's always handy to have a dedicated clear CMOS button somewhere on the PCB instead of the older style jumper, but MSI has implemented this on its rear panel along with a pre-installed rear IO shield to make it easier for users to install it into a chassis. For storage, the MSI MEG X570 Ace has three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots with two including support for SATA drives and taking its lanes directly from the X570 chipset. The CPU drove PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot doesn't support SATA drives for reference and is located just underneath the AM4 CPU socket.
Test Bed
As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
While we have been able to measure audio performance from previous Z370 motherboards, the task has been made even harder with the roll-out of the Z390 chipset and none of the boards tested so far has played ball. It seems all USB support for Windows 7 is now extinct so until we can find a reliable way of measuring audio performance on Windows 10 or until a workaround can be found, audio testing will have to be done at a later date.
Test Setup | |||
Processor | AMD Ryzen 3700X, 65W, $329 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3.6 GHz (4.4 GHz Turbo) |
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Motherboard | MSI MEG X570 Ace (BIOS 7C35v12) | ||
Cooling | ID Cooling Auraflow 240mm AIO | ||
Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU | ||
Memory | 2x8GB G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 16-16-16-36 2T | ||
Video Card | ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
Case | Open Benchtable BC1.1 (Silver) | ||
Operating System | Windows 10 1903 inc. Spectre/Meltdown Patches |
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.
New Test Suite: Spectre and Meltdown Hardened
Since the start of our Z390 reviews, we are using an updated OS, updated drivers, and updated software. This is in line with our CPU testing updates, which includes Spectre and Meltdown patches. We are also running the testbed with the new Windows 10 1903 update for AMD's Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, and X570 motherboard reviews. The Windows 1903 update improves multi-core and multi-thread performance on AMD's Ryzen processors with topology awareness meaning previous issues in regards to latency have been known to affect performance. As users are recommended to keep their Windows 10 operating system updates, our performance data is reflected with the 1903 update.
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rocky12345 - Monday, July 22, 2019 - link
If you were replying to me I don't think I ever said what I had hooked up to the Sata ports. SO here goes I have a Samsung 860 Pro 512GB as my C drive and 3 4TB WD blacks hooked to the system as just pure storage and game drives. When I upgrade to a new platform I probably will go with a 1TB NMVe drive as my C drive and pick up 3 6TB WD blacks for storage.I may also installed a second cheaper 1TB NMVe drive in the second M.2 slot so can install most played games on that drive.
TheUnhandledException - Saturday, July 20, 2019 - link
How about the horrible lack of punch card reader support. 4 SATA is fine these days. The future is m.2 (or ideally also u.2 but that seems server only). I am glad that OEMs aren't wasting PCIe lanes putting in 6 or 8 or 10 SATA ports. If you really need 8 SATA ports then get an expansion card and connect all your drives to that.rocky12345 - Monday, July 22, 2019 - link
4 ports for most are fine even my own needs only need up to 4 ports since on my current system I have 1 Sata SSD and 3 Sata hard drives installed and got rid of the Blu-Ray drive a long time ago.I think the point being made was for this amount of money for the board it seems like they cut some of the features. I think I have seen other recent Ryzen boards with 6 sata ports maybe even 8 ports and cost less also. Right now I require up to 4 ports on my current system and have 5 ports free.
In my next build I will only need 3 ports because of switching to NMVe m.2 SSD drive but I do plan on getting 3 hard drives for large storage needs because SSD drives can not match the price to storage size yet of a regular hard drive. My plan just like last time I got my drives is to get the fastest possible drives on the market in the consumer segment which is the WD Black drives. I probably will get 6TB drives this time around and would like to get the 8TB drives but they seem to be hard to find right now so 6TB will have to do I will just get 3 of them to fulfill my storage needs.
Tomyknee - Saturday, August 31, 2019 - link
Thank you. Why does no one see this? This is the first new PCIe upgrade in a decade and people are fretting about 6gb SATA? Stay with a stinking X399 board if you are going to continue to use SATAAzurael - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
Are you ever planning to do native EFI post time? I'm not sure how relevant BIOS-emulation boot is any more.I certainly haven't had CSM enabled for about 5 years - just leaving it on, even if you're booting in EFI mode, easily doubles POST time on most of the Gigabyte boards I've used in that period - and that's without enabling AMI Fast/Ultra Fast boot mode where it doesn't bring up unnecessary things like AHCI and XHCI controllers which aren't hosting a boot device and will have to be initialised by the OS anyway.
My current machine starts booting Windows about 2 seconds after I press the power button (which is much faster than any of the OEM machines I've observed booting in EFI mode and leads me to suspect that the relative differences between boards will be totally different in EFI mode.)
marcle - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
How much noise does the chipset fan make? Can I use the X570 chipset in an audio production environment that requires a (virtually) silent computer?Right now I've got an i7-4771 with 84w TDP that's inaudible in an insulated case, and stays under 60C (usually well under) even at load.
How would the X570 fare in that situation?
DillholeMcRib - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
Is there any reason why the vendors have gone from reasonably priced X470 boards to overbuilt Intel-level price gougers on X570?zer0hour - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
Ridiculously priced motherboard.Qasar - Friday, July 19, 2019 - link
nope.. that would be MSI's godlike x570 board..zer0hour - Saturday, July 20, 2019 - link
That one is even more ridiculous.