MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE: the 'who's your Daddy' of motherboards

MSI is preparing the Big Boi of its Z690 motherboards with the MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard, flexing out its teaser muscles in its gigantic E-ATX form factor.

3

MSI's gigantic new flagship MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard is bigger, wider than the flagship ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme -- which is already huge, at 305 x 277mm -- MSI's new MEG Z690 GODLIKE is 305 x 310mm which is why it looks pretty much like a square.

MSI isn't messing around with the MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard, packing in 22 phase CPU VRM design and support for up to 128GB of super-fast next-gen DDR5-6666+ memory. You've got 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 and x16 slot, while another offers PCIe 4.0 x8. The board will have plenty of power flowing into it with the 24-pin power connector joined by dual 8-pin EPS power connectors that are placed above the DDR5 DIMMs.

• Read more: MSI's next-gen PCIe Gen5 M.2 Expander-Z card: SSDs up to 128GB/sec
• Read more: MSI MEG Z690: 'CPU Force 2' BIOS OC diagnostic tool for Alder Lake CPU
• Read more: MSI's next-gen Z690 motherboards teased, flagship MEG Z690 Ace appears
• Read more: Intel's flagship Core i9-12900K costs $589, 16C/24T at up to 5.2GHz
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Alder Lake architecture: everything you need to know

3

If you want to go storage mad with NVMe M.2 SSDs there are 6 x M.2 slots (4 x PCIe 4.0 x4 and 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4) but you shouldn't need many of those M.2 slots as there's the MSI M.2 Expander Gen5 module that should be bundled in the box.

What the MSI Gen5 PCI-Express card will do is offer you the space for M.2 SSDs on a PCIe 5.0 x8 connection, where you'll have up to 128GB/sec of transfer speeds to try and hit. PCIe 5.0 is really delivering on those next-gen feels, and MSI is going to do that with the MEG Z690 GODLIKE motherboard.

I now want this board bad.

3