MSI MEG Z390 ACE LGA1151 (Intel 8th and 9th Gen) M.2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 DDR4 Wi-Fi SLI CFX ATX Z390 Gaming Motherboard

First off I have been building my own personal computers since 1983 or so. By far this motherboard tops them all and not just because it has the latest and greatest features, but the fact that the quality and supplied software is very good. I read and read motherboard reviews before settling in buying the MSI Ace. I am sure you are also reading reviews. One major differentiation between MSI and competing motherboard suppliers is their BIOS software. It is frustrating having terrible BIOS software that is either not intuitive or is 'buggy'. I have had 10's of motherboards from other major manufacturers and was never satisfied with their BIOS software. Even if you can find a competing motherboard that may eke out one percentage faster OC capability but has sub par BIOS software, it just is not worth the purchase in my opinion. It seems like I read millions of motherboard reviews and the vast majority of them overlook the software aspect. I did find one review where the guy said he thought the MSI software was 'OK', but I have been using it for the past week, and I love it. From what I have read MSI has been standardizing on their BIOS software vs developing something brand new every time they come out with a new motherboard which to me means they can spend their time fine tuning their existing software.My build consisted of a MSI Ace Motherboard, i7-9700K Intel Processor, XFX Over Clocked 580RX Video Card, 32GB Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz DRAM, WD Black 500GB m.2 drive, 4TB WD Hard Drive, 500GB Samsung SSD from my prior build, Corsair 570X Crystal Series Glass Mid Tower Case (which is also awesome), a Corsair H115i liquid cooler, Corsiar LL series RGB fans and RGB Light Strips. I absolutely love my system. I was able to easily overclock the processor to 5.2GHz, but settled at 5.1GHz to allow a little headroom. BTW, MSI has an excellent Overclocking guide for the I9 and I7-9700K processor installed on a MSI motherboard. A must read if you want to Overclock. I only have my CPU Core voltage at 1.310 at 5.1GHz, so if you start with the guides recommended 1.37V setting and your overclock works then keep backing down the voltage by .100 volt until your system becomes unstable. Then set the Core CPU voltage to .200 or .300 volts higher than the unstable voltage so you aren't running on the ragged edge. This is what I did on my system and I have been doing some heavy gaming, etc. with zero heating or software problems.Other thoughts: All the MSI Z390 boards (i.e., Ace, Pro Carbon, Gaming Edge, Godlike, etc.) seem to be similar except for variations in power supplies and USB, Wi-Fi, etc. I choose the Ace due to all of the USB connectors and its 13 phase power supply. I don't think you could go wrong with any of the other MSI motherboards. The i7-9700K processor is great with zero complaints. All of the Corsair products work great. My only partial regret is not going to at least a 2070 or higher series graphic card. No complaints on the 580X with an AMD processor, but just not fast enough for me. My reasoning for not biting the bullet on a +$600 Graphics Card is this: I am attending the 2019 CES show in a couple of weeks and I want to see what's up with AMD's upcoming offering to compete with NVIDIA. Rumors are AMD's new GUI's are going to kick butt, and be less expensive. I know you can spend the rest of your life waiting to pull the trigger on buying a cutting edge Graphics Card, but this time I decided to wait, right or wrong. Since I like my MSI motherboard so much, I will probably end up replacing with a MSI Graphics card. Presetly my system can play most games on Medium or High Setting with FPS varying from 30 to 80 at a 1920 x 1080 resolution. I use a 34" wide Dell 3415W monitor that supports up to 3440 x 1440 resolution, and not being able to take advantage of the monitors full resolution keeps me up at night. LOL So, I am hoping in the next few months their will be a sub $500 MSI graphics card that will allow me to play almost all my games at High or Ultra High settings on my monitors max 3440 x 1440 resolution setting at 50FPS or better. I want to be able to go full throttle for a few years without having to upgrade again.Tips: If you can't get your wireless mouse to work with the MSI BIOS then plug in a corded USB mouse. I had to do this, though you can use the keyboard to navigate the BIOS without a mouse, just slower for me. Also, you can like or dislike Corsair, but I like their products. Their documentation is sometimes lacking and their pricing a little high, but their quality and breadth of computer kit building hardware is excellent. It's nice to have a company who still sells products for the home PC builder! I built this computer on my kitchen counter height island which is much easier than building on the floor like I have previously done with other computer builds. Just clear off the counter, it is worth it.Big Tip: If you use the Corsair H115i cooler, the MSI Ace Motherboard, and the Corsair 570X case the cooling radiator will NOT fit on the inside TOP of the case. And, since the radiator is supplied with (2) 140mm LL Series fans, and the top of the Corsair case is the only spot for (2) 140mm fans this creates a big problem, or so I thought. There is not enough room due to the radiator and fan combination interfering with the Motherboard. Needless to say when I discovered this I was in disbelief especially after planning every last detail of my build, plus I already had the Motherboard installed in the case and wired up. I searched the internet for a couple of hours and could not find an easy solution. Some people went to extreme measures to make this combination work, but I didn't want to do any drilling on my brand new case! But, after a couple of beers and staring at my case for a few minutes I found my answer: Mount the radiator on the front of the case. This was fairly simple,; however, you will need to swap the flat metal plate that holds the (3) fans on the front of the case with the plate on top of the case that is made to hold (2) fans. I am not sure if Corsair made the case to be able to do this, but nonetheless it works. Because I wanted to see my funky RGB fans when viewing the front of the case I attached the (2) LL Series Corsair fans that came with the H115i cooler to the front of the case, THEN I mounted the radiator on top of the fans with the supplied longer Corsair screws. As far as the airflow, there should be very little difference. Just make sure the (2) Radiator fans and the Top (3) Case fans are blowing air out of the case. I ended up putting a single LL series RGB 120mm fan on the rear of the case with the air blowing into the case. This is probably not needed, but it looks pretty darn cool.Last tip: Go for it. When it comes to finally pulling the trigger on all the components for your new computer build don't let a few hundred bucks get in your way. Look at it this way, just cut out a few nights out on the town and use the savings to stay home and admire your PC. Yes, you qualify as being a little nerdy, but no one will know. LOLUpdate 9/8/2019: I am still loving this motherboard and have had Zero problems. One tip I can pass along is to make sure you keep the Killer Network software up-to-date. I still haven’t purchased a 2080 video card, but one is still on my list if the prices ever drop! As far as gaming I have been using my Xbox on a 75” UHD TV with a 5.1.4 Atmos sound system. I like this gaming setup better so really no need for super fast graphics on PC, at least for me.

I am fairly new to custom builds, extremely interested in acheiving hard to reach goals..I have bought 3 of these Z390Ace and also 1 z390 Godlike and 2 X570 Ace. The Bios utility is so simple.. you dont even have to do anything to configure it. It auto detects any possible (stable) overclocking headroom with the click of 1 button. Although I havent tried it yet on any of these boards, but apparently if you want to overclock even more,, you just turn the OC Knob up. Located directly on the board, or through the bios. I bought 2 of the I9 9900KS newer model Processors . One I paid reg price for from B&h, AND THE OTHER i PAID ABOUT 500.00 MORE from Silicon Lottery, had it DeLiddded by them, and binned guaranteed stable @ 5.2Ghz.. assuming I followed the same Hardware configuration they did( which I did not) After hours upon hours of research I found myself ordering MSI products again by way of process of elimination through user reviews. Below are my current configurations. Out of the box on first startup with minimal to no tweaking I have had fantastic results. See BelowSystem 1Build Date Apr2019MotherBoard MSI z390 GodLike2080 tiMSIProcessor Intel Retail 9900kscooling type Custom LoopHard Drive NVME 1TB 970 ProTimeSpy Bench 99%System 2390AceRAM 64GB Trident Z 4,000mhz -XMP / Manual OC XMP ProfileVideo Card MSI 1080 ti NO OCcpubase clock 4 ghz /OC 5.2 ghzTimeSpy Bench 99%System 3Z390 Ace+9900ksOut of box clock/5.2ghzXMP 3600mhz -64gb Corsair Platincompatibility issues NONETimeSpy Bench 98%I strongly feel that .. had I opted for another Manufctr products.. I would not have achieved these results as easily. I am sold on MSI products. Plus .. if you buy one.. register it.. sometimes they give you free Game access / High end production software access. Cant speak about there customer support.. Ive never had to call them for anything

This is my second MSI branded motherboard for the Intel lineup, and wow just wow. I thought my Z270 Gaming m7 was the cats meow, this one is over the top as well. Packed full of all the features you need and may not need lol. Had some initial issues getting her up and running but I'm 99% sure it was some of my older equipment I was transferring over. Once I got it sorted out it was all over. windows installed like a champ and I was off to the races installing my drivers, games and apps. All the included accessories were there and easy to identify and install. I paired mine with a 9600K due to $$$ constraints but I couldn't be happier, its running 4.7Ghz on all cores by simply bumping all core setting and locking the vcore at stock which is about 1.225 volts.My only con is the cd disk lol come on guys its the 21st century lets start putting drivers on a flash drive. And make it update-able via the MSI support site. This will make it super easy for re-installs.If your looking for a great bang for the buck motherboard for the current gen of Intel processors take a long look at this badd boy and put it on the top of your short list. Its simply amazing.