Motherboard manufacturers will be showing off their next-gen Intel Z790 chipset motherboards tomorrow and we have got the first look at MSI's flagship for Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs, the MEG Z790 GODLIKE.
MSI's MEG Z790 GODLIKE Is Pure Insanity, Huge E-ATX Design With 29 Phase VRM & 7 PCIe M.2 SSD Slots
Keeping our tradition alive, we managed to score the PCB of the upcoming MSI MEG Z790 GODLIKE motherboard. In the past, we have been the first to show the MEG Z690 GODLIKE and MEG X670E GODLIKE's PCB. Each generation, MSI has been enhancing the design or should I say, going even crazier than the last time. The MSI MEG Z790 GODLIKE is no exception and based on a single PCB diagram, this thing just blows away the previous GODLIKE out of the water.
Starting with the design, the MSI MEG Z790 GODLIKE will come with the LGA 1700 / 1800 socket that supports both 12th Gen Alder Lake and 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. The motherboard has a total of four DDR5 DIMM slots which will be able to support up to 128 GB capacities at speeds of over 7000 Mbps. In terms of the VRM layout, the motherboard has a beastly 26+2+1 (29 phases in total) design which is all SPS Parallel components and uses 105A MOSFETs. The motherboard has the latest Renesas RAA2201054GNP PWM controller. There are two 8-pin connectors to power the board.
MSI MEG Z790 GODLIKE Motherboard PCB:
Moving down, we can see that the motherboard features two PCIe slots, both are rated at Gen 5 with the top one supporting an x16 link while the bottom one supporting an x8 link. But it's not the PCIe slot layout that's impressive but rather the M.2 configuration. The motherboard features a phenomenal 7 PCIe M.2 slots. There are five slots near the PCIe slots and PCH and two slots next to the DDR5 DIMM slots. The M2_4 slot is said to be rated at Gen 5. How MSI achieves this is by using the dGPU Gen 5 x16 lanes and splitting them. Since next-gen graphics cards (GeForce RTX 40 GPUs) aren't utilizing the Gen 5 protocol yet, most companies will be splitting the lanes or using Gen 4 x16 lanes for the dGPU entirely and moving Gen 5 lanes to the M.2 SSDs.
Storage options on the MSI MEG Z790 GODLIKE include 6 SATA III ports, two USB 3.0 front panel headers, and two Thunderbolt 4 front panel headers. Given the number of lanes that the motherboard needs to work with, it comes with an additional 6-pin connector too. Besides that, the motherboard comes with a full array of I/O and connectivity options making it truly GODLIKE.
MSI MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI Motherboard PCB:
In addition to the MSI MEG Z790 GODLIKE, we also have the detailed PCB floorplan for the MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI, a Mini-ITX offering with a 12-Phase VRM. The motherboard is also expected to be available on launch next month.
