The MSI MEG Z690 Unify (DDR5) Motherboard Review: The All-Black Option

The MSI MEG Z690 Unify is a premium ATX motherboard that sits below both the Godlike and Ace series. Representative of its MEG enthusiast gaming series, the Z690 Unify has plenty of features and controller sets to keep both enthusiasts and performance users satisfied. One of the biggest features of Intel’s 12th gen and Z690 is PCIe 5.0, and MSI includes two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots operating at x16 and x8/x8, with one half-length slot electronically locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4.

For storage, MSI includes a total of five M.2 slots, with three operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, one with PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA support, as well as a fifth PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot. MSI has two sets of SATA, four of which support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, while another two are made available by the use of an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. The MSI MEG Z690 Unify also has support for super-fast DDR5-6666 memory, with a combined capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots.

Focusing on cooling, the Z690 Unify has eight 4-pin headers, with one for a CPU fan, one for a water pump, and six for chassis fans.

In terms of connectivity, MSI is offering pretty much everything expected in the sub $500 Z690 motherboard space. On the rear panel are one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, seven USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports, with support for up to four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A (two headers), four USB 2.0 (two headers), and an additional USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C ports through internal headers. Networking is premium with two Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controllers, and an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi. Audio is handled by a Realtek ALC4080 HD audio codec that powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output.

Test Bed

With some of the nuances with Intel’s Rocket Lake processors, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults. Adaptive Boost Technology is disabled by default.

We must also thank the following:

Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews
Sapphire RX 460 Nitro	MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC	Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs	Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs
G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX	Crucial Ballistix DDR4	Silverstone Coolers	Noctua Coolers

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide – however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, POST time and latency. This can come down to the manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

For Z690 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 20H2 update.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single MSI GTX 1080 Gaming configuration with a wall meter connected to the power supply. Our power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real-world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our testbed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

In our power testing, the Z690 Unify performed competitively against other Z690 models in all three stages, long idle, idle, and at full load.

Non-UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows-specific features.)

Moving onto our non-UEFI POST time testing, the MSI gave us some respectable results. At default settings, we POSTed into Windows 10 in just under 18-seconds, and after disabling nonessential networking and audio controllers, we managed to shave this down to 16.7 seconds.

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops, and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

We test DPC latency out of the box with no tweaking or adjustments. The Z690 Unify so far (a lot more Z690 boards to go through) has the edge over other models tested, with a latency of 76.7 microseconds.

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We put the memory settings at the CPU manufacturers suggested frequency, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

For Z690 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 20H2 update.

Rendering – Blender 2.79b: 3D Creation Suite

A high profile rendering tool, Blender is open-source allowing for massive amounts of configurability, and is used by a number of high-profile animation studios worldwide. The organization recently released a Blender benchmark package, a couple of weeks after we had narrowed our Blender test for our new suite, however their test can take over an hour. For our results, we run one of the sub-tests in that suite through the command line – a standard ‘bmw27’ scene in CPU only mode, and measure the time to complete the render.

Rendering – Crysis CPU Render

One of the most oft used memes in computer gaming is ‘Can It Run Crysis?’. The original 2007 game, built in the Crytek engine by Crytek, was heralded as a computationally complex title for the hardware at the time and several years after, suggesting that a user needed graphics hardware from the future in order to run it. Fast forward over a decade, and the game runs fairly easily on modern GPUs, but we can also apply the same concept to pure CPU rendering – can the CPU render Crysis? Since 64 core processors entered the market, one can dream. We built a benchmark to see whether the hardware can.

For this test, we’re running Crysis’ own GPU benchmark, but in CPU render mode. This is a 2000 frame test, which we run over a series of resolutions from 800×600 up to 1920×1080. For simplicity, we provide the 1080p test here.​

Rendering – Cinebench R23: link

Maxon’s real-world and cross-platform Cinebench test suite has been a staple in benchmarking and rendering performance for many years. Its latest installment is the R23 version, which is based on its latest 23 code which uses updated compilers. It acts as a real-world system benchmark that incorporates common tasks and rendering workloads as opposed to less diverse benchmarks which only take measurements based on certain CPU functions. Cinebench R23 can also measure both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.

Synthetic – GeekBench 5: Link

As a common tool for cross-platform testing between mobile, PC, and Mac, GeekBench is an ultimate exercise in synthetic testing across a range of algorithms looking for peak throughput. Tests include encryption, compression, fast Fourier transform, memory operations, n-body physics, matrix operations, histogram manipulation, and HTML parsing.

Compression – WinRAR 5.90: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.

3DPMv2.1 – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

NAMD 2.13 (ApoA1): Molecular Dynamics

One frequent request over the years has been for some form of molecular dynamics simulation. Molecular dynamics forms the basis of a lot of computational biology and chemistry when modeling specific molecules, enabling researchers to find low energy configurations or potential active binding sites, especially when looking at larger proteins. We’re using the NAMD software here, or Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics, often cited for its parallel efficiency. Unfortunately the version we’re using is limited to 64 threads on Windows, but we can still use it to analyze our processors. We’re simulating the ApoA1 protein for 10 minutes, and reporting back the ‘nanoseconds per day’ that our processor can simulate. Molecular dynamics is so complex that yes, you can spend a day simply calculating a nanosecond of molecular movement.

For Z690 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 20H2 update.

Civilization 6

Originally penned by Sid Meier and his team, the Civilization series of turn-based strategy games are a cult classic, and many an excuse for an all-nighter trying to get Gandhi to declare war on you due to an integer underflow. Truth be told I never actually played the first version, but I have played every edition from the second to the sixth, including the fourth as voiced by the late Leonard Nimoy, and it is a game that is easy to pick up, but hard to master.

Benchmarking Civilization has always been somewhat of an oxymoron – for a turn based strategy game, the frame rate is not necessarily the important thing here and even in the right mood, something as low as 5 frames per second can be enough. With Civilization 6 however, Firaxis went hardcore on visual fidelity, trying to pull you into the game. As a result, Civilization can taxing on graphics and CPUs as we crank up the details, especially in DirectX 12.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)

The latest installment of the Tomb Raider franchise does less rising and lurks more in the shadows with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As expected this action-adventure follows Lara Croft which is the main protagonist of the franchise as she muscles through the Mesoamerican and South American regions looking to stop a Mayan apocalyptic she herself unleashed. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the direct sequel to the previous Rise of the Tomb Raider and was developed by Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics and was published by Square Enix which hit shelves across multiple platforms in September 2018. This title effectively closes the Lara Croft Origins story and has received critical acclaims upon its release.

The integrated Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark is similar to that of the previous game Rise of the Tomb Raider, which we have used in our previous benchmarking suite. The newer Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses DirectX 11 and 12, with this particular title being touted as having one of the best implementations of DirectX 12 of any game released so far.

Strange Brigade (DX12)

Strange Brigade is based in 1903’s Egypt and follows a story which is very similar to that of the Mummy film franchise. This particular third-person shooter is developed by Rebellion Developments which is more widely known for games such as the Sniper Elite and Alien vs Predator series. The game follows the hunt for Seteki the Witch Queen who has arisen once again and the only ‘troop’ who can ultimately stop her. Gameplay is cooperative-centric with a wide variety of different levels and many puzzles which need solving by the British colonial Secret Service agents sent to put an end to her reign of barbaric and brutality.

The game supports both the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs and houses its own built-in benchmark which offers various options up for customization including textures, anti-aliasing, reflections, draw distance and even allows users to enable or disable motion blur, ambient occlusion and tessellation among others. AMD has boasted previously that Strange Brigade is part of its Vulkan API implementation offering scalability for AMD multi-graphics card configurations. For our testing, we use the DirectX 12 benchmark.

When it comes to overclocking on Intel’s 12th generation processors, Alder Lake has a new, yet important variable to consider. This is because not all of its cores are equal. Intel’s latest Alder Lake processors feature a hybrid design with P-cores (performance) and E-cores (efficient). Focusing on the Core i9-12900K, it has 8 P-Cores, 8 E-cores, and 24 threads in total. While Hyperthreading isn’t a new technology, the hybrid nature of Alder Lake combining two different types of CPU core is. The basic idea is that the P-cores do much of the front-loaded heavy lifting, the grunt work so to speak, while the E-cores assist in the background with high-threaded workloads with a much lower overall power draw than the P-cores.

Fundamentally when paired with a Z690 motherboard, both the P-core and E-cores are unlocked. This gives two areas for users to consider when it comes to overclocking. Having personally taken some time to investigate overclocking ability with the Core i9-12900K prior to diving into motherboard reviews, I found that the P-cores offer much more in terms of performance, while the E-cores don’t have as much headroom or scalability as the P-cores.

Another point of note when overclocking with Alder Lake, like with 11th gen and 10th gen, performance out of the box on both sets of cores are squeezed out via turbo, e.g, the P-Core Turbo on the Core i9-12900K is 5.2 GHz, while the E-Core turbo is 3.9 GHz. Make no mistake about it, Alder Lake is power-hungry, even more so from personal experience when overclocking than was the case with 11th gen Rocket Lake. This means adequate power being made available from a reliable and quality power supply is needed, as well as good quality and premium cooling such as AIOs, or even custom water cooling.

Experience with the MSI MEG Z690 Unify

Focusing on overclocking the Core i9-12900K with the MSI MEG Z690 Unify, it has plenty of customizable and configurable options available within its Click BIOS 5 UEFI firmware. All of the board’s processor and memory overclocking options can be found in the Advanced section of the BIOS under the OC section.

The OC section has extensive options for users to overclock both the processor and memory, although due to the Z690 Unify’s lack of video outputs, there are no options to overclock the integrated graphics. As the board has an over-engineered 21-phase (19+2) power delivery that is more than capable of allowing users to push Alder Lake with both ambient and sub-ambient cooling methods. For the CPU side of things, users can adjust the P-Core and E-Core ratios, with other controls such as AVX offsets so that when under these extreme workloads, the CPU cores can dial down a little and enhance overall system stability.

MSI also includes an LN2 mode for users looking to use this board to break world records, but there’s the MSI MEG Z690 Unify-X which is pretty much the same model, but with two DDR5 memory slots for better memory overclocking ability. There are also various voltage options for both the memory and CPU, while MSI also includes an LN2 mode designed for users to overclock the E-Cores, although these won’t as effective as pushing the P-Cores in terms of scalability and performance.

On the memory side of things, MSI includes a variety of customizable options in regards to frequency and memory latencies. This includes the two levels of Intel’s memory gears, Gear 1 which sets the memory controller to match the frequency in a 1:1 ratio, while Gear 2 operates at a ratio of 1:2 (IMC and DDR5).

Overall the MSI Click BIOS 5 firmware has everything a user needs to overclock Alder Lake, and with a premium power delivery, decent and varied selection of options available, even extreme overclockers could be confident of squeezing out all of that extra and delicious performance on offer. 

Overclocking Methodology

Our overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with the Intel XTU 2.0 benchmark and Prime95 to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from the previous testing, start off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed. The process is repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (105ºC+). Our testbed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Note: For the purposes of overclocking in our Z690 reviews, we will only be focusing on the P-cores (performance) as these simply scale better. The E-core (efficiency) will subsequently be set at 3.9 GHz throughout the entirety of our Z690 motherboard reviews.

Overclocking Results

Looking at overclocking performance when using our Core i9-12900K with the MSI MEG Z690 Unify, it’s notably mixed. First off the bat, even at default temperatures when using Intel’s own XTU 2.0 benchmark, we hit temperatures of 75c with a total system power draw of 317 W at stock with one of the most premium AIO CPU coolers on the market, the ASUS Ryujin II 360. There’s also an overclocking profile of sorts through MSI’s Game Boost profile, which when compared to default settings provided extra grunt without that much more heat and power all things considered.

Manually overclocking the P-cores from 4.7 GHz to 5.3 GHz, performance increased incrementally in XTU 2.0, with temperature and overall power draw also climbing. One thing we did notice was that when using the board’s default load-line calibration (LLC) profile, there was a considerable amount of VDroop between the CPU VCore voltage set in the firmware when compared to the reported load voltages. While it’s possible that voltage reporting software needs some work, the jump in power draw seems somewhat consistent.

We managed an all-core stable overclock on the P-cores of 5.3 GHz at 1.400 V, but this was just too much for our cooler to handle and as such, we did experience some thermal throttling. It should also be noted that we hit a total power draw of 448 W which is a lot considering this is a desktop processor. That’s one of the disadvantages of overclocking, but the MSI MEG Z690 Unify is certainly capable of giving more with cooling being the main limitation.

One of the most requested elements of our motherboard reviews revolves around the power delivery and its componentry. Aside from the quality of the components and its capability for overclocking to push out higher clock speeds which in turn improves performance, is the thermal capability of the cooling solutions implemented by manufacturers. While almost always fine for users running processors at default settings, the cooling capability of the VRMs isn’t something that users should worry too much about, but for those looking to squeeze out extra performance from the CPU via overclocking, this puts extra pressure on the power delivery and in turn, generates extra heat. This is why more premium models often include heatsinks on its models with better cooling designs, heftier chunks of metal, and in some cases, even with water blocks.

The 19+2 phase power delivery on the MSI MEG Z690 Unify (operating at 19+1)

Testing Methodology

Our method of testing is if the power delivery and its heatsink are effective at dissipating heat. We do this by running an intensely heavy CPU workload for a prolonged method of time. We apply an overclock, which is deemed safe and at the maximum that the silicon on our testbed processor allows. We then run the Prime95 with AVX2 enabled under a torture test for an hour at the maximum stable overclock we can, which puts insane pressure on the processor. We collect our data via three different methods which include the following:

• Taking a thermal image from a birds-eye view after an hour with a Flir Pro thermal imaging camera
• Securing two probes onto the rear of the PCB, right underneath CPU VCore section of the power delivery for better parity in case a probe reports a faulty reading
• Taking a reading of the VRM temperature from the sensor reading within the HWInfo monitoring application

The reason for using three different methods is that some sensors can read inaccurate temperatures, which can give very erratic results for users looking to gauge whether an overclock is too much pressure for the power delivery handle. With using a probe on the rear, it can also show the efficiency of the power stages and heatsinks as a wide margin between the probe and sensor temperature can show that the heatsink is dissipating heat and that the design is working, or that the internal sensor is massively wrong. To ensure our probe was accurate before testing, I binned 10 and selected the most accurate (within 1c of the actual temperature) for better parity in our testing.

To recreate a real-world testing scenario, the system is built into a conventional desktop chassis which is widely available. This is to show and alleviate issues when testing on open testbeds, which we have done previously, which allows natural airflow to flow over the power delivery heatsinks. It provides a better comparison for the end-user and allows us to mitigate issues where heatsinks have been designed with airflow in mind and those that have not. The idea of a heatsink is to allow effective dissipation of heat and not act as an insulator, with much more focus from consumers over the last couple of years on power delivery componentry and performance than in previous years.

For thermal imaging, we use a Flir One camera to indicate where the heat is generated around the socket area, as some designs use different configurations, and an evenly spread power delivery with good components will usually generate less heat. Manufacturers who use inefficient heatsinks and cheap out on power delivery components should run hotter than those who have invested. Of course, a $700 flagship motherboard is likely to outperform a cheaper $100 model under the same testing conditions, but it is still worth testing to see which vendors are doing things correctly. 

Thermal Analysis Results

We measured 73.1ºC on the hottest part of the CPU socket during our testing

The MSI MEG Z690 Unify has a premium 21-phase power delivery which is split into nineteen for the CPU and two for the SoC. MSI is using a Renesas RAA229131 20-channel PWM controller operating at 19+1, with the two Renesas RAA22010540 105 A power stages operating in parallel with each other for the SoC. The CPU section is more robust, with nineteen Renesas RAA22010540 105 A power stages providing a maximum output of 1995 A. Keeping things cool is large pair of aluminum heatsinks that are interconnected by a single heat pipe. The large rear panel cover provides extra surface area, and the channeled fins should prove effective when installed into a chassis with adequate passive airflow.

Looking at how the MSI MEG Z690 Unify stacks up against other boards of a similar pedigree in terms of power delivery thermals, it didn’t perform too badly. We observed a maximum temperature of 78°C from the integrated VRM thermal sensor, with temperatures of 80°C and 81°C from our pair of K-type thermocouples respectively. While the Unify isn’t the coolest that we’ve tested so far, it was still well within an acceptable range where VRM thermals shouldn’t cause any concern. Power delivery thermals certainly wouldn’t be the limiting factor here, with CPU thermals much more likely to cause problems when overclocking than the VRMs.

Along with the launch of Intel’s 12th generation processors came a new socket (LGA1700), new features such as PCIe 5.0, support for DDR5 memory, and a new hybrid core architectural design. Intel also launched its Z690 chipset, and along with it, all of the motherboard vendors combined launched over 80+ new models for users to select from. More than 50 of these new Z690 models support DDR5, while more than 30 are available for users planning to use DDR4 memory. This means users now have more choices in terms of motherboard availability than there ever has been before on a single chipset. While many users across the internet have complained about how expensive some of these ‘premium’ and flagship models cost upwards of $1000, at Newegg, prices start at $210 for the DDR4 models and $230 for the DDR5 models (at the time of writing).

One of the models aiming to capture the imagination of users looking to build a premium Alder Lake system for either performance or gaming in a turbulent market is the MSI MEG Z690 Unify. A representative of its premium MEG (Enthusiast Gaming) series, the Z690 Unify combines an all-black RGBless aesthetic with some gnarly features designed to make it a solid all-around option on paper. 

Starting off with some of the main features, it includes support for DDR5-6666 memory (128 GB over four slots), which despite still being in its infancy, is likely to be something we see more as Intel improves on its memory controller and memory manufacturers find the sweet spot in the manufacturing process. Other notable features include five M.2 slots, with four offering support for PCIe 4.0 x4 and one with PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth, while MSI also has two full-length slots with support for PCIe 5.0 x16 or x8/x8, while MSI also includes a half-length slot that is locked down to PCIe 3.0 x4.

MSI also includes a decent controller set, with two Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controllers offering one Ethernet port each on the rear panel and an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi making the most of Intel integrated PHY on the chipset. Other utilized features of Z690 by MSI here include two USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C ports, with one on the rear panel and one via a front panel header, along with a stack of seven USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports, all of which are on the rear panel. This is plenty of high-speed connectivity for users with many USB devices and those with devices that can utilize the extra bandwidth offered by G2. Onboard audio options include a Realtek ALC4080 HD audio codec, which powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output on the rear.

Touching on the performance, the MSI MEG Z690 Unify is competitive against similar models that we’ve tested so far, but we do have plenty of Z690 models to compare against it in the future. As it stands, the Z690 Unify did well in our system, compute, and gaming testing, with competitive POST time, solid DPC latency, and decent power consumption figures. We observed no weird anomalies during any part of our testing with this board.

I heard you like M.2, so I put some storage in your storage…

In our overclocking and VRM thermal testing, the MSI MEG Z690 Unify showed that it could do well under the pressure of plenty of CPU VCore and frequency applied to our Core i9-12900K’s P-cores. For overclocking, the Z690 Unify is a solid contender with its large 21-phase (19+2) power delivery operating in a 19+1 configuration with premium 105 A power stages throughout. We did notice some overzealous levels of VDroop on the CPU V-Core. Still, despite running into thermal limitations, we managed to achieve an all P-Core stable overclock of 5.3 GHz, which undoubtedly caused thermal throttling. The VRM thermals of the Z690 Unify were also competitive, and we have no doubts that with more aggressive CPU cooling, there’s even more potential to be squeezed out of Alder Lakes silicon.

Final Thoughts: Is a $490 Z690 Board Mid-range, Premium, or Overpriced?

When it comes to justifying the price of Z690 motherboards, there’s been a lot of furore from users on the internet since the launch of Z690 around the vendor’s current pricing. I agree with the point that motherboard pricing has progressively increased with each generation. The fact is, so have other components, technologies, and it has always been the case that having the best just inherently costs more. The problem isn’t really at the upper end of the stack with expensive flagships, but the cost of what users consider to be entry-level and mid-range—even looking at one of the cheapest Z690 models available, priced at $210. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really cater to ‘entry-level’ users anymore. For a more affordable entry point onto Alder Lake, a whole host of B660, H670, and H610 models are available.

Focusing on the MSI MEG Z690 Unify, it has an MSRP of $490 and is currently available at Newegg for this price. In terms of competition, there’s the ASRock Z690 PG Velocita ($470), the ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming WIFI ($470), and the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master ($470). Aside from the Z690 Aorus Master, which offers 10 GbE, the MSI is the next best in terms of networking with dual 2.5 GbE on the rear panel and Wi-Fi 6E and support for five M.2 drives. Much of the feature sets across all of the models mentioned above are pretty much the same.

Summarising the MSI MEG Z690 Unify up, it’s a competitive model at the $450-500 price point for users looking to push Intel’s Alder Lake processors above and beyond its already impressive performance at stock. The Unify is more than worthy of consideration for users looking for a premium foundation for an Intel 12th gen and DDR5 performance-focused system from the premium power delivery, solid network array, and many rear panel USB 3.2 G2 ports.