MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus LGA1151 Gaming Motherboard review

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus LGA1151 Gaming Motherboard review

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus LGA1151 Gaming Motherboard review

Pros
Nice Red/Black Theme
Lot of Fan headers
Intel CNVi wireless support
RGB LED support
Nice big heatsinks
Good Overclocking
Good Price for a Z390 board

ConsUEFI interface have every setting displayed in central small area. Like single windowed interface.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MSI MPG Z390 GAMING PLUS

ModelBrandMSIModelMPG Z390 GAMING PLUS
Supported CPUCPU Socket TypeLGA 1151 (300 Series)CPU TypeSupports Intel Core 9000 Series family / 8th Gen Intel Core / Pentium Gold / Celeron processors for LGA 1151 socket
* Not backward compatible with older generation of LGA 1151 CPUs
ChipsetsChipsetIntel Z390
Onboard VideoOnboard Video ChipsetSupported only by CPU with integrated graphic:
1 x HDMI port, supports a maximum resolution of 4096x2160@24Hz
1 x DVI-D port, supports a maximum resolution of 1920x1200@60Hz
MemoryNumber of Memory Slots4×288pinMemory StandardDDR4 4400(OC)/ 4300(OC)/ 4266(OC)/ 4200(OC)/ 4133(OC)/ 4000(OC)/ 3866(OC)/ 3733(OC)/ 3600(OC)/ 3466(OC)/ 3400(OC)/ 3333(OC)/ 3300(OC)/ 3200(OC)/ 3000(OC)/ 2800(OC)/ 2666/ 2400/ 2133Maximum Memory Supported64GBChannel SupportedDual Channel
Expansion SlotsPCI Express 3.0 x162 x PCI Express 3.0 x16PCI Express x14 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slotsOther Slots1 x M.2 slot with E key for Integrated Intel Wireless-AC (CNVi) module only
Storage DevicesSATA 6Gb/s6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports*
* M.2 slots and SATA ports share the bandwidth. Please refer user manual for details.M.22 x M.2 slot (Key M)*
M2_1 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s, 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices
M2_2 supports up to PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6Gb/s, 2242/2260/2280 storage devices

* M.2 slots and SATA ports share the bandwidth. Please refer user manual for details.Intel Optane ReadyYes
* Before using Intel Optane memory modules, please ensure that you have updated the drivers and BIOS to the latest version from MSI website.SATA RAID0/1/5/10
Onboard AudioAudio ChipsetRealtek ALC892Audio Channels7.1 Channels
Onboard LANLAN ChipsetIntel I219-VMax LAN Speed10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel PortsPS/21 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse portVideo Ports1 x DVI-DHDMI1 x HDMIRJ451 x RJ45USB 3.11 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps) port (Type-A)
2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (SuperSpeed USB) ports (Type-A)USB 1.1/2.02 x USB 2.0 (High-speed USB) ports (Type-A)*
* The CNVI_1 and JUSB2 share the same bandwidth. Please refer user manual for details.USB Type-C1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps) portAudio Ports6 Ports
Internal I/O ConnectorsOnboard USB2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 connectors (supports additional 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports)
2 x USB 2.0 connectors (supports additional 4 USB 2.0 ports)Other Connectors1 x 4-pin CPU fan connector
1 x 4-pin Water Pump connector
5 x 4-pin system fan connectors
1 x Front panel audio connector
2 x System panel connectors
1 x Chassis Intrusion connector
1 x TPM module connector
2 x 4-pin RGB LED connectors
1 x Serial Port connector
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
Physical SpecForm FactorATXLED LightingRGBDimensions (W x L)12.0" x 9.6"Power Pin1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
FeaturesFeaturesDIY Friendly:
Keep Out Zone
XL PCI-E Clip
EZ Debug LED
Pump Fan
Total Fan Control

Enhance Performance:
Extended Heatsink Design
8-Pin Power Connectors
Twin Turbo M.2
Intel Turbo USB 3.1 Gen2
Core Boost
DDR4 Boost
Multi GPU-2-Way AMD CrossFire Technology
Game Boost

*BIOS
Click BIOS5
XMP
Hardware Moniter

*Software
Dragon Center
MSI APP Player
Mystic Light 3

In-Game Advantages:
*Audio
Audio Boost
*LAN
Intel LAN
Intel CNVi Ready
GAMING LAN Manager

GAMING HOTKEY
GAMING MOUSE Control
VR Ready

Exhilarating and Inspiring:
Mystic Light Extension (RGB)
Mystic Light Sync

Loyal Comrade:
PCI-E Steel Armor
7000+ Quality Test

ms:i is not about to let 2018 going without a bang it is trying to further contribute into the gaming market with the release of its brand-new lineup the mpg and they were reviewing the very first generation of its budgets and entry level of that lineup the MGP 390 gaming plus mpg stands for MSI performant gaming and what MSI tries to do here is to propose a gaming centric motherboard packed with feature and performant enough to operate the most

demanding processors and keep a budget at the bottom bottom floor of the market and for example the MSI mpg district MSI mpg:59mpg dollars before taxes which is the cheapest MSI gaming board while gaming ATX board that it has to propose and probably one of the cheapest overall on the gaming market that is a risky bet but did MSI deliver on this in a nutshell absolutely I've been I wanted to blown away but definitely impressed about how much you

know features MSI aspect in this little ATX board the quality of build which really shows some kind of maturity in its day-to-day manufacturing and even some real innovation which is usually rare to find at that price level but without any further ado let's jump right in all right so let's jump right and choose the obvious the MPGs if 390 gaming plus is an ATX motherboard

meaning thirty point five centimeter long for twenty four point four centimeter wide let's note that there is a natural spin cut out of the board allowing an easier access to our SATA and USB 3.1 first-generation front panel plug it is powered by the usual LGA 1151 CPU socket which is compatible to the eighth and ninth generation of I core Intel processor the LM wise we have an eight plus one phase which is plenty to power any kind of processor you throw at it even eight core processors namely the I nine nine thousand nine hundred K I usually prefer eight phases

ports and that's because some more phases you have the less heat is concentrated on each one of them so it's better overall for the cooling and performance of your board but here what MSI did is absolutely genius pure and distilled genius the i/o housing is actually part of the heatsink meaning an infinitely better heat dissipation I have reviewed a bunch of motherboard I think this is the first time I see that kind of feature I will try to see if indeed this is a very first time

but if it is this is absolutely amazing I love this I bet we're gonna see much much more of this kind of feature on MSI motherboard obviously in the next generation but I'm quite certain that other brands and manufacturer will try to reproduce the io / hit sync model um so yeah kudos double kudos triple kudos to MSI for this memory wise we have the usual dual channel which can support up to 64 gigabytes of ddr4 Ram overclockable up to four point four gigahertz again that is more than we usually see at that price level you have to go the way to the Strix or

Maximus hero 11 in ASIS to find 4.4 gigahertz overclockable Ram anything and there is four point two six six and if you look at the tough these 390 which is a closest competitor to this very board ill overclocked only up to 4.2 66 megahertz megahertz so again kudos to msi for pulling that off storage wise our board can support a duel and the two solid state drive configuration one up to eight sentiment alone and another up to eleven sentiment alone and since the 390 chipset is obtaining ready RM not to stress that drives can swap data up to 32 gigabit per

second in theory and i say in theory because usually when you have such speeds you have overheating coming from your end to solicit drive and that's where AM L bit sad because MSI should have equipped those emissaries that drives with hit sinks and they did not and that's not gonna help for heat dissipation second thing I want to note is the fact that they are way too close to the PCI Express s especially the 11 centimeter which will be trapped right under the

video card so that's not gonna help at all with thermal throttling PCIe wise we have six third generation slots right here for single speed single slots and 216 slots with different speeds only the closest one to the CPU in our case the red one can operate up to sixteen full bus speed so if you have only one video card this is where you want it to be for optimal performances note that it has also been metallically reinforced since it is a one most likely to carry the heavy weight of

our video card the second 16 PCI slot has been kept up to four full baths speed no matter what also it has no metallic reinforcement which is quite normal since this board is not SLI compatible so you will not be able to operate to Nvidia video card and so as I've seen on the top C's 390 that would be all good and all fine having capped 16 PCIe expresses and not metallically when forcing it if it was not man to carry a second video card but we're again

surprises to see that this board is crossfire compatible meaning that if you have to AMD video cards to Radeon card will work but poorly and I really do not suggest that you do so because one your second piece a expresses is kept up to four for full bus speed and it is not mentally clear and force which potentially could be dangerous and harmful to your multiple motherboard all together so yeah that's a no-go and no matter what the brand and the maker of your video card only one should be operated on this motherboard subtle wise we have six

third-generation SATA plugs which can all transfer up to six gigabit per second another kudos for MSI here they have spaced the SATA plugs for an easier and more comfortable plugging rich highs and starting from the left we have a mouse keyboard ps/2 connector to second generation USB plugs which can all transfer up to 480 megabits per second and HDMI and DVI video output for our integrated graphics for 3.1 second generation USB which can all

transfer up to 10 gigabit per second including a Type C our surge protected 1 Gigabit LAN and finally our gold-plated 6y8 channel audio inputs front panel connector wise we have two USB second-generation flex right here I like the fact that they would USB right between the pins which makes it so easy for me to identify exactly where I wanna put them and so kudos to em aside for this 23.1 first-generation USB front panel plugs right here which can boost transfer up to five gigabit per second and no front panel USB 3.1 second generation type C and I'm always

pointing this out specifically into this 390 chipset multiple because they have no excuses manufacturers have no excuses not to put as many as I can because six of them have been nested inside the chipset so not so good I swim aside for this okay so we've seen the general aspect of our motherboard and already it's pretty good it's really really good but here comes my favorite part of the the enthusiast / esthetic part of it and in our case we have seven PWM fan connectors one of which can support of water pump so in principle we can run a custom

water cooling a solution on this motherboard board but just up to a single water loop and I didn't expect much much more at this price point aesthetically wise we have to only read LED strips which are nested on our model one right here on the edge and the second one kind of awkwardly placed right on the back of motherboard and I'm not sure it looks great I've tried to capture the read a sense behind the gaming + logo but frankly it was team not very strong and I

think that MSI can do much better than that but no panic if you really want to go on the RGB train craze then you have at least two mystic compatible RGB connectors right here but of course no RGB addressable connector on this board which is not that surprising at this price point again but there's one last little thing I want to talk about is this little connector right here this will be able to support an Intel C + VI model giving Wi-Fi ability and capability to our motherboard all the way up to what the chipset can natively support which is an 802 point in

standard giving us up to one point seventy three gigabit per second of data transfer and that is really cool as to MSI I love the fact that we can do some later on kind of secondhand upgrade I absolutely love this so in conclusion I'm going to put the board here in conclusion our very first entry-level multi-port for the brand new lineup of MSI gaming friendly motherboard the MGP MPEG right is a winner this board will retail

and it's near competition and um I think there are a couple of critics the fact that we don't have hit things on the MDOT to solicit drop let me say this right away and the fact that yeah I would have liked to have a metallic Li reinforce second 16-piece a Elaine's with more lanes and four but other than that this is a really complete motherboard which at this price point brings much more than expected to and the fact that you have this

extended heat shield I think this is really innovation usually I'm sorry say asus is the one who drives the market drives innovation train on this kind of market but MSI really played it very nicely III think that this is something all manufacturers should be adopting right away and and yeah so very very double triple quadruple kudos to MSI and I think this is a main factor of why I'm so in love with this motherboard other than that you have the usual things that you're

gonna see at price range I'm not a fan of the RGB oh sorry I have the red LED but those are details and no deal-breaker so from my money if that's your budget this is exactly where you want to be for a first time builder or for even somewhat of a good performance gaming experience there is nothing else on the market which will deliver that many features for that little and money and it's red so kind of Christmasy alright .

take a first look at the msi n pgz 390 gaming + motherboard that supports intel's eighth generation cpus like the 8700 k and intel's ninth generation cpus like the brand new six core 6 thread i7 9600 k the eight core eight thread i7 9700 k and the eight core 16 thread , what a time to be alive let's check it out, all righty well let's take a look at this brand-new offering from MSI and chat more about the new CPUs a

little bit later towards the end ish half of the review yeah well let's take a look now oh yeah special presentation isn't this nice if you're new here we do motherboard Mondays every Monday and basically what we do is we take a look at a new motherboard every Monday pretty self-explanatory right this is the new MSI MGP z which supports the new Intel ninth generation CPUs but yeah let's take a closer look and see what you get in the box when you buy this guide very exciting stuff all right here what do we got here first we have got these SATA

cables for plugging in all of your cider drives pretty straightforward next we have the digital versatile disc with all of the drivers and utilities required however who's even got a DVD drive I don't know I said that last week come on don't be boring mate check out this guy here it is a true gaming catalogue slash pamphlet and some reason it's grown some wings and decided to want it to fly off screen check out this guy this is a sticker for your case if it is something that

you're interested in you have it it is the msi dragon guy I don't know what his name is I keep forgetting he is a thank you for choosing this msi product brochure piece of paper thing actually no thank you MSI for sending this to us next right here's a quick installation guide so you can install your motherboard nice and quickly I'm using that joke a lot lately and here's something I don't think I've ever consciously seen before it's a standoff notification basically so when you put this in your case you don't put in standoffs and short out your motherboard

which can happen and I've seen it happen he is the user guide to tell you how to live your life and basically tell you everything about the board some MDOT two screws so you can screw in your m2c your motherboard there are a couple slots this is the i/o shield so you can see what's on the back of your computer once you build it with this beautiful new motherboard and let's take a look at the motherboard itself now this board has not been taken out of the plastic in fact

I'm opening this with you guys you live well not live because it's a voiceover but for the first time so you guys get to see this for the first time at the same time that I got to see it does that make sense I guess I guess it does make sense right we have six SATA ports here in this nice little cutout section I really like how they've done this there's also a USB 3.0 header very very nice right angle connector it's actually better to plug it in this way easier for cable management I love it there's also another USB 3.0 header in the standard configuration a 24 pin power

connector for your power supply and a pedo u amp antenna right let's move along we have the front panel audio connector as well as an analog RGB header we have three PWM fan headers right here see I get to it eventually we have a trusted platform module header right here for your TPM if you've got something you use you have two USB 2.0 headers these are basically used only for a iOS and other lighting stuff these days and a front panel header connector for your buttons and switches alrighty let's take a look at the top of the board here we have an

RGB header as well for analog RGB there's an AI o slash water-pump had our four PWM as well as a CPU fan PWM header as well and last but not least is the eight pin CPU power connector let's take a look at the connectivity you've got ps2 and USB 2.0 for your keyboards DVI and HDMI for display you've got USB 3.1 and USB 3.1 type C gen 2 Ethernet which is one gigabit as well as some more USB ports and all of the audio connectivity no optical but that's okay now these new ninth generation CPUs retained this same socket which is the 1151 - 2

socket and it also has 4 ddr4 Ram slots next up is the slot for Intel C and VI Wi-Fi modules it's actually based on PCI Express but specifically for the Wi-Fi module right that we have a 20 to 80 length m2 slot this can be used for octane as well as a regular m2 slot here which is like full length I mean that's what it's supposed to be as well as another PWM fan head on I thought I'd just add that bit in and let's talk about something that we don't usually talk about in these videos and that's the PCIe slots you've got a time 16 at the top you've got 4 times 1 slots and 8

times 8 spot for two-way crossfire that's right this board does not support SLI but it does support two-way crossfire , take some time because it's kind of let's call it a Sammy review let's talk about the specific features of the MPGs at 390 gaming plus like I mentioned a little bit earlier it's support intel's octane memory modules and supports MSI's twin turbo and dot two connectivity which gives you transfer speeds like in the vicinity of

around about 32 gigabits per second now one thing I'm immediately a fan of with this board is the cutout for the SATA ports and the USB 3.0 header if it's got like that nice little cutout I reckon every single motherboard should do this because it just makes cable management a lot easier especially with the USB 3 connectors like we all love to hate them when they like part of the case wiring loom and they're just crazy thick and they're always just awkward and I think this is a pretty elegant solution like I mentioned a little bit earlier as well the MPGs at 390

gaming plus supports 2-way crossfire but no SLI support which is okay because I think crossfire scales pretty well and for those team red GPU guys I think you're all good we actually did a video about like crossfire and like how it works and how it scales a little while ago and you can check that out in the top right hand corner right now we do have it build with this board coming later in the week but we can't talk about any performance metrics of these new CPUs

until a later date obviously we know how these ships perform but we can't discuss that with you guys at all so please do yourself a favor and don't ask in the comments what I can talk about though is the CPU that's being tested with this board it's been tested with the new i7 9700 K which has a base clock of around about 3.6 gigahertz and a boost up to around 4.9 gigahertz now the eye 970 900 K has a TDP of 95 watts and it's built on the 40 nanometer coffee leg

process with a sold at IHS that's right guys that they finally sold it so you don't have to deal with it and deleting with this new generation is a thing of the past that's it that's all the info I could talk about no performance stuff until the performance embargo is lifted .

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus LGA1151 Gaming Motherboard review

MSI motherboard for the Intel Core 9 generation processors and we are going to talk about the new MSI MPGs at 390 gaming + motherboard now before we go into the motherboard and discuss so there is about this motherboard particularly we're going to talk about the MGP ma g and m EG now what does it stand for the MSI team the MSI gaming crew decided to you know make something with the name so they can nicely separate the motherboards with the

performance and specifications and all the main features that has so for instance the ma g start stands for the msi arsenal gaming for the emmy G stands for msi enthusiast gaming and the MP G stands for the MSI performance gaming now as I said they did separate the mat boards according to their features and everything not necessarily the pricing but still you know when you're looking for a motherboard now you could easily you know choose which one you want

and then you have the Arsenal professional and you have the enthusiast motherboards from the MSI gaming since we here are going to talk about the MGP series it's quite a right to discuss what does the MPG deep performance stand for it stands for the mainstream gaming an aesthetics on the motherboard so the best thing to do is to unbox the MPGs at 370 gaming + motherboard now really curious because this is the new generation of motherboards and well I usually don't get such new stuff in a short period of time when it comes comes out but still it's

cool to have it here on PC crazy channel and to show you guys what are the new stuff now you have to save the connectors you have DC DVD for the drivers you also get a really cool logo here now I'm usually against logos but when it looks cool like this that's acceptable you have two small screws for the m2 SSDs to connect them to the motherboard MSI thank you for choosing MSI of course you get the new booklet that I usually didn't find in the MSI products

box or whatever you want to call it now we have here all the new MSI graphic cards you have all the peripherals you have the monitors everything here nicely written and you have their website where to register your new products you have the quick installation guide you have the case standoff notification you have a nice booklet user's manual to make easier for you to get to know a motherboard even better and you have a nice IO shield that isn't silver and it doesn't

look that dull so that's a big plus for me in my books and no matter what kind of motherboard I didn't notice so far I had three four motherboards from MSI and they all had nice IO cover so that's that's something I really love when manufacturers really considers to have a really nice design on everything but ok enough with the talk about the other stuff it's time to talk about this motherboard now talking about the aesthetics of the motherboard it has a nice you know

black and red color scheme so I know most of you guys like that column in their computers and this one is just a head start you know you don't have to think about the roms and the graphic card you already have the motherboard which looks really cool even though some of you might say you know it doesn't have a VRAM top VN cooler here passive one but still it looks really nice now the one thing I noticed on this motherboard it has here cut out for the SATA

connectors and for the two point one USB which is really cool and it gives a mother boards you know different look a different design than usual it's it doesn't go with the same plain thing that you usually get when you buy your motherboard now right from here looking at it as it is you have loads of fan connectors the four pin and this is what I usually am looking for and you would be surprised because I have nine fence in my case and then you consider it one two three four five six seven fans here so basically just need two splitters to get two more fans if you're

running a crazy system like I am over there but still seven four pin connectors for your fans which is really cool you don't need the fan controller you could just easily pin everything to your motherboard you have two USB 2.0 connectors right here you have D RGB connectors on the bottom side and here on the top eight pin connector for the CPU power 24 pin and everything else you have 2 m2 sockets you have loads of stuff here on this they said main stream motherboard but I would say this is more than they promote it it's really more than you should

expect now as I said it has twin-turbo m2 which supports interrupted memory it delivers PCI gen3 times for performance with transfer speeds up to 32 gigabits per second and it delivers 32 gigabits per second for the latest SSDs it also supports the Intel obtain technology and that is also a great thing to have if you're into you know those kind of m2 SSDs now let's go to the next thing next up is the Intel turbo USB 3.1 generation 2 which offers fast usb speeds when

connecting multiple USB 3.1 generation 2 devices at the same time so basically you can connect more devices and you won't have any speech drop whatsoever which is really cool because usually when you connect more USBs you get some transfer speeds drop and sometimes you know it can be frustrating but in this case this motherboard gives you the ability to connect more and get even greater speeds that's really cool now talking about D temperatures on the

processors I don't have the Intel Core 9 generation process right here but what they mention is they extended the PWM jacks sockets or however you want to call them and they say which is kind of logical when you connect more fans and if you regularly deep pressure if you control the air balance and the airflow you get nice temperatures on the processors so giving more connections for the fans you don't want to buy the fan controller this gives you lower

temperatures on the processor which is really cool and you're always you know aiming for that kind of stuff of course now talking about the memory advance technology delivers pure data signals for the best gaming performance and stability you have core boost and you have ddr4 boost as well so this is something additional to everything I mean most of the motherboards have a ddr4 boost but you know it's good to mention it just in case you don't want to you know scroll through the website and find specialty features of these at 390 motherboards now if

you're concerned with new generation cases as well because you know you have new cases with loads of new ports and Jack's and RGB and stuff you can connect everything to this motherboard so for instance you have the cooler master case that has 43.1 USBs you can connect it here without a problem because it has one here and one here talking about the type C that is one thing that is actually missing now you have six SATA ports you have the USB 2.0 2 right here the bottom you have the Aldea Jack you have a loads of RGB connections so if you

have if you're running a case that has lots of RGB options this would be a great board you know to connect everything and I almost forgot you have the enforced PCI Express for the main graphic card here as well which is really awesome edition now adding the nice color here will cover definitely the aesthetic that is definitely missing here on the top but I won't I wouldn't say that is something that you would you know that would diverse you from buying

this kind of board because it really looks cool and if you're aiming for a certain color scheme this is it guys I mean it has a nice black and red combo and it has all cool stuff now on the i/o ports it has two USB 2.0 it has dps to combo jack as well you have the DVI connector you have the HDMI you have type C right here on this side as well it doesn't have the interior one but it has the exterior at the back you have three USB 3.1 generation two you have these standards

LAN port a rj45 and you have the jacks for your speakers and for your retinal microphone and for your headset and everything else so guys basically this is it we have the msi MPGs at 390 gaming + motherboard here with us today also I'll put the links below for the MSI gaming page and I'll put some links for you guys to know where to buy DMS SH 290 gaming + motherboard.