The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTMSI MEG X570 Unify
The MSI MEG X570 Unify combines sleek and uniformed all-black aesthetics without the swathes of RGB LEDs which some users find garish. With similar specifications to the MSI MEG X570 Ace which we reviewed at launch, the MEG X570 Unify takes a more direct approach with some very interesting features. Not only has MSI dropped all of the fancy plastic on the rear panel cover and removes the integrated RGB LEDs, but the power delivery heatsink is incorporated into the large aluminium rear panel cover to create a massive and robust cooling solution for power users; the X570 Unify is using a 14-phase power delivery design and two 8-pin 12 V ATX connectors for power. The Unify is more focused towards enthusiasts and represents MSI's higher-tier of X570 models.
Looking at the core feature set, the MSI MEG X570 Unify includes three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots which each come with individual heatsinks for improved cooling performance when used with NVMe based drives. Also included four SATA ports and for the networking, included is a Realtek RTL8125 2.5 G NIC with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax wireless interface. On the rear panel, there is a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec with three USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Also present is a clear CMOS button, a Flash BIOS button, and a PS/2 combo port. There are three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which operate at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/x4, as well as two PCIe 4.0 x1 slots. Supported memory speeds allow for DDR4-4600 and up to 128 GB to be installed.
Everything about this model screams enthusiast, but without all of the bells and whistles of the MEG X570 Ace. The MSI MEG X570 Unify even managed to push a Ryzen 9 3900X to 5857.01 MHz which is the current highest frequency for this processor on HWBot. That sends a very clear message that this model is suited for overclocking, but still provides users with the same premium desktop motherboard features as other competitive models in its product segment. At present, there is no pricing information available, but it's likely to cost around the same as the MSI MEG X570 Ace ($370).
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isthisavailable - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
The industry needs to make up its mind when it comes to USB C. Laptops are launching with only USB C and meanwhile $700 motherboards only have 1 USB C port and 8+ "outdated" USB A'sThe_Assimilator - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
It's almost like there's a huge amount of peripherals with USB-A connectors that people who use PCs expect to continue to work when they upgrade! Isn't backwards compatibility a funny feature?Meanwhile, the only peripherals that laptops generally use are docks, hubs, and storage devices - all of which have USB-C versions out the wazoo.
naris - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
Why are memory speeds and channels show & discussed when talking about chipsets when the memory controllers are in the CPUs? Memory controllers have not been in chipsets for many years now!halfflat - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
ECC support can be hard to verify for mere mortals; collating (or even better, verifiying) ECC capability on these motherboards would be an extremely useful addition to the article.ishkatar - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
Does any of the boards support Raid 5? I only see 0, 1 and 10.Zibi - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
You don't want to use RAID 5 without proper RAID Controller with cache.That means dedicated card.
Actually from performance / security perspective RAID 10 is pretty OK.
The_Assimilator - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
AMD dropped RAID-5 support upon introduction of the AM4 socket (remember, chipset functionality like RAID is now a CPU function). I don't have an issue with that, since -5 is a very uncommon use-case in consumer workloads and if you want to do -5 right, you really want a hardware RAID card with a BBU.But -5 is pretty much dead anyway due to ever-increasing drive sizes - the rebuild time on anything over 1TB is horrendous, what you really want in such a scenario is RAID-6, and no consumer motherboard every has or will support that.
And please don't tell me you're using RAID-5 for data integrity, because invisible corruption is a thing that I have experienced personally. If you want *actual* data integrity, use Windows Storage Spaces or RAID-10, and as a last resort RAID-6.
Arbie - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
There must be something you left out of this roundup. Whatever it was, please go back and put it in, and next time get it right. Thanks.Korguz - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
huh ????Gastec - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
That $700 must be an error right, perhaps of judgement?