MSI MEG X570 Godlike

Swinging around onto MSI's X570 product stack and we open up with its most premium and ultimately the flagship, the MSI MEG X570 Godlike. The MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE is its flagship X570 motherboard designed for both enthusiasts and gamers with a range of high-end controllers, accessories, and also features a 20-phase power delivery; 14-phase for the CPU VCore and 4-phase for the VGT/SoC.

The X570 chipset on MSI motherboards including this model is actively cooled by a single fan featuring double ball bearing technology which MSI is calling Zero Frozr. Aesthetically the MEG X570 Godlike is impressive and even features an OLED screen which is implemented between the four DDR4 memory slots and the 24-pin ATX 12 V motherboard power input. The four memory slots have support for DDR4-4800 and up to 128 GB of total system memory. Touching on the accessories bundle included with the X570 Godlike is an Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE add-in card and M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 M.2 PCIe add-on card which allows users to add an additional two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives on top of the three PCIe 4.0 x4 slots that are present on the board.  Each onboard M.2 slot includes its own individual Lightning Gen4 M.2 heatsink. 


The MSI MEG X570 Godlike comes with an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 and Aquantia 10 G NIC add-on card

The MSI MEG X570 Godlike's PCB is four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which operate at x16, x8/x0/x8, and x8/x4/x4, with the last full-length slot locked down to PCIe 4.0 x4. This means both two-way NVIDIA SLI and up to four-way AMD CrossFire multi-graphics card setups. A lot of focus has also been put enthusiasts with its 16-phase power delivery for the VCore; this power delivery uses Infineon TDA21472 MOSFETs with IR3599 doublers and runs from an IR35201 Digital PWM controller. Providing power to the CPU is two 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs setting the Godlike up as MSI's most enthusiast-level desktop board for any AMD platform in recent times.

Looking at the rear panel of the X570 Godlike, there are three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, and two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports. Commonly featured on premium models, the MSI MEG X570 Godlike also has a pre-installed rear panel IO shield. Also present is a Flash BIOS button with a highlighted Type-A port dedicated to firmware flashing, as well as a Clear CMOS button, and a PS/2 combo port. The onboard audio is powered by two Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codecs with five 3.5 mm jacks and S/PDIF optical output, MSI has included an ESS E9018 DAC for good measure, which also adds a dedicated 6.3 mm jack for studio headphones which is included in the accessories bundle. The rear panel has two Ethernet ports with a Killer pairing consisting of an E3000 2.5 G, and E2600 Gigabit NIC.

The MSI MEG X570 Godlike E-ATX motherboard has an MSRP of $699 which for everything that is included is quite impressive. With an impressive accessories bundle which includes an Aquantia AQC107 10 G NIC add-on card, an Xpander-Z Gen4 M.2 card which adds a scope for an additional two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives to be installed bringing to total to five is also a nice touch. It's not a cheap investment, but it's an impressive option for gamers, enthusiasts, and hardware aficionados looking to create a high-end system using Ryzen 3000.

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  • abufrejoval - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    It's amazing how quickly you run out of PCIe lanes, when you don't have switches to multiplex and translate between PCIe revisions and lanes (e.g. PCIe v4 x2 <-> PCIe v2 x8).

    I find myself using USB 3.x NBase-T NICs and NVMe adapters, simply because they *do* switch.
  • Bensam123 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    Maybe a bit more depth on the power delivery page. I have absolutely no idea how to go about parsing what's there. More chokes is better? What denotes a power phase?
  • A5 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    +1. Some analysis of that information would be helpful.
  • MrSpadge - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    +1
  • bunkle - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link

    The controller column includes the total number of phases supported split between CPU cores and SoC e.g. (6+1) = 6 CPU phase and 1 SoC phase. More is *usually* better but has diminishing returns regarding tighter and tighter voltage regulation. Some controllers are better than others (can operate at high frequency e.g. 500KHz v 1000KHz, include other features to improve performance) mitigating the need for more phases.

    Each phase is a buck converter comprised of a low/high side MOSFET (can be integrated in a single package) and choke. Some controllers can support doubling up the PWM signal to driver more MOSFETs. Doublers can also be added as discrete components if not built into the controller.

    Current rating of the MOSFET (e.g. Sic639=40A IR3555=60A) indicates the total power deliverable. MOSFETs are not 100% efficient and vary in efficiency. The more current they provide the hotter they get and the less efficient they become, with better MOSFETs producing less heat for a given current. Thus using doubles can improve temperatures and efficiency without the benefits of the tighter voltage tolerance that *real* phases provide.

    Hope that’s helpful!
  • bunkle - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link

    A lot more detailed explanation: https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/voltage_regulator_mod...
  • bug77 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    The description for AsRock X570(M) Pro4 says "5 jack + 1 SPDIF". Unfortunately, those boards lack SPDIF and only come with 3 jacks ;)
  • Smell This - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    I'm thinking the *ASRock Thunderbolt AIC* ...
    https://thunderbolttechnology.net/product/asrock-t...
    would cover all your TBT peripheral needs, including optical.
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    Do X570 boards still need an extra chip per USB port to support USB-C reversibility?

    The additional expense and needed PCB space were cited as among the reasons why earlier generation boards (IIRC both Intel and AMD) almost never had more than 1 C port; but it was never clear to me if that was an inherent implementation penalty for the C port or an artifact of Intel's tech stack being stalled out and AMD outsourcing to ASMedia which built the chipsets on an ancient (55nm) platform.
  • DigitalFreak - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link

    Gavin - X370 and X470 only supported PCIe 2.0. The connection between the CPU and chipset was 3.0, but all the ports on the chipset were 2.0.

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