MSI MEG Z590I Unify

One of MSI's premium ranges is the Unify, with subtle and classic all-black aesthetics that omit integrated RGB lighting. The smallest of its trio of Unify boards is the MSI MEG Z590I Unify with its mini-ITX form factor, with plenty of premium features, including a 10-layer PCB. It uses all-black heatsinks, with a black dragon embossed onto the rear panel cover, and has a combination M.2 and chipset heatsink.

Due to its mini-ITX form factor, the board has a single full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, but it is also equipped with two M.2 slots, one operating at PCIe 4.0 x4 and another with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. Along the right-hand side is four straight-angled SATA ports, which sit next to two memory slots with support for up to DDR4-5600 memory and up to 64 GB of capacity. MSI is advertising a direct 8+1 phase power delivery, with premium 90 A power stages throughout, with a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input delivering power to the CPU.

On the rear panel, the MSI MEG Z590I Unify includes two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports with two mini-DisplayPort video inputs, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Powering the networking side is an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller and Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, while the three 3.5 mm audio jacks are driven by a Realtek ALC1220P HD audio codec. Finishing off the rear panel is a clear CMOS button and a pair of video outputs, including one HDMI 2.0b and one DisplayPort 1.4. output.

MSI MEG Z590 Unify-X MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi
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  • Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

    You’ll never be able to block all the spyware with a firewall. Windows is just one component of it. Don’t forget things like stealth CPUs that are built into the CPU, like the little friend on Lando’s shoulder. Etc.
  • lmcd - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

    What, the tinfoil hat isn't enough anymore? The "spyware" is just as present on any Windows era.

    If you want to disable built in telemetry, pay for pro and disable it in the registry. It's not hard if you're really that into privacy.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

    @lmcd - but that would require *effort* - why waste that effort on customising a modern OS, when he could expend more effort cobbling together a barely-working platform on a 12-year-old one? 😂
  • Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

    lol all I saw in my head reading those post are "old man yells at clouds"
  • Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link

    That’s due to the fact that the old man has just as much chance of getting the spyware out of Windows and CPUs (and the rest) as you lot have a chance of saying something relevant.
  • Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link

    Call us when the shuttle lands, Pauline.
  • Slash3 - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

    Z590 only provides six native SATA ports.

    ASRock's Z590 Taichi has eight ports, with two via an ASMedia ASM1061 controller.
  • Silver5urfer - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

    Got it thanks. I suppose that's how the EVGA Dark got it's 8 SATA ports too.
  • weilin - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link

    Z590, if i remember correctly... has 30 HSIO lanes total:
    6 of which are dedicated to USB (and can be ganged in pairs for 20Gb/s ports)
    4 more that is either USB 10Gb/s or 5Gb/s or PCIe.
    2 of them which can be Ethernet or PCIe,
    2 of them which can be SATA, Ethernet, or PCIe.
    6 of them which can be SATA or PCIe.
    10 dedicated PCIe

    So everything all together means theoretically maximum of:
    4 LAN ports
    8 SATA ports
    10 USB ports
    24 PCIe ports

    It's up to motherboard manufacturers to configure them as they see fit. It seems like the popular choice is to maximize USB, leave SATA at 6 and put the rest on PCIe ports (take 1 or 2 away for Ethernet, and 4 away for Thunderbolt if present).
  • weilin - Thursday, April 29, 2021 - link

    If anyone's interested in see the doc:

    https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/produc...
    On to left its under "Technical Documentation" -> "Intel® 500 Series Chipset Family Platform Controller Hub Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2" -> bottom of page 18

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