MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X Motherboard Review

The Intel LGA 1700 platform was launched three years ago in 2021 and it has since seen a total of 3 generations of CPUs, Alder Lake (12th Gen), Raptor Lake (13th Gen), and Raptor Lake Refresh (14th Gen). We have seen at least three generations of motherboards, first with the 600-series which had Z690 as the top SKU, and then two generations of 700-series based on the top Z790 chipset which included a soft refresh for the 14th Gen lineup.

Intel has now introduced its next-generation 800-series chipsets and with the Core Ultra 200S CPU series, the company is also launching a brand new socket called LGA 1851. Today, we will be taking a look at the latest motherboards based on the Z890 chipset.

We received a load of motherboards from various manufacturers so let’s start by taking a look at these updated designs. For this review, we will be testing MSI’s latest MEG Z890 Unify-X motherboard which is priced at $599 US.

The Intel LGA 1851 Platform

For its Arrow Lake lineup, Intel is introducing a brand new socket which ends the reign of the LGA 1700 series after a little over three years. The new socket from now onward will be LGA 1851 and this will be first featured on the new 800-series motherboards.

The 800-series chipsets will include several SKUs but the one we are getting today is the top-tier Z890. This platform offers a total of 48 PCIe lanes of which 20 are PCIe Gen 5.0 and these come from both the CPU and the PCH. The Z890 PCH features up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to 4 eSPI, up to 10 USB 3.2 ports including 5 20G, 10 10G, and 10 5G options, up to 14 USB 2.0 links & up to 8 SATA III links.

The new platform is further enriched with the latest features which include:

Integrated I/O:

• Up To 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports
• Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+)
• Bluetooth 5.3 (LE)
• 1 GbE

Discrete I/O:

• Up To 4 Thunderbolt 5 ports
• Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 (5 Gig)
• Bluetooth 5.4 (LE)
• 2.5 GbE

In terms of memory support, the new Z890 motherboards will offer up to DDR5-6400 (native) capabilities and expanded speeds over 8000 MT/s with XMP. The platform will support up to 48 GB DIMMs in the dual-channel mode for up to 192 GB capacities in UDIMM, CUDIMM, SODIMM, and CSODIMM flavors.

Lots of Goodies For Overclockers!

Finally, we have the new overclocking goodness which comes in the form of new functionalities for tuners with fine grain control.

These features include:

• Granular core clock – Top turbo frequency in 16.6 MHz steps for P-Cores and E-Cores
• Dual base clock – Run an independent BCLK for SOC and compute tiles
• Tile-to-Tile & fabric OC – Can apply a static/BIOS ratio and supports dynamic ratio changes for fabric
• DLVR bypass – Bypass the internal voltage management using an external supply for extreme OC
• Intel eXtreme tuning utility – New features including automated OC enhancements
• Memory overclocking – New memory controller supports new XMP and CUDIMM DDR5
• P & E-core overclocking – P-core per-core V/f control, and E-Core per cluster V/f control
• Low-temperature overvolting – Increasingly bypass voltage limits as the chip gets colder

The cooler operation of the chips also provides higher headroom for overclockers. As for the TJmax, Arrow Lake-S “Core Ultra 200S” will have a peak operating temperature of 105C.

Cooler Compatibility With LGA 1851 Socket

The Intel LGA 1851 socket is compatible with LGA 1700 socketed coolers though some coolers might require an offset kit for proper thermal load balance. The new socket also has a revised ILM called RL-ILM which uses a spacer between the loading mechanism to ensure proper pressure for the new Arrow Lake CPUs.

Intel Desktop Platform Chipset Comparison