Z390 remains to be a bit of a mystery release, as it is such a small step upwards with merely adding native USB 3.1 Gen 2 and WIFI, that and it's better optimized on the VRM area to deal with the new 8-core processors.

Having been reviewing motherboards for more than 10 years, I've seen the quality gap between the most popular manufacturers diminish with each product cycle to a point where you really need to nitpick to make decisions about which board to go with vs. another option.

During Computex 2018 we were exposed to a new product line from MSI called MEG or the MSI Enthusiast Gaming with their flagship motherboard called the X399 Creation. The motherboard had a great overall design that would lay the groundwork for a unified product line with similar graphic treatments,...

Discrete RGB LED; Black and Silver Color Scheme; Excellent UEFI Menus; Custom Audio System; Included HB SLI Bridge; AC Wireless Onboard; Infinity RGB LED Display; Excellent Overclocking; Dedicated AIO and CPU Fan Headers; Game Boost

No PS/2 ports; Missing onboard video connection; Lots of stuff sticking up on the back of the board; Game Boost overvoltage

Discrete RGB LED Black and Silver Color Scheme Excellent UEFI Menus Custom Audio System Included HB SLI Bridge AC Wireless Onboard Infinity RGB LED Display Excellent Overclocking Dedicated AIO and CPU Fan Headers Game Boost

No PS/2 ports Missing onboard video connection Lots of stuff sticking up on the back of the board Game Boost overvoltage

Shifted to this board after an Asus effectively failed me. Predictive auto voltage for overclocking is a bit overkill, jumps the voltage .04v more than you need in my experience, but with manual fine tuning this board is nice and stable. Just under 5.1 Ghz and stabilizes at high 80°C in Prime95.

Got this one going last night with a bleeding edge EVGA RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming Edition. 500GB M.2 system disk backed up by a 2TB M.2 application drive. Almost in time for a Christmas VR experience with my nephews ... Microsoft and NVidia kyboshed that quest that I admittedly started too late.

The MSI MEG Z390 ACE has a lot to offer any user starting with a solid 12-phase power section and dual 8-pin EPS connectors. For those who really want to push the boundaries and drop to sub-zero, the ACE is even prepared for that with LN2 specific jumpers to mitigate cold boot issues and voltage...

As the price of motherboards creep ever higher in the premium segment of the market, it can often prove difficult for consumers to justify that extra spending over entry-level and mid-range options.

Triple M.2; High quality audio solution with ESS DAC; Onboard WiFi & Bluetooth; Plentiful USB 3.1 Type-A and C; Onboard power/reset; diagnostics tools and function buttons; High quality 12-phase VCore VRM with monitoring sensors; New unified software package "Dragon Center"; Competitively priced...

No integrated graphics VRM or display outputs; Only one M.2 heatsink; Only one onboard RGB lighting zone; Enhanced Turbo was unstable

The board is pretty, well-built, and carefully designed, and it lights up like Infinity Christmas if you've got the requisite LED light strips and a clear case side panel. But the most important thing the MEG Z390 ACE does is give Intel's latest processor, the most impressive mainstream chip I've...

Highly builder-friendly; Robust power delivery for pushing Core i9-9900K to its limits; Unique "infinite regression" RGB panel; Built-in I/O shield; Deep overclocking features; Impressive integrated audio

Three M.2 slots, but only one with heatsink; Light on built-in RGB LEDs (besides Infinity panel); Pricey, even for a Z390 board; No video outs for integrated graphics

The MSI Z390 ACE sits below the MSI Z390 Godlike in the company's product stack and has plenty to shout about including a trio of M.2 slots, a well built power delivery, and as many USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports as you could ever need.