This review of the MSI MEG Z890 Ace is KitGuru's first review of a motherboard for Core Ultra 200S and it is impossible to separate our view of the Intel CPUs, which leave us somewhat unimpressed from the motherboard which is a good piece of hardware.
In many respects MSI has done a job which is too good as we struggle to imagine many customers who are so keen on Intel Core Ultra 9 285K that they are happy to lay out over £600 on this motherboard.
Certainly we can imagine the MEG Z890 Ace sitting at the heart of a workstation, and that will likely take best advantage of the 10Gbps Ethernet and Thunderbolt 4 ports but even there we have issues. The VRM is massivley over-specified for a 250W CPU, you don't need the extra power connectors, you certainly don't require RGB and neither do you require a complicated BIOS.
MSI could cut back in a number of areas and the Ace would still do a perfectly decent job.
You can buy the MSI MEG Z890 Ace for £639.98 HERE.
Pros:
- Solid quality and an epic VRM
- Dual Thunderbolt 4 and loads of USB
- 10 Gb/sec Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7
Cons:
- Extremely high price
- Lane sharing for M.2 and PCIe is annoying
KitGuru says: The MSI MEG Z890 Ace outshines Intel Core Ultra 200S in almost every regard.