MSI has just announced the release of the MEG Z690 Godlike motherboard, the company’s latest Intel Alder Lake high-end board. It comes with a long list of fun bells and whistles, but unsurprisingly, the high-end features are offered at a hefty price.
Made for enthusiasts, this limited-edition motherboard has a built-in touchscreen control panel and new cooling solutions, and comes bundled with MSI’s liquid cooler and Kingston’s DDR5 RAM. Even then, it’s still very expensive — it has an MSRP of $2,099.
Made for the Intel Alder Lake LGA1700 socket, the MSI MEG Z690 Godlike motherboard offers an industry-first with its impressive touchscreen. The built-in 3.5-inch IPS LCD display is installed directly on the motherboard and provides information about the system, including hardware monitoring. It can also be customized to feature other kinds of MSI software. MSI also promises that the display can be used to adjust system settings.
Dubbed the M-Vision Dashboard, the screen doesn’t have to be installed inside the PC. It can be disassembled from the motherboard and connected via USB. Users can then choose to keep the control panel just about anywhere, such as on top of the PC case or on the desk.
The motherboard itself has a sleek, clean, high-end design with fully customizable RGB lighting. It’s also peppered with cooling solutions, including a dual cross heat pipe, two heat sinks, and a wavy fin design that promotes heat dissipation.
MSI’s Godlike offers plenty of room to install some of the best SSDs, as it features six M.2 connectors that receive extra cooling from the motherboard itself. The board has dual 8-pin power connectors with Core Boost technology. There’s also a lot to mention in terms of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 slots, USB 4.0, USB 3.2, and Type-C. Unsurprisingly, the MSI MEG Z690 Godlike also provides users with access to the latest and greatest, including the new PCIe 5.0, DDR5 memory, and Wi-Fi 6E, as well as 10G Super LAN.
MSI issued a press release to announce the card and posted it on its website. In its statement, the company refers to the motherboard as the “One Board to Rule Them All” in a fun Lord of the Rings reference. While it’s undoubtedly going to rule (or almost rule) every list of the best gaming motherboards, it will also be a heavy burden on the wallet because of its huge price tag.
It’s worth noting that the $2,099 price doesn’t cover just the motherboard. As it’s bundled with an MSI MEG CoreLiquid S360 liquid cooler (priced around $280 on Amazon) and two sets of Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 16GB RAM (currently around $370 on Amazon), the board itself costs less than $2,099.
Even though this limited-edition motherboard comes bundled with expensive accessories, the $2,099 price tag means that many users can buy a whole gaming PC for the price of just this board, the cooler, and the RAM. However, this is an enthusiast-grade motherboard for those who really want to push their gaming PCs to the limit and beyond.
The company promises that customers who purchased a previous-generation Godlike motherboard or an MSI RTX 3080 or 3090 graphics card will receive a discount. Those users need to register on MSI’s website in order to be eligible. MSI hasn’t provided further information as to when and where the board will be available for purchase to other customers.
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