MSI MPG Z690 Edge WiFi DDR4 Gaming Motherboard (ATX, 12th Gen Intel Core, LGA 1700 Socket, DDR4, PCIe 4, CFX, M.2 Slots, Wi-Fi 6)

This was written for a MSI Rewards Program RedemptionThis is only my second PC build ever, my first one was back in 2017 and I built a 6th Gen Intel system with a 1050ti. Back then I used a Gigabyte board and had a lot of issues with the BIOS and Gigabyte's utility programs, so much, in fact, I let the system stay at the default orange for much of the last two years just because I didn't want to go through the hassle. I digress, I decided to go with MSI this time around and highly recommend this board for a DDR4 12th Gen build. It has a small bit of RGB by the chip heatsinks and then the dragon logo, but nothing that will illuminate your entire house, which is what I was looking for, but the quality and BIOS are leagues above my 6th Gen Aorus. It's the highest end of the DDR4 boards, but very worth it over a lot of the other ASUS and Gigabyte options for the DDR4s.Pros -Great Quality HeatsinksBeautiful RGB DragonEasily Labeled headers4 M.2 slots and 6 Sata PortsSeems very DIY friendlyGreat I/O panel selectionPerfect amount of on-board RGB for meAwesome Accessories - USB Support Drive and Screwdrivers came in very handy!ConsIf you were looking for a super RGB board, this isn't itMystic Light isn't the greatest, but the rest of the utilities are greatStill trying to figure out how to overclock but that might just be my under-experience not the BIOS/UtilitiesI/O doesn't *Quite* line up with my case, but that could be an issue with Phanteks' case, it wasn't anything egregious, maybe a few millimetersLastly, the PCIe ports are a little close together. My 2070S and USB expansion card are mere millimeters apart. It doesn't seem to effect anything during heavy loads but if the mini PCIe slot could be at the bottom instead, it would've been MUCH easier to install those two cards, I can't imagine what I'd do if I was SLI bridging two 2070Supers.Overall, I'd give this thing a 9.8/10. It's an incredible board with incredible quality, for an incredible new system.Specs:Intel i5 12600KMSI MPG Edge Wifi DDR432gbs G.SKILL Trident Royal Z 3200mhz 2x16ZOTAC Twin-Fan NVIDIA 2070SuperWD_Black 500GB M.2 4th Gen / Seagate 510 250GB M.2 3rd Gen / Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPMPhanteks P600S Glacier WhitePhanteks 240mm T30 Glacier One Liquid AIOMSI MAG24C1 Curved Gaming Monitor 1080p 144mhz

MSI MPG Z690 Edge (DDR5)Overall I'm very happy and impressed with this motherboard! A few things worth noting below:Accepts the 13700K processor but must flash the BIOS before install.The BIOS is intuitive and there's room for overclocking (depending upon other hardware, of course). I flashed the BIOS with no processor, RAM, etc. on the board – follow instructions, it's easy – and used the USB thumb drive that came with the motherboard. I also formatted the thumb drive with default settings before downloading the newest BIOS off the MSI website.Worked like a charm!Four m.2 slots are great. Someone posted that using multiple m.2 slots will slow all others to the lowest gen device: that was not my experience. I have three NVMe's installed and their speeds run as advertised. One NVMe is a gen3 and two are gen4; all three are different brands (Samsung, Intel and SK Hynix). No issues with slower speeds for any NVMe, SSD or HDD.Overclocking in the BIOS is fairly easy and straightforward. I'm not sure if this board is intended for extreme OC'ing, but there is definitely enough meat for the enthusiast to tinker with.Seems to accept a wide range of memory; shouldn't have an issue unless using an unknown brand or getting outside the accepted frequencies. I used two sticks of G.Skill Trident Z5 @ 6000mhz (32 GB total): was recognized and the XMP profile activated easily in BIOS settings. From what I've read, 6000mhz is the lowest speed you should consider if getting DDR5, otherwise, stick to DDR4 board/ram and save some $$'s. For now, there isn't much performance gain in DDR5 for the average user and gamer.Plenty of fan and RGB headers.Mystic Lighting can be a little janky at times, but usually works as intended. The RGB lighting near the bottom of the board will likely be covered up with any large GPU (i.e. 40 series); no big deal.A few reviews called this board “low end” or “low-mid”. Not really sure if they know what they're talking about or if they're used to super high end boards? This particular MSI board may not be the very best, but it's not $800+ either. At the very least, it's a good mid-range board, if not high-mid board, imo. I've used several boards of various vendors in the past and this is by far my favorite.Will update this review in the future if problems arise.System specs:13700K – liquid cooled32 GB DDR5@6000mhzMSI 4090 Gaming X Trio3 NVMe's1 SATA SSD1 HDD4K gaming is very achievable! I'm now spoiled and it will be difficult to game at anything less from now on.