MSI launches a pair of motherboards based on the Z490 platform-- the MEG 490 Unify and the MEG Z490I Unify, both featuring a stripped-down all-black aesthetic without "redundant" LEDs in a choice of ATX and mini-ITX form factors.
The MEG Z490 Unify is the ATX motherboard. It includes a 16-phase power delivery with Intersil 90A power stages controlled by an ISL69269 PWM operating in an 8+0 configuration. It is PCIe Gen 4 ready, and includes three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, three full-legnth PCIe 3.0 slots working at x16, x8/x8 and x8/x8/+4, and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The six SATA ports support RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays, and the board supports up to 128GB of DDR4-4800 RAM across four slots.
The rear panel includes x1 USB-C and x3 USB-A ports, together with a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5Gbps ethernet port. Handling wireless connectivity is an Intel AX201 Wifi 6 interface. MSI adds the motherboard keeps cool with a Frozr heatsink design with a double ball bearing fan, aluminium cover with extended heatsink, heat-pipe connected mos heatsink and M.2 Shield Frozr, all ensuring extreme performance even in high temperatures.
Meanwhile the smaller mini-ITX MEG Z490I Unify features a 10-layer PCB and a direct 8-phase power delivery with 90A power stages. It includes dual PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, four SATA ports and a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot. The rear panel features one Thunderbolt 3 Type-C input, a DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI video output pairing and a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec. Networking comes through a 2.5Gbps ethernet port and an Intel AX201 Wifi 6 interface with Bluetooth 5.1 support.
MSI is still to announce when the two MEG Z490 Unify motherboards will hit the market.
