MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC

Price-smart performance

- Christian Guyton

The MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC falls at the less expensive end of the motherboards we tend to review, but it’s no less impressive for it. Initial examination had us hopeful—despite it only being a standard ATX size, MSI has worked hard to cram a lot of features on to this board. Designed to support eight and ninth-generation Intel Core CPUs, the Edge AC comes with a veritable slew of ports and pins, meaning it’s more than capable of carrying a high-end build, despite costing less than two hundred dollars.

MSI is a trusted household name when it comes to PC building, so its products come with a certain expectation of quality. Thankfully, this Z390 doesn’t disappoint; it might not crack the overall performance of some motherboards, but it can keep up with boards almost twice its price. Even while running Prime95 to heavily stress the processor, this board only drew a maximum of 148W of power. Other benchmarks came back identical to tests with more expensive boards, which was satisfying to see.