MSI MEG Z690 Unify

Seriously stealthy and stuffed with M.2 support

- JOE SHIELDS

ANY COLOR so long as it’s black. So it goes for MSI’s mid-range MEG boards and the new MSI MEG Z690 Unify is no exception. While the look is familiar, the specifications have had a major overhaul to support Intel’s new Alder Lake CPUs, not to mention no fewer than five M.2 sockets, dual 2.5 GbE LAN, Wi-Fi 6E, plus DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. It’s quite a package.

If that’s true of the feature set, it also applies to the board’s physical bearing. The heatsinks have a lot of mass, as the structure reaches out over the IO area. The sheer scale of the cooling and the surface area connected via a heatpipe bode well for keeping the highend MOSFETs running well within their specified range.

Speaking of cooling, for the CPU there are only mounting holes for the new LGA1700 socket, not the legacy LGA1200 item. The holes are similar, but the overall ‘Z’ height is slightly lower on the newer platform. In other words, make sure to check on mounting pressure, even if you have an LGA1700 mounting kit for your cooler.