It's finally here, folks; MSI's MEG Z690 Godlike Alder Lake motherboard has been revealed in its angelic glory. During an eventful livestream yesterday, MSI gave us all the motherboard's critical details, including its exorbitant price tag. How much, you ask? So how does $2,099 sound to team up with the best CPUs for gaming?
Before you start yelling at your monitor and cursing the gods, let's preface this by saying that MSI will only sell the MEG Z690 Godlike in one form: fully loaded. So not only are you getting the biggest consumer motherboard that we've seen in ages, but the feature-packed board weighs in at nearly 7 pounds. In addition, as we previously reported, MSI will bundle the MEG Z690 Godlike with 32GB of Kingston Fury DDR5-6000 memory and a MEG CoreLiquid S360 CPU cooler.
Sadly, obtaining a MEG Z690 Godlike will be an exercise in frustration for many. MSI says that only customers that previously purchased a Godlike motherboard or one of its GeForce RTX 3080/3090 graphics cards will be eligible to secure the MEG Z690 Godlike. Somewhat humorously, MSI's Eric Van Beurden exclaimed, "That's nobody" in reference to the GeForce RTX 30 requirement. And to further drain the pool of participants, MSI says that you must have registered that product online.
That's probably a workable solution for MSI, given the costs of developing the motherboard and the limited market for a hardware bundle that tops $2,000. And given the costs associated with obtaining the previous generation Godlike motherboards and current-generation RTX 30 Series graphics cards, MSI knows its audience. It says that it wants to reward its "loyal customers," which is understandable.
As we previously mentioned, the MEG Z690 Godlike comes with a detachable "M-Vision Dashboard," which is a 3.5-inch IPS touch display (480x800) that shows system status, clock speeds, and other pertinent information. It can also adjust the CPU speed on the fly. It attaches to the motherboard via a magnetic connection and has a speaker on the bottom for audio playback. The M-Vision Dashboard can also be used outside the motherboard by attaching the included USB cable to the magnetic connector. In addition, you can change the display's orientation to portrait or landscape mode via a software utility.
As for its other specs, the MEG Z690 Godlike is absolutely stacked. It supports DDR5 memory up to 6666MHz (overclocked), a 20+2 direct power design, six M.2 slots (one Gen5, four Gen4, and one Gen3), eight USB 3.2 Gen2, four USB 3.2 Gen1, and four USB 2.0 ports. In addition, you'll find an Aquantia AQC113CC 10GbE LAN adapter along with an Intel I225-V 2.5GbE LAN. Rounding out the connectivity is an Intel Wi-Fi 6E module for wireless duties.
If you have a Core i9-12900K and are looking for the most feature-packed and over-the-top motherboard to pair it with (and you also meet MSI’s prerequisites), the MEG Z690 Godlike sounds like a quick way to blow $2,099 just in time for the holidays.
