MSI MEG Z690 Godlike prepares for launch at $2,099, but only for select buyers

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: I’ve been out of the hardware scene for far too long, but I’m not sure any time away could prepare me for a motherboard that costs nearly $2,100. One could easily construct or buy a very competent PC with this budget, but hey, at least the option exists, eh?

MSI announced its flagship MEG Z690 Godlike in December 2021 but is just now getting around to launching it. The EATX board is based on the Intel Z690 chipset, and features four DIMM slots that can accommodate up to 128GB of DDR5 memory.

You also get three PCIe x16 slots, six M.2 slots and six SATA III ports, an integrated Wi-Fi 6E module, two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 connectors and a host of other USB ports. There are also dual LAN controllers, heatsinks galore and a removable touchscreen IPS LCD panel.

Dubbed the M-Vision Dashboard, the 3.5-inch panel plugs into the rear of the motherboard and displays system diagnostics like hardware monitoring and debug codes, plus provides one-touch access to Windows functions and more.

It’s a bit to swallow at $2,099, and will no doubt he hard to come by considering it is being produced in limited quantities with MSI prioritizing the option to purchase to those who have previously bought a GODLIKE motherboard or MSI RTX 3080 / 3090 series graphics card. On the bright side, your purchase price includes a self-contained liquid cooling system for your CPU and 32GB of Kingston Fury Beast GDDR5 RAM.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93318-msi-meg-z690-godlike-prepares-launch-2099-but.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

I'll take 2

 

[torchyear]

A perfect match for overclocking that $200USD i5-12400

 

[kiwigraeme]

Three PCIe x16 slots, six M.2 slots and six SATA III ports,

Maybe I'm silly - but I thought the data bandwidth is limited by Intel or AMD . Maybe it's just fancy switching - Am I wrong in assuming you can not be using them all at once .

I could imagine a need for lots of M.2 slots - video editing + I assume the 3 PCIe x16 slots are more specialist processing cards - ie crypto mining on those - and that hard drive crypto on the M.2 drives

 

[torchyear]

Three PCIe x16 slots, six M.2 slots and six SATA III ports,

Maybe I'm silly - but I thought the data bandwidth is limited by Intel or AMD . Maybe it's just fancy switching - Am I wrong in assuming you can not be using them all at once .

Yes, maximum 20 pcie lanes for the 12700 and 12900, so I’m curious how the bandwidth is managed on a fully populated board.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I just booked a scuba diving trip out to the brothers islands in Egypt. It’s one of the best places in the world to dive, it’s got crystal clear water, hot sunshine everyday with no clouds, you get sharks, rays, dolphins, turtles, everything. Even sunfish! Visiting is a once (or in my case 4 times) in a lifetime experience.

And that whole 2 week experience including flights cost less than this motherboard.

 

[Nobina]

It's made for people who recently bought a GPU. Overpriced is the theme of their builds and this fits like a glove.

 

[yRaz]

Why do you need a touchscreen on a motherboard? You aren't suppose to stick your hand in a computer when it's running, it's why we have protective cases.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Why do you need a touchscreen on a motherboard? You aren't suppose to stick your hand in a computer when it's running, it's why we have protective cases.

Because uhhhh, static electricity was made illegal in 49 states so it's OK to do that now.

 

[DrSuess]

Why do you need a touchscreen on a motherboard? You aren't suppose to stick your hand in a computer when it's running, it's why we have protective cases.

I won't be buying one but there are a lot of people that have their computers in open air chassis myself included. So if you have an open air chassis the touchscreen might come handy for O.C. tweakers.

 

[Geralt]

They can put their mobo deep into their...

 

[Lew Zealand]

I just booked a scuba diving trip out to the brothers islands in Egypt. It’s one of the best places in the world to dive, it’s got crystal clear water, hot sunshine everyday with no clouds, you get sharks, rays, dolphins, turtles, everything. Even sunfish! Visiting is a once (or in my case 4 times) in a lifetime experience.

And that whole 2 week experience including flights cost less than this motherboard.

Dude that sounds awesome, but the people buying this thing take vacations at places where they keep degenerates like you and me out with electric cattleprods.

 

[Avro Arrow]

There are people out there foolish enough to pay that kind of money. My dad's not quite the techie he was years ago (when he taught me all I knew at the time) and I had to stop him from buying a PC setup that he showed me. I realised that he had become an absolute brand***** and I had to talk him out of several parts. He specifically told me that "It's NOT for gaming!" which made me ask him why he had an Intel CPU (at the time, the top Intel CPU was getting slaughtered by the R9-3900X) if it wasn't for gaming. He also had an ASUS ROG Crosshair-type motherboard in the list that cost over $1,000CAD. Remember, this system is NOT for gaiming.

I told him that his BoM was awful and asked him why he chose the Intel CPU. He said "Because PC World and PC Magazine both recommended it." which just made me roll my eyes. I brought up Techsopt's review of the R9-3900X and showed him how it slaughtered the CPU that he wanted to get by a country mile.

In the end, I got him to "downgrade" to an ASUS TUF GAMING motherboard (he INSTISTED on only ASUS like a noob) then he asked me why I chose the TUF "GAMING" motherboard. After overcoming the initial shock of this man who had always been my tech mentor as a kid who was now back to being a noob, I pointed out to him that ROG means "Republic of Gamers" and that ALL high-end PC parts like that are geared towards gaming. I initially told him just to get an ASUS Prime (because he's not gaming, overclocking or anything strenuous) but he didn't want the "entry level board" (no X570 motherboard is truly "entry-level" but I didn't want to argue over it) so I suggested the TUF and he finally agreed. I actually wanted him to get a Gigabyte board.

In the end, I doubled his RAM, doubled his NVMe space, increased his CPU performance, etc. while REDUCING the cost of his build by $400CAD (yeah, his list was THAT bad). In a flash of Karma, his TUF motherboard gave him headaches with the sound so he had to RMA that and I had to loan him my ASRock X370 Killer SLI (with updated BIOS for Ryzen 3000). No issues after that have been seen. I only feel bad that I recommended one of those exploding Gigabyte PSUs. He needs to send his in because it is one of the ones on recall. At the same time though, he doesn't do anything that stresses the PSU in the least.

This shows, as much as the RX 6900 XT and RTX 3090, that no matter how bad a deal you make something, if it's pretty enough, some noobish fool will buy it.

 

[Uncle Al]

I'll take 2

Take 3, you can have mine ....

 

[nnguy2]

Where's our boy QP at? Probably waiting in line

 

[PEnnn]

Stay away, fellow peasants!!

This baby is meant for those suckers who throw $5000+ at a GPU after all and not for us.

Now, let me get back to eating left over gruel for dinner.

 

[torchyear]

I just booked a scuba diving trip out to the brothers islands in Egypt. It’s one of the best places in the world to dive, it’s got crystal clear water, hot sunshine everyday with no clouds, you get sharks, rays, dolphins, turtles, everything. Even sunfish! Visiting is a once (or in my case 4 times) in a lifetime experience.

And that whole 2 week experience including flights cost less than this motherboard.

You make a very good point about opportunity cost as a concept. The popular discourse about tech pricing (especially GPUs) seems to be in terms of relativity to other tech items, without discussing it in context of the rest of the real world. PCs as a leisure activity (which is what this ridiculous MB is targeting) is making less and less economic sense for the majority of people.

 

[veLa]

There's a sucker born every minute.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I just booked a scuba diving trip out to the brothers islands in Egypt. It’s one of the best places in the world to dive, it’s got crystal clear water, hot sunshine everyday with no clouds, you get sharks, rays, dolphins, turtles, everything. Even sunfish! Visiting is a once (or in my case 4 times) in a lifetime experience.

And that whole 2 week experience including flights cost less than this motherboard.

Hope you enjoy it - I did my open water in Dahab as a dirty backpacker - then went down to Sharm el Sheikh for some off the boat diving - saw sharks etc . Maybe before it got taken over by the Russians . Haven't dive in ages - did snorkelling in Hawaii a few years ago - lots of turtles - night manta ray trip was cool ( not really snorkelling - son loved it ) . Yeah I could go diving in NZ to Three Kings Islands - apparently is meant to be very good .
Though snorkelling on reefs is great too -especially if fit and a good swimmer and able to go down for a minute or so ( not me anymore ) .
Felt sad for the owners of a beautiful house we stayed on Big Island at - a week after we left was consumed in the night by lava - most of them had no insurance - you could tell it was going to be their retirement home - whole village lost I think

 

[Dimitriid]

Should go right along with that 3090 ti as a fashion accessory I was recently talked about: we need some models to walk around an extremely empty designer house in their bathrobe and an impossible-to-pronounce French name at the end.

 

[Experimentongod]

Spending 2k on a mobo only for it to be "outdated" in 1-2 years. Not a good idea in my opinion. It's not like a CPU that you can keep for 4-5 years easily.

 

[umbala]

Why do you need a touchscreen on a motherboard? You aren't suppose to stick your hand in a computer when it's running, it's why we have protective cases.

They have to add SOMETHING to try and justify the price. You know, like having an alarm clock built into your fridge or a toaster with GPS.

 

[umbala]

There's a sucker born every minute.

Yeah, what's that saying? A fool and his money are soon parted?

 

[takaozo]

There's a sucker born every minute.

I know another one:

"The mother of I.d.I.o.t.s. is always pregnant"

 

[VitalyT]

Considering, that you can buy a good WiFi 6E card for $45, and a good Dual 10Gbe card for $149 on Amazon, that's $194 for enhancing any regular motherboard to about the same level. So $2100 is just for people with more money than sense.

Links:

• 10Gbe card
• WiFi 6E card