Skip to main content

MSI’s Z690 massive gaming motherboard comes with an LCD touch panel

MSI is working on a new Z690 motherboard tailored for gamers, and it seems that it may blow all  other high-end motherboards out of the water.

It’s likely to top the charts not just for MSI — it might end up one of the best motherboards for gaming when it comes to Intel Alder Lake processors.

MSI Godlike motherboard inside a PC case.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The new motherboard, dubbed MSI MEG Z690 Godlike, already won two CES Innovation Honoree awards, one for High-Performance Home Audio/Video and another award for Gaming.

Recommended Videos

Wccftech shared more information about the exact specifications of the board, although some details still remain unknown. One thing is certain — this motherboard will not be made for small cases. Calling it gigantic is not an overstatement, as it measures a whopping 305 x 310 mm, making it almost square. An EATX motherboard, it’s one of the largest — if not the largest — consumer motherboards on the current market.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The MEG Z690 Godlike looks fun and shiny thanks to the wide range of fully customizable RGB lights strategically placed all over the board. It also comes with a touch LCD panel that measures 3.5 inches and is located near the DDR5 DIMM slots. This feature will provide the user with useful information about the computer, including temperatures, voltages, core clocks, and more. According to MSI, the LCD panel will be customizable through the company’s trademark MSI Dragon software.

The size is not the only impressive aspect of the MSI MEG Z690 Godlike. It comes fully decked out with everything modern gamers could ask for — and then some. The motherboard is said to feature 10Gb Ethernet connectivity, six M.2 slots, the ability to include future PCIe 5.0 drives, and more. There are also plenty of USB ports and even a Thunderbolt 4 port.

MSI Godlike motherboard.
MSI

Considering that this is a high-end motherboard, the Z690 Godlike has everything it needs to handle the premium components it’s going to support. The board features over 22 power phases for the processor. It sports plenty of heat sinks and shielding to support the temperatures generated by the best processors and graphics cards on the current — and future — market. the MSI MEG Z690 Godlike will also support the newest DDR5 RAM — and loads of it, too. It has enough slots to house up to 128GB of DDR5 RAM running at speeds above 6666MHz.

All of the above sounds like every gamer’s dream, and it’s likely that MSI hasn’t spilled the beans on all of the features of the MSI MEG Z690 Godlike just yet. We also don’t know anything about the pricing and the release date, and these two points are perhaps the most interesting pieces of information for prospective buyers.

One thing is for sure — it won’t be cheap, but it remains to be seen just how expensive it’s going to get. We’re likely to hear more soon, as the board is set to release sometime in 2022.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
I’m a Steam Deck apologist. Here’s why I’ve been using the ROG Ally instead
Elden Ring running on the Asus ROG Ally X.

Since its launch, I'm a bit of a Steam Deck apologist. It doesn't need the advocacy, as the Steam Deck is easily the best handheld gaming PC you can buy, but even in the face of competition from the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw, I still use my Steam Deck for gaming on the go. A couple of apps have been slowly changing that story, however.

I like playing on my Steam Deck OLED due to the convenience. SteamOS isn't perfect, no, but it allows me to pick up and play my games quickly, which I value more than the higher performance available on Windows handhelds. A couple of key tweaks to the Windows experience can unlock that pick-up-and-play experience, and ever since configuring the ROG Ally X properly, I've been gravitating toward it more and more for my handheld gaming.
A proper sleep

Read more
Surfshark vs. Windscribe: Which unlimited device VPN is best?
Surfshark and Windscribe prices appear in a split-screen on a PC monitor.

You use more than one device, so it makes sense to use a VPN to protect privacy on all your computers, laptops, tablets, and phones. If you’re like me, that’s a lot of devices, making Surfshark and Windscribe top candidates.

While the best VPNs offer solid cybersecurity with excellent speed, some limit the number of simultaneous connections. That means you might need to disconnect your phone before using the VPN on your laptop. That can be frustrating if you've left your phone upstairs or in another room to charge, so I compared both Surfshark and Windscribe to see which is the better solution.
Specs

Read more
The 10 announcements that made 2024 a landmark year for AI
ChatGPT and Siri integration on iPhone.

We've officially passed the second anniversary of the start of the AI boom, and things haven't slowed down. Just the opposite. Generative AI is ramping up at a pace that feels nearly overwhelming, expanding into new platforms, mediums, and even devices at a relentless pace.

Here are the 10 announcements that made 2024 a monumental year in the world of AI.
OpenAI releases GPT-4o

Read more