MSI has revealed a series of new gaming motherboards designed to make the most of the upcoming Intel 14th gen CPUs set to hit the market this year. While these new MSI Z790 Max boards are based on the already established Intel Z790 chipset, MSI says they will support ‘Intel Core Next-gen’ CPUs, and one board in the range even includes a USB 4 card.
That USB 4 card comes in the form of the MSI PD1000W that the company demonstrated at Computex this year. It supports speeds of up to 40Gbps, and can also supply 100W of power to supporting devices. It comes bundled with the MSI MPG Z790 Carbon Max WiFi motherboard, but its use of the standard 4x PCIe 4 interface means it can be plugged into any other motherboard too.
Meanwhile, all of the MEG and MPG motherboards in the range sport MSI’s JAF1 ‘hybrid’ header, which enables you to use a single cable to get yourself an extra ARGB connector and an additional 4-pin fan power header.
The Max series motherboards in the range also feature a Wi-Fi 7 connection, theoretically offering 320MHz of bandwidth and speeds of up to 5.8Gbps. As you’d expect, these boards have PCIe 5 M.2 slots too, including the MSI Z790 Edge Ti Max WiFi, which previously only sported PCIe 4 M.2 compatibility.
The new Max boards also sport MSI’s M.2 Shield Forzr system, which enables you to fit your SSD without fiddling with tiny screws. MSI also says that the heatsinks for the MSI MEG Z790 Godlike Max and MSI MEG Z790 Ace Max have a magnetic connector for the M.2 heatsink lighting, so you don’t have to fiddle with the RGB cable when you fit your SSD.
We know these new boards are designed to get the best out of the forthcoming Intel Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs. With the Intel 14th gen release date rumored to be October 17, 2023, that means these new motherboards are likely to come out around that time.
Like what you see from these new MSI Z790 motherboards? Let us know your thoughts on the Custom PC Facebook page, via Twitter, or join our Custom PC and Gaming Setup Facebook group and tap into the knowledge of our 420,000+ members.