MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Gaming Motherboard ATX - Supports Intel Core 12th Gen Processors, LGA 1700 - Direct 19+2 105A SPS, DDR5 6666MHz+/OC, 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16, 5 x M.2 Gen4/3 x4, Dual 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 6E

MSI are undisputably one of the best manufacturers out there for gaming/high performance motherboards, the MEG Z690 Unify does not fail to meet these expectations, if anything exceeding them slightly, for me personally. With its 12-layer PCB, it packs quite the heft, and feels very sturdy in hand, plenty of options for expansion with its 5 m.2 slots and indeed SLi/Crossfire compatible those die-hard gamers. The specification is very impressive for the price, it's definitely well suited to gamers or those who want a clutter-free experience in the case. Personally paired mine with an i9 12900ks and 32GB ddr5-6000 Corsair Vengeance CL36 ram, I'm Incredibly impressed, despite the steep learning curve with DDR5 vs previous generations, it's worth the time and efforts to get right. I won't deny it initially took a fair bit of tweaking settings to get XMP to run stable 24/7, but I'm inclined to put this down to the choice of memory rather than the motherboard itself. Overall, well worth the price paid (on offer at 30% off at time of purchase), very good build quality with heatsinks galore, including for all 5 m.2 slots. Subtle but industrious looking styling, it's a winner in my book. It should be noted the motherboard has no provision for integrated graphics and thus a dedicated GPU will be required, but then, given the target audience, this shouldn't be a problem for anyone looking to buy this particular board. Thunderbolt (USB4) support out the box, WiFi6 & BT with plenty of expansion for more than the already generous supply of USB3 ports upon the rear I/O. The 'Pros' are near endless. Multiple vendor ARGB support and headers for a total of 8 fans make cooling and lighting a breeze. Lack of paper manual included in the box was slightly frustrating and perhaps the only 'Con' i could make, given the caliber of the hardware, but then, it wasn't difficult to download the PDF and in fairness the paper saved is arguably quite environmentally conscious given I will likely never need to use the manual again throughout the lifetime of the product.

I got this for just over £200 and even though its a Z690 I think that is a bargain. All black no RGB. Lots of cooling and heatsinks for M2s etc. Has twin 2.5GB ether net ports, not many other boards have this, great for a NAS. One thing to watch is that it does not support CPU graphics and does require a GPU. There are no video outputs on the motherboard. I got a very light x4 GPU as I'll mostly run this headless. I like MSI motherboards as they are reliable and usually well made and this one is no different.

Pretty good motherboard with just a few quirks like occasionally booting into bios and other things I find mediocre hence 4 stars

This is very solid choice when it comes to Z690 motherboards. Stability is spot on - no problems with my 5600MHz Corsair DDR5 and Intel 12700KF. The three M.2 PCIe4 drives I have installed run very fast and cool. There is a wide variety of I/O, with 20Gbps USB available both front and back as well as many 10Gbps ports. The all black aesthetic with no RGB whatsoever looks great as I often find that RGB on a motherboard can clash with RGB on other devices in the case.

It's a motherboard aslong as it works and does it's job it's money well spent, this purchase allows me to play the games i own at their maximum settings.

Went in fine, no problems

Great quality motherboard, looks awesome, easy to install, lots of USB 3 / M:2 ports and works with Windows 11 straight away. Wish the price was lower and they did not waste space with PS/2 port (does anybody still use this port?!)

It is amazingly surprising fact that this motherboard doesn't have a iGPU from CPU output. I didn't notice it in the first place, so forced to buy a temporary GPU to be able to work. Other than that, everything is good.

A great motherboard. It was on sale. Got a brand new example in sealed box. Still works great and it's in use for a few months now.

Ich hatte vor 20 Jahren ein Board von MSI das am letzten Tag der 24 monatigen Frist abgeraucht war. Da schwor ich mir nie wieder MSI. Der Händler war Alternate. Nach unzähligen Mails und hin und her war Alternate bereit einen Ersatz zu senden. Nach 20 Jahren überlegen griff ich bei dem MB von MSI zu. Es ist wirklich sehr gut verarbeitet, sehr schwer, alle wichtigen Anschlüsse vorhanden. Die Backplatte hinten bzw. unten wird durch Waermeleitpads, die Spannungswandler gekühlt, was ich so noch nie von einem anderen Hersteller gesehen habe. Auch der Versand durch Amazon aus Polen via DPD ist hervorragend und ging schnell. Mal sehen wie haltbar dieses MB ist, hatte es mir wegen der Multi GPU zugelegt. Hatte es gebraucht, wie neu für 258 Euro gekauft.

J'avais initialement acheté une z790-P wifi de MSI, mais j'ai realisé que NVDIA avait presque totalement banni le SLI nvlink sur ce chipset. Obligation de downgrader au z690. Cette carte est une des rares carte LGA 1700 supportant le SLI et disposant de deux connecteur PCIe 5.0 en x8/x8. en z790 les premiers prix pour avoir du x8/x8 sont autour de 600 euros et aucune ne gere le SLI. Bref pour 250 euros la z690 Unify est une merveille pour ceux qui souhaite se monter une machine dual GPU avec mise en place d'un connecteur nvlink pour faire du vram stack avec 2*3090. On obtient donc 48GB de vram. Cette carte s'adresse donc uniquement pour ceux qui souhaite faire du rendu 3D GPU ou du AI training. Pour les autres le SLI ne sert a rien et donc si c'est pour une utilisation mono GPU autant partir sur du z790. Pour flasher le bios avant montage, il faut juste brancher l'alim sur la carte. Telecharger le bios à jour pour gerer les CPU 13eme/14eme gen. On renome le bios en MSI.ROM sur la clefs USB on insere la clefs ds le port USB specifique. Il ne faut pas que la carte soit allumé, il suffit d'appuyer sur flash bios et la carte mere s'alume toute seul et flash le bios. Ca marche parfaitement avec mon 14700K et ma crucial CP2K32G56C46U5. C'est un vestige du passé a un prix defiant toute concurence , carte precieuse car c'est une des seule qui vous permettra d'avoir un 13900K ou un 14700K avec 2*3090 et 48 GB de vram stacker via nvlink. Pour la meme puissance en Quadro c'est 6000 euros la A6000. Pas etonnant que jensen fasse la chasse au SLI sur les GPU grand publique.

bellissima e nonostante non del 2024 e super aggiornata con le ultinme tecnologie tranne il socket ovviamente

Es una buena placa para socket 1700 , generacion 12, 13 , y 14 , llevo un mes con ella y bastante bien ,es negra como veis en la foto nada de colorines , auras etc.. pero si, tiene de todo lo necesario . Lo malo : Uso un 12700KF , y tengo problemas con el XMP , dandome inestabilidad en el PC , crasehando en juegos. LA memoria que tengo es compatible segun la pagina de MSI , es una Corsair Dominator de 6200Mhz , se supone que llega a 6666Mhz, pero no es cierto . Haciendo pruebas he conseguido que sea estabale en 5200 , 5600 y 6000 con XMP activado pero bajando la frecuencia de la RAM manualmente desde la BIOS. lo digo para que lo tengais en cuenta.