MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 ProSeries Motherboard (ATX, 12th Gen Intel Core, LGA 1700 Socket, DDR4, PCIe 4, CFX, M.2 Slots)

Probably the best bang for your buck motherboard considering all of the fan headers, SATA ports, and m.2 slots it has. Had zero issues with the setup, everything worked with Windows 11 like it was supposed to. Only negative is out of the box the motherboard has enhanced turbo enabled which overrides some of the core load defaults set by Intel. This was creating situations where the P and E cores were all boosting beyond some of the defaults and this in conjunction with the high voltage that the motherboard was drawing to support this was creating some thermal issues. I disabled this feature in the bios and manually adjusted my voltage and now my temperatures are at a comfortable level at idle and load.

I had recently upgraded to a newer processor and found myself with a spare 12900K that needed a home. I also had 64 gigs of DDR from an older PC that’s no longer here. This seemed to be a great way to use what’s available for a second PC.Right now I’ve got it set to dual boot both Windows 11 Pro and Fedora Linux 41.It’s got 64 gigs of DDR and an Intel Arc 770 Pro as GPU. I have all 4 m2 slots filled with drives, and have two mechanical drives 2x4 TB. Eventually this will be a home streaming device once I’ve gotten all our movies ripped and stored onto this.Overall a great board, it’s from their pro series which says a lot in itself. MSI makes the best PC components, they always work.

I won't rehash the specs but I've been running this with a 3090 and a 12900K with zero problems, no overheating.It is a very solid board. My only complaint is that the UEFI is not easy or intuitive like Gigabyte or Asus. Lots ofsubmenus. It's a solid, 1700 socket motherboard with an adequate amount of IO.

UPDATE: Got my 12600k yesterday and decided to do quite a bit of testing. I have bumped my review up from 3 stars to 4 as to be honest, this board performs far better than expected. The only functional worry I have is the Chipset does hover at 60 degrees C on an open bench due to its small heatsink, but with proper air and ventilation it does cool down. Nothing has changed as far as my initial thoughts down below, but now with use, it seems to hit very well for its price point and for a budget build, this would be a killer upgrade. At stock values with no changes on Cinebench R23, this board, 2 sticks of Corsair 2666 DDR4 at 16 GB and the 12600k, beat a Threadripper 1950X by almost 1000 points. Thats no laughing matter. At this point, if you have decent DDR4 ram, and $550, this with a 12600k would be a killer budget setup.So far for a cheap motherboard this feels OK. I bought this as a test bed form how 12th gen performs with DDR4 vs DDR5. TBH I wouldn't recommend anyone actually buy this board unless it's simply a placeholder. Here's some initial notes.*Yes it does have 4 M.2 slots, but only one of them is gen 4 and 3 gen 3 slots have no heatsyncs built in*only one of the PCIE slots is 16x gen 4 and the rest are 8x gen 3 (despite the box claiming 1 16x gen 3 which I assume they're simply saying the top slot can be gen 3 which no duh) so you're missing out on gen5 which is expected on a cheap board*The paint on the board is still tacky and hasn't seemed to cure more. This is the only fit and finish issue I've seen so far*The "accessories" and included are pretty lackluster. There's no full manual, only a quick start guide, a "thank you" note, a CD for drivers 🙄, 2 satay cables and the IO shield. That's it. The quick start guide is pretty pathetic in its details and really should've been trashed for a full manual*The rear IO is appalling for this Era. 4 USB 2.0 ports? Really? There's as many 2.0 slots as 3.x slots (when you include the type c). Ironically I'm not as mad at the PS2 port as I've found this hilariously useful on a couple of occasions.Now for the goods.*Besides the tacky paint, the board does FEEL well built. It isn't flimsy which is a nice change for a cheap board*It does have dual CPU 8 Pins which theoretically will help providing clean power. This is not a board I would recommend over clocking on as the VRMs and their heatsinks are pretty small, but it's nice to see none the less.*Header selection is surprisingly generous with 8 total fan headers (cpu, pump and 6 system fans), both ARGB and 12v RGB, 6 sata ports, 2 USB 3.0, USB C front header, 2 USB 2.0 and all of the other typical ones like Front panel and audio. Honestly one of the better selections I've seen for a board.*I'm also going to call the fact it supports DDR4 as an advantage being DDR5 is pretty space currently and this also enables some decent cash savings.*And finally a subjective. It does look good. Very simple and sleek. It's looks much better than most cheap boards and should match well with most components.My 12600K and 12700K arrive in a few days and then the cooler brackets a few days after that. We will see how it actually performs once I get them, but I wanted to be the first to put some initial thoughts out there for anyone purchasing this. I feel like it could be a decent stepping stone, but I wouldn't recommend it as a permanent solution.

I chose this motherboard for two reasons: (1) PS/2 connector. Great for waking PC with keyboard, thank you MSI for including it! (2) Six SATA connectors. Yes, some of us still use sata drives and docking bays and six is just enough.But then I also appreciate the user-friendly bios, the little quick release M.2 gadgets, four M.2 slots!!, four USB 2.0 ports in the back (thank you MSI !!), the ARGB connectors and just the overall nice layout and features.It is the perfect blend of cutting-edge technology (PCI-E 5.0, Gen4 x4 M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, ARGB) and legacy technology (PS/2, USB 2.0, SATA, DDR4) and seems to use the best of all of them. This is the board for us "experienced" guys who are still clinging on to tried and trusted technologies, but at the same time also want to try out the latest and greatest innovations. Well done MSI, mission accomplished and at such a reasonable price, Wow!