MEG X870E Godlike spearheads MSI’s X870 army — included expansion card harnesses the performance of two PCIe 5.0 SSDs

MSI has officially unveiled its initial lineup of next-generation X870E and X870 motherboards aimed at AMD’s all-new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs (while maintaining compatibility with Ryzen 7000 chips). The motherboard maker showcased four new boards: the X870E Godlike, X870E Carbon WiFi, X870 Tomahawk WiFi, and the Pro X870-P WiFi.

The MEG X870E Godlike is the flagship motherboard for MSI’s new lineup of 800-series AMD motherboards. The Godlike comes fully clothed with motherboard covers and MEG-themed graphics from head to toe. The only visible parts of the board are the CPU socket and DRAM area. MSI promoted the board’s main features, which include its built-in 3.99-inch LCD screen, which is aimed at real-time hardware monitoring, troubleshooting, BIOS updates, and personalized display options. It also has a new EZ control hub and an exclusive M.2 Xpander-Z Slider Gen 5 add-on card.

The EZ control hub is MSI’s new take on improving cable management for the end user. This hub reroutes many of the internal board headers to a location away from the motherboard. MSI showed an example of the EZ control hub being mounted behind the motherboard tray of a case. The hub itself comes with a whopping seven system fan headers, 2 ARGB headers, 1 RGB header, and one WaterFlow header on top of the EZ bridge connector that connects the device to its host motherboard.

As the name suggests, the M.2 Xpander-Z Slider Gen 5 card is a PCIe Gen 5-based M.2 expansion card capable of housing two Gen 5 x4 M.2 slots. The card comes in a single-slot form factor and a double-ball bearing fan to actively cool the two M.2 SSDs. The card takes advantage of a physical x16 slot, but it’s only wired for eight lanes (since two M.2 SSDs combined only require eight physical lanes).

Connectivity is immense on the X870E Godlike; the board features a single Marvell 10 GbE nick, one Realtek 5 GbE nick, Wi-Fi 7 functionality, two USB 40 Gb/s ports with DisplayPort functionality, a whopping 13 USB 10 Gb/s ports consisting of five Type-C ports and eight Type-A ports, and a front USB Type-C header capable of supporting up to 60W of power for fast charging.

The X870E Carbon Wi-Fi is the current runner-up to the Godlike. It features a much more traditional look, with motherboard covers only on the bottom of the PCB. The color scheme is fully black, save for some purple and blue bits that might be RGB illuminated.

The board has an 18-phase Duet Rail power system and 110A innovative stages. MSI reports that this configuration can easily handle the most potent AMD Ryzen desktop processors. Two heatsinks are connected to a single heat pipe to cool the VRM and maximize cooling efficiency.

Connectivity is just as impressive as the Godlike; the X870E Carbon Wi-Fi comes packed with 5GbE and 2.5GbE ethernet, Wi-Fi 7 support, dual USB 40GB/s ports with DisplayPort functionality, 11 USB 10Gb/s ports consisting of nine Type-A ports and two Type-C ports, and a front Type-C header capable of 27W of power delivery.

The Tomahawk branding comes back with the 800 series, featuring the mid-range X870 Tomahawk WiFi. Wi-Fiboard has a militaresque aesthetic, featuring a gunmetal-looking black paint job with neon green accents.

The Tomahawk features a 14-phase duet rail power system with 80A smart power stages and heatsinks covering the entire power delivery system.  Connectivity consists of Wi-Fi Wi-Finectivity, a single 5GbE LAN port, dual USB 40Gb/s ports with DisplayPort functionality, dual USB 10Gb/s Type-A ports, three USB 5Gb/s Type-A ports, four USB 2.0 ports, and a front USB Type-C header offering 27W of power delivery.

Finally, the Pro X870-P WiFi iWi-FiI’s non-gaming-focused professional board features a black and silver color scheme. It also serves as MSI’s budget-oriented X870 board and will most likely be the cheapest MSI board featuring the X870 chipset.

The board features the weakest power delivery system of the bunch, with a 14-phase Duet Rail power system and heatsinks covering the entire power delivery array. Connectivity consists of Wi-Fi Wi-Fiport, 5GbE ethernet, one USB 40Gb/s Type-C port, one USB 20Gb/s Type-C port, dual USB 10Gb/s Type-A ports, two USB 5 Gb/s Type-A ports and four USB 2.0 ports.

All four boards take advantage of MSI’s new EZ DIY features, including the EZ PCIe release, which enables quick and easy graphics card installations. MSI’s Steel Armor 2 has also been implemented, which features a more strengthened PCIe slot to support heavier graphics cards. Tool-less M.2 functionality has also been incorporated, enabling users to swap M.2 SSDs in and out of these motherboards without the need to grab a screwdriver.

One of the largest updates MSI has implemented to its 800 series AMD motherboards is the introduction of a dedicated 8-pin supplemental PCIe power connector at the bottom of each board. This connector is designed to support power-hungry graphics cards, purportedly supporting up to 2.5x power excursions to keep power stable under heavy loads.