MSI MPG Z890I EDGE - ITX

t2na

t2na

t2na

Soldato
Joined
27 Jan 2020
Posts
3,378
Location
West Sussex
Picked this up yesterday as I'm in the process of moving my ATX 265k build across to my Ncase M2 Grater case. It's an incredibly stacked motherboard for an ITX form - genuinely is almost more impressive than some full size ATX boards I've used recently.

It can hold up to 4 M.2 drives - 3 on the actual board itself and then one on the daughter board - and the two on the front are all covered with a pretty chunky heatsink. Same situation with seemingly all ITX boards with a max of 3 fan headers (including Pump Header). I wish we'd start to get more fan headers as airflow is so crucial in small ITX builds that often having numerous splitters all over the place can start to make cable management a bit tricky, especially when you've got different sized fans on the same splitter as a result of the limit on headers.

Annoyingly the 'smart' button cap was loose in the box - but pretty easy to just pop back on.

A doddle to flash the BIOS to the latest version which is always great - and supported 8000mhz CL38 (2x24GB) with no issues at all.

The only real concern is the VRM heatsink restricts some of the mounting kits for certain coolers. The Noctua kit fits - but only in a specific orientation. Thermalright seems to be ok with the PA Mini! I'm using a 280mm Titan from Corsair and that mounting fit without any issues so no issue for my build.

The rear IO is great, hopefully we see better ITX boards come to AM5 and not some of the stranger ones like the X870 from Asus where the front panel header is on the daughterboard.

FfIE2Id.jpeg
 
Alright, turns out there's a reason why this motherboard has so few reviews and it seems to have a relatively high return rate.

Great IO - but limited cooler compatability (but not a huge issue for me as it worked with both the D12L and the Corsair Titan AIOs) definitely makes it a bit more tricky to work with. But the main issue is the Mosfet fan is insanely annoying and no matter what I do I cannot tweak it's fan curve. The other fan headers are completely editable (either with presets of silent, standard, turbo, max) but the mosfet fan has no ability to edit any element of the curve.

It default spins at 6k RPM which already sounds like a mosquito in your ear - and then ramps up to 12/15k - seemingly through no change in temp!

I've updated BIOS, flashed back to an older BIOS, I've tried adjusting with Argus Fan monitor or FanControl and it's impossible to change as it seems to pair it's read out speed with one of the Chassis fans. So even though I can see it's speed independently in HWInfo, every other application seems to think it's on the same header as CHA_1.

I'm half tempted to take off the heatsink and just see if I can manually remove the fan as outside of that it's a fantastic motherboard. No coil whine, supports 8000mhz DDR5 with no problem at all, the PL options for the 265k have given me some great scores on C24 and the rear IO is the best I've used on an ITX board.
 
kully1972 said:
Did you manage to disable the fan in the end?
I'm curious as I've seen it on offer for 300 pounds and it's very tempting! Thanks
Click to expand...
I had to send it back for a replacement - but the good news was that the replacement worked fine and I could control the fan from the BIOS without any issue.

It's a really great, feature rich and extremely well laid out motherboard. I swap between a 9800X3D system and a 265k system and whenever I'm using my AMD system and am doing anything in the BIOS I wish I was using this Z890i (or Asrock's Z890 Taichi Lite - though that is ATX).
 
JollyJamma said:
I see a more expensive model with OC for £400 but multiple models for far less that don't have that bad a featureset.
Click to expand...
Yeah - I mean it's the most expensive ITX Z890 motherboard available (the Strix Z890 can be more expensive depending on offers). ITX comes with that lovely little associated price hike!
 
I have a ASUs B550i Strix which I bought used and it was still expensive when compared to mATX and ATX so yeah, the ITX luxury price tax is real.
 
t2na said:
Yeah - I mean it's the most expensive ITX Z890 motherboard available (the Strix Z890 can be more expensive depending on offers). ITX comes with that lovely little associated price hike!
Click to expand...
I've just picked up it's bigger brother, the MSI MPG Z890 EDGE TI WIFI, lovely looking board, haven't had chance to install it yet but can't wait :D

Got it for an amazing price as well :cool:
 
I'm currently doing the build and have managed to gets some dominator DDR5 6400 MHz ram and a 265k.
Pulling my hair out trying to figure out a suitable air cooler given that vrm heatsink interfering with mounting kits.
I've decided to go with the Thermalright peerless assassin mini.
Any others I could use?
Tempting to use the silent loop 3 aio as well
The case is the razer tomahawk mini itx version
 
kully1972 said:
I'm currently doing the build and have managed to gets some dominator DDR5 6400 MHz ram and a 265k.
Pulling my hair out trying to figure out a suitable air cooler given that vrm heatsink interfering with mounting kits.
I've decided to go with the Thermalright peerless assassin mini.
Any others I could use?
Tempting to use the silent loop 3 aio as well
The case is the razer tomahawk mini itx version
Click to expand...
D12L from Noctua will fit as well if you want to stick with aircooling.

The newer Corsair AIOs (Link 240, 280, 360 etc.) all fit as well with their updated mounting mechanism.
 
Thanks for the advice. I've bought the NH-D15S as the mounting avoids the heatsink side.
I'll be putting the pc together today and the cooler will be the last component to be added.
I'll try and send some pics
 
Last edited:
Just tried booting without cooler and getting amber yellow light with one stick of ram and red and amber switching with both sticks.
Had to shut down PC as cpu was getting hot.
I'll wait until cooler arrives and troubleshoot.
Ram is Corsair Dominator 6200mhz but I've returned this now and will be getting new ram just to make sure it isn't defective.
I understand pc may boot several times to train ram so need to wait for CPU cooler.
In the meantime I've done a successful bios flashback using the usb port.
I've been spoilt never having had boot issues with my new builds over the last 10 years.
It's times like these you wish you hadn't upgraded but the addiction would have won eventually lol.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom