MSI Z390-A PRO LGA1151 (Intel 8th and 9th Gen) M.2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 DDR4 HDMI DP CFX Dual Gigabit LAN ATX Z390 Gaming Motherboard

MSI Hits it out of the park again! Keep in mind that the "PRO" part of this model, not everything is beginner friendly, although MSI's technical support will happily help you with your build. I would say this motherboard has so many OC features that it would be a waste to use this without an unlocked (K model) CPU. All the 1-3 star reviews are people who either won't read instructions or don't want to call MSI support when they don't know what they did wrong.I paired this with i7 9700K, G.Skill 3600MHz RAM, GTX 1080 Ti, Samsung M.2 SSD and an acer 144Hz monitor.Everything worked great with minimal setup! First boot I opened BIOS and clicked XMP and this MB auto detected a good 3600MHz profile for my RAM. I have adjusted some settings in "expert mode" to make the CPU turbo boost all cores and disabled clocking down for AVX instructions (heat warning!). In benchmarks it maintains 4.85GHz across all cores at once on air cooling (stock limits to 4.6GHz all cores and AVX safety can drag it down more). FireStrike 3D scores improved 15% with max temps reaching 70C so there is even more room to OC.Notes that may help others avoid issues:The M.2 Screw is incredibly tiny and is in a very tiny bag that is easy to miss, but it is there. I even called tech support before I looked more carefully and found it in the box.The M.2 slot when in SATA Mode will take over SATA Slot 1. It will literally replace the slot in the BIOS. If you can't find a drive, that is probably it.The extra 6 pin on the motherboard near the PCI Express lanes are for if you are using two high power draw GPUs (e.g dual 1080 ti or 2080). With one GPU it is not necessary and will not affect performance.If you don't install from an up to date version of Windows 10, the ethernet port likely won't be detected or usable until you install the network drivers from disk or USB. This does not affect wireless.Windows 7 of course is not supported but that has nothing to do with the motherboard, it's the fact that no 8th gen intel CPUs will run windows 7. Any complaints about this are completely misdirected and should be going at Intel.PROS:Designed for OC and high performance gamingTons of features for beginners and expertsLightning fastUSB C 3.1 port in the back plus headersBuiltin POST SpeakerMystic RGB headersLots of headers!Easy OC ranging from no skill to expert level. Has OC settings specific to Intel's 9th gen chipsXMP just worksM.2 storage and M.2 bluetooth slotsRAID ControllerIt's a motherboard from MSICon:The only thing remotely negative about this is the noticeable (or almost loud) pop/click when the motherboard powers on. This is not worth a lower rating and it's not much of a con unless you are overly sensitive to computer noises. It's the sound of a solid relay activating to power on your devices and is reminiscent of many years ago when electrical components were overbuilt and could last for decades.

Upgraded from an early model Z370 series motherboard that didn't support series 9000 processors or ram faster than 2666 MHz. I was a little leery since I am running Windows 11 developer's preview version and didn't want to do a full clean install. But as it turned out, I had no reason to be concerned. The first boot into Windows went smooth as silk. My M.2 Intel SSD boot drive and the existing install were immediately recognized. Windows 11 found and installed all drivers without a hitch. I did have to update a couple of them but otherwise no issues.The next step was to see how easy it is to overclock. The documentation that comes in the box is limited to a graphic Quick Start sheet that is pretty much useless. But I located the manual on the website and gained enough info to get the job done. Novice builders beware. If you are new to building systems I would recommend a different board with better documentation. Also don't waste your time with Dragon Center, the manufacturer's Windows utility. That is about the most worthless piece of junk software I have ever seen. But I have turbo boost set to 4.8 GHz on my i5-8600K CPU. And I am only running 16 GB of 2666 MHz DDR4. But the benchmark scores are fantastic. And I haven't touched the CPU base clock yet.Price was great. Install smooth. Performance excellent. Next step, upgrade to 3200 MHz ram and eventually an i7-9700K.Update 3-7-2022 - Well, the prices on an i7-9700K are totally ridiculous but I found a sweet deal on a 9700KF so I grabbed it up. The only difference between the two CPUs is the KF doesn't have integrated graphics. I have a discrete card so that wasn't an issue. I am currently running OC'd at 5.0 GHz and my Passmark benchmarked over 35% higher than with the 8600K. Also have my memory running at 3060 Mhz instead of 2667. Temps don't exceed the mid 60s C running CPU-Z stress test. Not bad on an air cooler.Final note - I did switch back to Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. Still the way to go with Windows period.

Great Motherboard for the price. It has a solid build and good features / functionality. It is by no means cheap, but it is affordable.Let's get the obvious out of the road...I had the same issue with the M2 screw missing as everyone else. I ordered an M2 screw kit off of Amazon for $8.52 which I should not have had to do but it can't hurt to have a few extra M2 screws.The mb came with the usual mounting screws, standoffs, mb backplate / IO shield and I believe it may have had 2 sata cables. As far as the motherboard goes, it was a very smooth install.During the install, I added an NVMe drive (Crucial P1 500GB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD - CT500P1SSD8) with no issues (besides the missing M2 screw). I flashed the MB to the current firmware. I used a Corsair Power Supply (Corsair CX Series 650 Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Modular Power Supply (CP-9020103-NA)). Adding the CPU and memory were "put it in and go" processes (with the exception of spending time to find stable overclocks after the build was complete). Installed an AIO Liquid CPU Cooler (CORSAIR HYDRO Series H100i PRO) due to overclocking. Backplate and Cooler Fit the mb with no issues.This mb runs very well!