The MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC isn't just the smallest form factored board of the MPG range, but it also represents the only mini-ITX sized motherboard in their Z390 product range. Like the other Gaming Edge AC boards on this page, this board features integrated Wi-Fi with an Intel 9462 802.11ac adapter which also includes support for the latest Bluetooth 5 standard.
As with other mini-ITX motherboards, the MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC has a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot which is surrounded in MSI's Steel Slot armor protection. The board has two M.2 slots with one slot only supporting PCIe and the other having support for both PCIe and SATA drives; one slot is located on the front which has a small inclusive heatsink, whereas the other slot is located on the rear of the PCB. The board also has of a total of four straight angled SATA ports with the ports split into pairs on either side of the two memory slots. The two memory slots have support for DDR4-4600 and with a maximum capacity of up to 32 GB.
With certain sacrifices usually being a necessity on mini-ITX motherboards, MSI has cut down the networking and audio support down to a pair of slightly lower quality (compared to the Z390/Z390M Gaming Edge AC boards) with a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit controller and Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec pairing respectively. The mini-ITX offering has a total of two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports with MSI disregarding Type-C connectivity; MSI has also included two USB 3.0 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. The front panel headers also allow for a further two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports to be utilized if required. Like the other Z390 Gaming Edge AC boards, this board also makes use of a DisplayPort and HDMI video outputs.
The MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC mini-ITX motherboard is expected to retail for $165 at launch and is an all-around decent offering which has been subjected to penalization due to the form factor. This is prevalent on the HD audio and networking aspect and unlike the mATX sized Gaming Edge AC doesn't feature 2T2R Wave2 Wi-Fi support to make up for the lesser quality pairing of Realtek controllers (audio and networking) included.
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