Overall it's a decent motherboard, has good VRMs, IO is good, has full audio jacks and ALC4080 which is better than ALC897 audio codec in other motherboard in this price range… but I can't recommend buying it because of the company behind it, MSI.They do not care about the security. The listed "Secure Boot" in the product description does nothing by default because of the default settings. They say that this is on purpose for the "user convenience", when in reality they did that to lower the amount of support tickets as Windows 11 requires it to be enabled during the installation. You are able to change the setting to make it actually do its job, but because of other security issues with it, it is possible to reset that setting from the OS by flashing a newer ... MoreOverall it's a decent motherboard, has good VRMs, IO is good, has full audio jacks and ALC4080 which is better than ALC897 audio codec in other motherboard in this price range… but I can't recommend buying it because of the company behind it, MSI.They do not care about the security. The listed "Secure Boot" in the product description does nothing by default because of the default settings. They say that this is on purpose for the "user convenience", when in reality they did that to lower the amount of support tickets as Windows 11 requires it to be enabled during the installation. You are able to change the setting to make it actually do its job, but because of other security issues with it, it is possible to reset that setting from the OS by flashing a newer firmware, as there is no lock enabled to prevent flashing from the OS and flashing firmware will reset firmware settings.MSI promised people that they will revert this behaviour, but in reality they haven't done that and have no plans to, even though MSI motherboard team told me via email that AMI (company that makes their firmware) told them that these settings they used by default should only be used for the development stage and not for production firmware as it breaks Microsoft's security policy (and is just bad).Won't buy more MSI stuff, I'm very disappointed in the company.

Doesn't support gen 13 intel out-of-the-box

Pros:It works* and is an excellent valueCons:-2 stars because the pre-loaded BIOS is incapable of supporting gen 13 intel processors, despite being a new board explicitly advertised as being so capable. Moronic beyond comprehension. Reflashing the BIOS is pretty easy via the mFlash utility here, but BIOS reflash is still perilous and is not something that every purchaser should be required to do.Recommend novice builders avoid this board due to inadequate BIOS

Excellent so far

I bought this for a gaming pc, I've built PCs in the past but it's been 10+ years. I liked that this had some pretty good bios features. The price point was good and my build is running flawlessly.

Great DDR4 Z790 motherboard!

This is my second MSI motherboard in recent years. It has everything that I need at a good price for my new Intel 13-series chip. I was considering a DDR5 motherboard, but it is still early, too expensive, and DDR5 memory latency is still too high. Save your money and go with a DDR4 board for now. So far, I love this board and I would recommend it!

Great board for non gamers

Great board, just not what I needed. The USB's were not as fast as I needed. The antenas were very inconvienently located. They blocked the portswhen facing up or down. Upgraded to a ASUS gaming board.

Great features for a decent price

Wanted a ddr5 capable motherboard with a future proof feature set. I couldn't find another board that's comparable in build quality or with a more capable VRM.This review is for the MSI Review Rebate Program.

Linux

The factory-loaded BIOS firmware was very flaky and needed an update before it would boot reliably.Works reasonably well with Linux and a 13th gen i5 but the integrated graphics needs a i915 driver from a recent kernel (>= 5.18) and the audio has mains hum when nothing is driving it.

Paired with i7-13700k

I chose this board because I could use the 32GB of DDR4 RAM from my previous build to save $$ on newer more expensive DDR5. Also, I needed built in Wi-Fi & Bluetooth. There has already been a BIOS update, and everything has been working great. No issues at all.

Solid motherboard

I just built my first PC in a long time and was very happy I chose this motherboard. The port selection is great - really loving the TOSLINK digital audio. Love the all-black color scheme - it goes great with my case. Everything worked the first time and has been running stable. I also like that the minimalistic MSI logo on boot. It feels very professional compared to some gamer-centric motherboards.

Some (small) linux compat issues

This mobo has some bugs/limitations:1) MSI mobos apparently have long had issues with adding non-windows entries to the UEFI boot list. It's possible, but you have to pass a grub option for it to be considered a removable device (see Arch wiki for details). This bug apparently is common with MSI mobos.2) Kinda disappointed no heatsink on one of the nvme slots. That nvme is running hot on my system now3) If you have the mobo's option for integrated graphics port sharing enabled, it will cause nvidia linux drivers to fail (tried on two different nvidia gpu's, a 1070 and a 3600 ti). Fortunately toggleable, but took me a while to figure out what was going on.That said, I do appreciate the many storage options (the reason I got this mobo to begin with) and at ... MoreThis mobo has some bugs/limitations:1) MSI mobos apparently have long had issues with adding non-windows entries to the UEFI boot list. It's possible, but you have to pass a grub option for it to be considered a removable device (see Arch wiki for details). This bug apparently is common with MSI mobos.2) Kinda disappointed no heatsink on one of the nvme slots. That nvme is running hot on my system now3) If you have the mobo's option for integrated graphics port sharing enabled, it will cause nvidia linux drivers to fail (tried on two different nvidia gpu's, a 1070 and a 3600 ti). Fortunately toggleable, but took me a while to figure out what was going on.That said, I do appreciate the many storage options (the reason I got this mobo to begin with) and at least in this first week of usage, stability has been rock solid.