Subsystem Testing Continued
LAN Speed Test software was used with Windows Task Manager to determine the performance levels of the onboard network interface. LAN Speed Test was used to measure bandwidth and transfer speeds, while Windows Task Manager monitored CPU utilization on the test system. For the testing, an 800MB file test was used with the default packet configuration for the application. The test was run three times with the middle result chosen. Results were captured for the low, medium and high transfer rates. The test was performed using a plenum rated category 5e crossover cable to bypass any traffic, routing or other transfer issues and possible packet loss or corruption that can be caused by a router/switch or hub. The cables were connected between two test machines, one using the onboard NIC(s) of the board being reviewed and the other is an Intel X540 Converged Network adapter. It supports 10/100/1000/10000Mbps speeds.
Wireless network testing, if applicable was performed using a connection to an 802.11/AC enabled wireless router and then sent to a test machine connected to the same router via a RJ-45 LAN connection. The target system network adapter is an i219v PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet controller integrated into an ASUS Maximus XI Formula motherboard. The network settings for both network controllers and the router are all at their defaults and the 802.11/AC router has no other devices connected to it.
Wired Networking
The MSI MEG X570 Unify utilizes a built-in 2.5Gbps Realtek RTL8125 network adapter. It is also capable of 10/100/1000Mbit speeds. I’m not a huge fan of Realtek network controllers, and that seems to be generally well-founded here as you can see below. The performance wasn’t stellar, and the controller was connected to an Aquantia 5GbE adapter that can do 2.5Gbps speeds as well. It never negotiated as such or at least, never performed as though it had. The performance we saw was what we see from 1GbE controllers. Even by those standards, it wasn’t amazing.
The thing is, the controller is at least capable enough for handling most of your internet needs. However, those of you who have a serious need for a higher-end network controller will perhaps want to step up to an add-in card of some kind. It’s also worth mentioning that these controllers often behave better when connected to another of the same chipset. It’s also worth pointing out that it is largely a moot point if you don’t have a router or network switch that supports the faster speeds.
Wireless Networking
The MSI MEG X570 Unify integrates Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 AX200 wireless controller. It’s interesting to me that MSI chose to go with a slightly more expensive wireless solution and a less expensive wired one. Of course, many people end up using wireless controllers in their homes, even from desktops out of convenience. Gamer’s who build their own systems, however, tend to prefer wired connections for their stability and performance.
Intel WiFi 6 AX200 Specifications (Taken from MSI’s website)
- Wireless & Bluetooth
- Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX200
- Supports 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, MU-MINO Rx, 2.4GHz-5GHz (160MHz) up to 2.4Gbp
Recent News
On Page 2, where you take a shot of the mobo layout – it appears you still have the protective sticker on the chipset HSF (“Play Hard, Stay Silent”). Was that intentional, or is that not a sticker and part of the intended aesthetic of the motherboard?
@Brian_B That is a sticker that is there that you need to take off before use.
And isn’t this one of the MSI boards reported to have poor overclocking because of the VRM configuration running hot?
Bloody buggy integration. It un-configured itself for no apparent reason. If I’ve fixed it, then this comment will show up both in the forums and on the article page. Not sure we can sync back the missing ones – sorry about that!
Ok, well if I pick one up or some other board I will post short review/tests here. Maybe late next month.
We’re looking at doing a couple of budget X570 boards up next, so that may be relevant to your interests. Depends what @Brent_Justice can drum up for Dan…
I thought it was a tie-in to that awful shark movie.
/s
Given the price point of motherboards like the Unify, that doesn’t really fit. If the "MEG" prefix was tied to motherboards like the GODLIKE exclusively, then you’d be right.
Actually.. in case you were serious and couldn’t google. It means MSI Enthusiast Gaming.
I’m thinking of going MSI for the next overhaul (R7 3700X).
Here would be my typical usage scenario:
– Use the AMD Wraith HSF
– No CPU OC’ing (primarily gaming, so I’m more focused on the GPU)
– All DIMM slots populated (4x8GB single rank modules)
– Single GPU, and nothing else populating any other expansion slots
Any thoughts on the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus?
I have some thoughts……………..
-The Wraith is a bare bones, I don’t want to spend any money type of heat sink. If we were back in the old days when CPU clocks were fixed and it got the job done while making an awful racket (as stock coolers tend to do) you would be fine. That’s not how things work today. Clocks are variable and adjust based on thermals and other variables. If you use a low end cooler, your CPU will not boost as often or even clock as high as a better cooled CPU will. Getting a better quality air cooler will pay dividends in performance. Even on a "stock" CPU.
-Overclocking doesn’t matter in this context. There are only really two kinds of overclocks with Ryzen 3000 series CPU’s. Manual all core overclocks and per CCX complex overclocks. Since you’ve chosen a Ryzen 7 3700X, you are in luck in that you only have a single chiplet rather than two. One of these tends to be substantially worse than the other, limiting overclocking potential. You won’t be held back by one "****let" on a 3700X. You also won’t need quite as much in the way of power delivery to overclock. Even so, you will find that overclocking a single CCX probably won’t benefit you that much. Manual all core overclocking on a 3700X can be potentially useful as you have much lower boost clocks than you would on a 3900X or 3950X.
-This is a bad idea. Don’t do it. Stick with two DIMMs and two DIMMs only. Ryzen 3000 series CPU’s love higher memory clocks and tighter timings. You will not achieve this with four DIMMs. There is a point of diminishing returns after 3800MHz as Infinity Fabric clocks and memory clocks require a divider at that point. So, you don’t need ultra-expensive RAM, but going to four DIMMs means your limiting your RAM speed to DDR4 2933MHz or DDR4 2666MHz. Some people will achieve better, but you won’t be doing it on that board more than likely. While MSI’s do clock RAM fairly well, you need one of their better ones. I’ll get to that in just a moment.
-This is fine. No one uses SLI anymore. Not even me. And I’ve used SLI from the 6800 Ultra days all the way through the GTX 1080 Ti. I used AMD’s Crossfire whenever I went AMD during that time as well. If I thought for a second I could get some extra performance consistently out of a second RTX 2080 Ti, I’d have a second one and I’d be running SLI. So you are good on this front.
-To be blunt. MSI’s cheaper motherboards for X570 have VRM’s that run way too **** hot. To the tune of about 30-40c hotter than they should in some cases. MSI’s MEG X570 Gaming Ace and MEG X570 Unify are about as low as you really want to go if your going with MSI. Yes, that’s right. You need to be at about $300 or better with MSI or you aren’t getting what you are paying for. Hardware Unboxed did a good job of covering this. Eventually, MSI even admitted that the design of their lower end VRM’s were pretty bad.
In other words, I wouldn’t go with such a low end motherboard from MSI. If you are looking to spend less than $250 on a motherboard, stick with GIGABYTE or ASUS.
Much appreciated!
Edit: I bought one of these boards off Amazon to "fiddle" with. Won’t be here until June. I plan on possibly going to Zen 3 when those come out so due to the shortage now on boards I wanted to get one in hand.
Thanks once again.
Steve
I just fired it up and looked through the BIOS and did not find a single thing alluding to being able to configure RAID for the NVMe devices. It’s possible I didn’t look in the right place, so I can page @Dan_D to see if I’m looking in the wrong place.
Typically, you have to go into a higher price bracket to support NVMe RAID. Also, I have tested the feature on higher end MSI boards, so I am confident that the MSI X570 Unify does not support the feature.
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AhF0C_g0rDpxjX72o6P8tNwfCPtz?e=QPKL3U
I’m still evaluating boards. I was about set on the Unify, but now I’m considering the Asus Hero, Gigabyte Aorus , or ASRock Taichi as possible alternatives. Really liked the looks of the Unify, but a PC needs more than looks.
I just purchased this board. I was looking to get a X570 Tomahawk, but they are as expensive as the unify and the unify has a few more features. My main concern is that this board does not support M.2 NVMe. Your review says that two slots do support NVMe however, a article I just read said the Unify does not support NVMe. I scoured the MSI website and nowhere do I read about NVMe support. Where did you get your info? Thanks
Unless I misread your response…
I think you must have missed it.
Step 1. Go here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MEG-X570-UNIFY
Step 2 read this:
View attachment 612
NVMe and RAID have nothing to do with each other. RAID support is a matter of enabling the feature via firmware. Nothing more. In any case, the specifications list RAID support, but not specifically for the M.2 slots. Typically RAID support is listed for the M.2 devices specifically when the support is there. I don’t have the motherboard in my possession anymore to check it but I could have missed it. MSI’s product page isn’t super clear on it.
Not to mention some motherboard companies are letting the windows raid mean raid support.
Problem here is that tonget raid support you would need all of your nvme ports in use passing through the raid controller logic. What happens on many of these boards is the first or first two nvme ports are direct to cpu. The rest are actually through the motherboard chipset. What you would need to have is a pcie nvme raid controller card in an x8 or x16 slot to actually get a solid raid controller. (With a couple gig of built in raid cache would help.)
It’s just the first M.2 slot that goes through the CPU. There are 4x PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes dedicated to storage off the CPU. It is possible to split these, but you end up with a configuration of 2x M.2 slots that only have 2x PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes each. They also have the option of using those lanes for SATA ports. I have yet to see a manufacturer offer anything but a single 4x PCIe lane M.2 solution with those lanes.
NVMe RAID implementations on motherboards simply use 8x PCIe lanes (which gives them 2x slots) off the PCH. There is no caching or anything like that. There is no dedicated ASIC for parity calculations which is ideal for RAID 5 and RAID 6 support.
Every motherboard I’ve ever worked with in the consumer market implements these things the same way. The only difference is between Intel vs. AMD. AMD implements one M.2 slot through the CPU and the rest through the PCH. Intel does all three through the PCH.