MSI MEG X870E Godlike X Review and Feature Overview

MSI’s anniversary Godlike X motherboard delivers extensive connectivity, advanced VRM design, and display integration.

Hardware by Godrics01 on Dec 15, 2025

Once a year, MSI releases new Godlike motherboards. This year's model is MSI MEG X870E Godlike X. It follows last year's Godlike but with a new name and platform.

The box weighs 8 kg, which gives you an idea of what is inside. The board also honors the tenth anniversary of the release of the first Godlike motherboard, the X99A, in 2015.

MSI MEG X870E, Godlike X Review, Feature Overview, NoobFeed

History and Costs

In 2015, MSI released the original X99A Godlike, which was notable at the time for its built-in RGB lighting and price of about £500. MEG X870E Godlike X is much higher up, priced at £1,250 including VAT. MSI markets it as an anniversary-class item, keeping the Godlike name alive for another ten years.

The Experience of Unboxing

The box is big and tall, with layers. Along with the motherboard, there are many other parts inside. These things are an external control hub that moves certain ports off the board, a lot of cables, a Wi-Fi antenna, documentation, and gear for expanding the system. There is an M.2 heatsink with bespoke branding and an M.2 expander board that lets you add two more SSDs through a PCIe slot. The focus of the presentation is on access and versatility, not on minimum packaging.

Layout of the Board and Modular Design

The motherboard layout focuses on size and connector density after it is removed from the box. MSI's Easy Bridge solution lets front-panel headers, USB 2.0 ports, and other connections pass through an external hub. This reduces the number of cables that need to be routed across the board surface.

Some connectors, such as SATA ports, are flat along the edge of the board and can stay hidden when not in use. The design lets some portions of the board, such as the dashboard module, be removed and reattached via a large interface connector.

Support for Storage

The board has five built-in M.2 slots, protected by M.2 shields. Two of them support PCIe5x4, two support PCIe4x4, and one supports PCIe4x2. With the included M.2 expander card, the total number of M.2 drives is 7. The board also has four SATA ports. The design clearly reflects a move toward M.2 storage instead of SATA.

Slots for Expansion and VRM Design

There is one PCIe5x16 slot for a graphics card, one PCIe5x8 slot for the M.2 expander card, and one PCIe4x4 slot wired at x2 for add-in cards. If you take off the backplate, you can see a VRM layout with a Renesas controller and doublers in a 24+2+1 arrangement. There are 24 Renesas 110A smart power stages for Vcore, two for SoC, and extra stages from Alpha and Omega for other tasks. The VRM heatsinks are big and cover the area where power is delivered directly.

Back I/O and Connectivity

There are two USB4 Type-C ports on the back I/O panel, each rated at 40 Gbps. There are also five USB 3.2 Type-C ports, each rated at 10 Gbps, and eight USB 3.2 Type-A ports, each rated at 10 Gbps. The front panel has one USB3.2 Type-C connector that supports 20Gbits, another Type-C port that supports 10Gbits, four USB Type-A ports that support 5Gbits, and four USB2 headers. For networking, these features include Marvell 10Gbit Ethernet, Realtek 5Gbit Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 7 with Bluetooth 5. 4.

MSI MEG X870E, Godlike X Review, Feature Overview, NoobFeed

Dynamic Dashboard and Controls from Outside

The Dynamic Dashboard 3 module displays system information and lighting effects once powered on. The board also works with an outside tuning controller that lets you power on, reset, retry, overclock, and wipe the CMOS. This controller works with the system, but it doesn't come with it. We connected one from another MSI board to show how it works, which is similar to the onboard and back I/O micro buttons.

Test System Configuration

We used an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor, G.Skill Trident Z5 Royal Neo DDR5 58000 memory, an MSI RTX 4090 Ventus 3X graphics card, and an MSI MPG Core Liquid K360 360mm AIO cooler to evaluate the motherboard. The BIOS setting was the same as in other MSI setups, with EXPO enabled for memory and Game Boost enabled to enable PBO behavior. MSI Center, which included the Mystic Light and Dynamic Dashboard modules, handled fan management and lighting.

Results of the Performance

Godlike X came in first on Geekbench6 multicore, using 242W at 5.2GHz, compared to 200W and 4.9GHz on MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi. In single-core Geekbench6 tests, the Godlike X also came in first, with only a 2W difference in power draw. The same pattern was seen in CinebenchR23 multicore, with the Godlike X coming out on top since it could supply more power over time.

Godlike X, running at DDR5 8000, outpaced other Zen5 systems in memory bandwidth tests, reaching DDR5 6000. The Intel platforms DDR5 8200 and DDR5 6800 were ahead of the others. At 1080p in Far Cry 6, the Godlike X with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D came in #1 by a slight margin. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D was at the front at 1440p, with the Godlike X not far behind. The results for Assassin's Creed Mirage were close, with positions changing slightly between 1080p and 1440p.

The Good and the Bad

The board has a 10-layer PCB, a high-capacity VRM, many USB ports, the Dynamic Dashboard 3, and many DIY features, including tool-less M.2 installation and GPU release. It also comes with many accessories. On the downside, the prices are costly, and the tuning controller is supported but not included.

MSI MEG X870E, Godlike X Review, Feature Overview, NoobFeed

Final Thoughts

If you think that £430 to £450 is too much for a motherboard, this model isn't for you. In that case, you would give it a low score and go on. MEG X870E Godlike X matches that build philosophy if you're already planning to spend £5,000 or more on a whole system with a flagship CPU. In such a case, it gets a strong recommendation.

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