MSI MEG Z490I UNIFY Mini ITX Intel motherboard

Mini ITX Z490 board for 10th Gen Intel

This motherboard uses the LGA 1200 socket and Intel Z490 chipset to support 10th Generation Intel Core, Pentium Gold and Celeron processors. It targets builders who want a high-end feature set inside a Mini ITX chassis. The board includes Intel Thunderbolt 3 via the JHL7540 controller and WiFi 6 through the pre-installed Intel AX201 module.

Two DDR4 slots and dual M.2 layout

Only two 288-pin DDR4 slots are present, so memory upgrades are limited to a maximum of 64 GB in dual-channel mode. The first M.2 slot shares bandwidth with the second SATA port; populating it with a SATA M.2 drive disables that SATA connector. The pre-installed Wi-Fi module occupies the Key-E M.2 slot, leaving the two Key-M slots for storage.

64 GB memory ceiling and 5000+ MHz headroom

Dual-channel DDR4 tops out at 64 GB, with validated speeds of 2933, 2666 and 2133 MHz. One DIMM per channel can reach 5000+ MHz with single-rank modules or 4600+ MHz with dual-rank modules. A single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and four SATA 6 Gbps ports handle expansion, while 2.5 Gbps LAN and WiFi 6 on 160 MHz channels provide network throughput up to 2.4 Gbps.