MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon Preview
Category : Z270
Published by Luca Rocchi on 04.01.17
With the Gaming Pro Carbon, MSI has a well equipped mid-range motherboard in its portfolio, which comes with a bunch of interesting features. There are for example two M.2 Gen 3 x4 slots and RGB backlight. Apart from that the Gaming Pro Carbon features a black color scheme with carbon-like looks and on top of that this particular model should feature a rather interesting price.
Already at launch MSI has a complete portfolio of Z270 motherboards. With the Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon MSI offers a budget gaming motherboard suitable for building an affordable gaming PC. Altough this is not going to be an expensive board, there are quite a few features which you can find also on higher-end models. From a design point of view there is a black color scheme and carbon-like looking stickers have been put on the heatsinks.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Specs and Delivery
| Chipset | Intel Z270 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR4, 4 x DIMM, Max. 64 GB DDR4, 3800 OC, Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory |
| Multi-GPU |
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| Slots |
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| Audio | Realtek ALC1220
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| Storage | Intel Z270 chipset
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| Network |
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| Internal Connectors |
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| Extrenal Connectors |
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| Forfactor | ATX (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
| BIOS | 1 x 64Mb flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS |
- 1 x Quick Installation Guide
- 1 x Support CD
- 1 x I/O shield
- 4 x SATA data cables
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Features
Military Class 5 Components |
Since years MSI has been using digital power designs. On this board we find the latest implementation of their Military Class Components, which is meanwhile in its fifth generation. This board comes equiped with Hi-c Caps, Titanium Chokes and Dark CAPs for high stability, durability and efficiency. |
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MSI Steel Armor |
There are two full-sized PCIe slots on this particular board, which have been equipped with a steel frame. If you place a large and heavy gaming graphics card, while the board is mounted in a case, you will notice, that over time the slots starts to bend by a little bit. Furthermore, when carrying or shipping a system it can happen, that the PCIe slot breaks by the sheer force, when somebody is not dealing carefully with an assembled system. In both cases the steel armor should help increasing protection of the PCIe slots. |  |
Mystic Light Sync |
With Mystic Light Sync you can create your own color scheme using the full RGB palette of colors as well as different lighting effects. With this feature you can control and also syncronize RGB LEDs from other components such as CPU coolers, graphics cards or even case lighting. Manging this feature happens from within Windows thanks to the MSI Gaming App. |  |
Audio Boost 4 |
MSI equips this motherboard with an improved audio solution which includes a Realtek ALC1220 audio codec and dual headphone amplifier. At the I/O shield we find gold-plated audio jacks which help in improving the signal quality. Furthermore there are high quality capacitors from nichicon and audio implementation has been separated from the rest of the PCB. Last but not least there is even a special USB port, to which best to connect a DAC, thanks to cleaner and more stable voltage supply. |  |
M.2 Support |
The Z270 Gaming M5 motherboard from MSI features two M.2 slots which are placed between the PCIe slots. This motherboard can be equipped with one 2280 M.2 and one 22110 M.2 SSDs, where the figures behind the "22" stand for the actual length of the M.2 SSD in millimeter. Both slots are connected via four PCIe x4 lanes, offering up to 32 Gbps bandwidth. The bottom slot features a MSI M.2 Shield which also acts as a heatsink in order to prevent any throttling issues. |  |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Layout
As we've already mentioned in the introduction the MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard comes with a great looking design. The PCB has a matte black finish and the heatsinks feature carbon-like looking covers. Apart from that the PCH received RGB backlight. The heatsinks have been shaped nicely and the whole product is really good looking. The layout has been well thought and there are plenty of useful features, like two headers to attach external USB 3.0 ports, six SATA 6Gbps ports (two straight) and two M.2 Gen 3 x4 slots. In addtion there is a plastic cover on the I/O ports.
The MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon comes with a digital 8+2+2 phase power design. The CPU is backed up by eight phases, the iGPU can rely on two phases and the memory receives stable current supply from two phases as well. In general the power design on this board is adequate for the job at hand. It's even good for aircooled overclocking every now and then, but we would not recommend this board for extreme overclockign. For that purpose MSI has more suitable boards in its portfolio.
This board has been equipped with a total of four DIMM-slots. Officially supported is everything up to DDR4 3866 (O.C.). There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 2.0.
The PCH as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via passive heatsinks. The heatsink for the current converters are made from two aluminium blocks which are not linked with additional heatpipe. The PCH heatsinks are all quite simple and flat. The cooling blocks have been very well made and also they are perfetcly attached to the board to provide enough pressure on the components they have to cool. The aluminium blocks are entirely black with grey sheet metal covers, overall resembling a completly new design.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Connectors and I/O
In total, MSI equipped the Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard with six SATA 6Gbps connectors, which have all been natively wired to the PCH. Above the first PCIe x16 slot there is the first M.2 slot and on top of the third full size PCIe slot, there is the second M.2 x4 Gen 3 slot. With this motherboard you get three PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 and three PCIe x1 Gen 3.0 slots and all of them have been painted black. The first two PCIe x16 slots receive metal reinforcement. From top to bottom for the full-sized PCIe slots have been wired using 16 lanes, 8 lanes and 8 lanes. This means you can do 16x/8x SLI/CrossFire and 8x/8x/8x CrossFireX (3-way). Basically these are the standard options you get with any Intel's Z270 based motherboard, that does not feature a PLX chip. The placement of the PCIe connectors has been well thought. Unfortunately there are no practical onboard power- and reset-buttons but at least there are few small diagnostic LEDs.
The MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard features a total of six fan headers, which is enough to provide a normal gaming rig with enough of fresh air. A closer look at the pictures below shows where they have been placed. All six fan headers feature 4-pin and support PWM functionality. Therefore it's possible to control fan speeds from within Windows as well as the BIOS.
Looking at the external connectors placed directly at the I/O-panel, MSI equipped the new Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard with a P/S2 connector, two USB 3.1 ports (1 Type-C connector), two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one HDMI and a DVI port and the analogue audio panel with optical out.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Conclusion
| Overall | + | - | |
| It's quite obvious that the MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon is a product where the vendor is aiming for an attractive price point. Unfortunately price will not be revealed before January 5th, which means we don't know yet what this particular model is going to cost exactly. Nevertheless we can make an educated guess by looking up the predecessors recent price, which is 149.95 Euro according to Geizhals. The MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon will most likely cost the same or a little bit more and we're expecting this board to hit the market with a price tag of about 159 Euro. For this kind of money you get a motherboard with good looking design and quite a few interesting features. There is for instance a beefed-up audio solution and the storage connectors you actually need: SATA 6Gbps and M.2 ports. | -
Design |
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| Layout | + | - | |
| The layout of the MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon has been well thought. This model features four angled SATA connectors and two straight SATA ports, which can be found in the bottom right corner. Since the Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon is a mid-range motherboard, it is no surprise that there aren't any power- and/or reset-buttons. Apart from that we like the placement of the full-sized PCI-Express slots and two of them are being equipped with metal reinforcement plates. There is a total of three full sized PCI Express slots and three PCIe x1 slots. This means that there is plenty of space for graphics card in multi GPU setups to breathe. In addition there are two M.2 slots. | - Space around the CPU socket - Audio Solution | - No power/reset-button onboard |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |