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