MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard Review

Posted April 23, 2017 by Josh Jackson in CPU & Motherboards

Overview

Hardware: CPU & Motherboards

Manufacturer: MSI

Price at time of Review: $154.99 on Newegg

WHAT WE LIKED:

Sturdy Construction, Great Performance, Good Overclocking, Excellent Aesthetic Design, Superb Software, M.2 Shield!

WHAT WE DISLIKED:

Can't Control LEDs from BIOS, but settings do remain the same through power cycles after being set once in the OS.

BOTTOM LINE:

If gaming's your thing (which it probably is if you're shopping for a Z270), then the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon is the best board to consider due to it's rich amount of features and performance, at a price that's impossible to ignore.
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by Josh Jackson

Full Article

Features and Specifications

I already kind of mentioned that MSI has it’s own particular way of being a premier motherboard manufacturer. In light of that, there’s two features I think we should pay close attention to. For starters, there’s MSI’s M.2 Shield. I did all I could to get an M.2 drive that I could thoroughly test this with, but I couldn’t get the stars to align this time around. Still, we’ll be taking a closer look at that and the Nahimic 2 audio software. If you’re like me, you haven’t heard of this before, but it will certainly come to play later in the review.

Supports 7th / 6th Gen Intel^® Core™ / Pentium^® / Celeron^® processors for LGA 1151 socket

Supports DDR4-3866+(OC) Memory

DDR4 Boost with Steel Armor: Give your DDR4 memory a performance boost

VR Ready and VR Boost: Best virtual reality game experience without latency, reduces motion sickness

Mystic Light and Mystic Light Sync: 16.8 milliom colors /17 effects controlled in one click with GAMING APP or mobile devices.

Lightning Fast Game experience: Twin Turbo M.2, Steel Armor, M.2 Shield. Intel Optane Memory Ready, Lightning USB 3.1 Gen2

Audio Boost 4 with Nahimic 2: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experience

GAMING LAN with LAN Protect, powered by Intel® : The best online gaming experience with lowest latency and bandwidth management

Military Class 5, Guard-Pro: Latest evolution in high quality components for best protection and efficiency

MULTI-GPU: With Steel Armor PCI-E slots. Supports NVIDIA SLI™ & AMD Crossfire™

In-Game Weapons: Game Boost, GAMING Hotkey, X-Boost, Xsplit Gamecaster

EZ Debug LED: Easiest way to troubleshoot

Click BIOS 5: Award-winning BIOS with high resolution scalable font, favorites and search function

GAMING CERTIFIED: 24-hour on- and offline game and motherboard testing by eSports players

I added the full specs list below in case there’s something you wanted to see about the Gaming Pro Carbon. If the type is small, you can click on the image to enlarge it.

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About the Author

Josh Jackson

Needless to say I love computer hardware. With my reviews, I never forget what it's like trying to find parts on a tight budget and how excited I am about any new component I get my hands on. If there was a good effort in the design, then I'll find a reason why each component is great for someone!