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Today I will be reviewing the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard! Manufacturer MSI already has a plethora of motherboard options available for the Intel LGA 1151 socket, with the main difference between boards being specific features. MSI designed this motherboard around the Intel Z170 chipset for LGA 1151; it's worth noting that other chipsets for this socket do not allow for full overclocking. CPU cooling solutions for prior sockets including LGA 1150, LGA 1155, and LGA 1156 are still compatible.
The Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon comes with four dual channel DDR4 memory slots that support up to DDR4-3600 speeds with overclocking, 20 PCI-e 3.0 lanes, two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports on the back – one Type-A and one Type-C, and up to four more front panel USB 3.1 Gen1 ports using the onboard header. For drive connections NVMe is supported, there is a Turbo M.2 slot (that can be upgraded to Turbo U.2 with a separate purchase), and a SATA Express option which can also be used for two separate SATA 3.0 ports for a total of six SATA 3.0 ports. Using either the M.2 slot or the SATA Express will render only four SATA 3.0 slots available. RAID 0/1/5/10 are all supported.
The board has three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots supporting either x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4 modes, plus four PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The top two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots are reinforced with "MSI Steel Armor" – essentially it is a metal bracket that reinforces the whole slot to better accommodate larger (and heavier) graphics cards. The board also has a feature called "Mystic Light" that basically allows users to adjust the color of the eight RGB LEDs mounted on the rear of the motherboard near the edge. These LEDs bleed light through clear PCB and as backlighting. It is important to note that the rest of the motherboard uses red LEDs, and only the eight just mentioned can be customized. The majority of the motherboard is black with some carbon fiber styled accents, thus the name Gaming Pro Carbon.
With an average listing price of $149.99, this motherboard can be an attractive gaming motherboard with plenty of adaptability built in. Gamers will appreciate the Intel Gigabit LAN and other features such as Gaming Optimized Bandwidth Management, and an Isolated Audio PCB with Audio Boost 3 utilizing Nahimic Sound Technology, and a MSI Gaming Device Port geared for high performance peripherals like mice – it claims to be more responsive, and when used with the Mouse Master software you can customize further mouse DPI and manage macros. For overclockers, the board is equipped with Military Class 5 Components for stability, and an easy to navigate UEFI BIOS. There are plenty of features designed overclocking and gaming, so it will be neat to see how it does in testing.
Packaging & Accessories:
The front of the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard box has a picture of a sports car covered in carbon fiber, and the primary colors are black with red lights – alluding to the motherboard's own color scheme. The box clearly states it supports Intel processors on the Z170 chipset, and is advertised as intended for the PC gaming market.
Flipping the box over reveals an image of the motherboard along with some highlighted features. For example, the RGB LED Mystic Lighting feature is demonstrated by juxtaposing three motherboards overlapping each other with the LED lighting shown in red, green, and blue. Both the Gaming LAN and LAN Protect features are also mentioned, designed to reduce latency and provide higher static and surge protection, respectively. Here we also learn how the Military Class 5 components claim to offer a 1.5x higher temperature limit to improve component lifecycle by up to fivefold. The Steel Armor PCIe 3.0 x16 slot reinforcement is highlighted, but not really explained beyond "4x slot strength". It's essentially a metal case surrounds the PCIe slot and is soldered directly to the motherboard. This allows users to install larger graphics cards without the worry of it sagging and potentially damaging the slots. Along the bottom of the box are the board specifications and I/O Panel layout, as well as manufacturer contact information.
Protected by a clear PET ESD bag, the motherboard itself sits on top of a black cardboard tray that houses all of the accessories and manuals. MSI has included a user guide, quick installation guide, driver DVD, product registration reminder, a sheet of SATA cable labels, I/O Shield, two SATA cables – one with a 90º connector – and an SLI bridge.
Specifications:
CPU |
Supports 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors, and Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® processors for Socket LGA1151 |
Chipset |
Intel® Z170 Chipset |
Main Memory |
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB |
Slots |
3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4 modes) |
Onboard Graphics |
1 x HDMI™ port, support a maximum resolution of 4096x2160@24Hz, 2560x1600@60Hz |
Multi-GPU |
Supports 3-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology |
Storage |
Intel® Z170 Chipset 1 x SATAe port (PCIe 3.0 x2)*/ *** * SATA5 and SATA6 ports will be unavailable when installing the M.2 module in M.2 slot. |
RAID |
Intel® Z170 Chipset |
USB |
ASMedia® ASM1142 Chipset Intel® Z170 Chipset |
Audio |
Realtek® ALC1150 Codec |
LAN |
1 x Intel® I219-V Gigabit LAN controller |
Internal I/O Connectors |
- 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector |
Back Panel I/O Ports |
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port |
BIOS |
1 x 128 Mb flash |
Dimensions |
12 in. x 9.6 in. (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm) |
Mounting |
9 mounting holes |
Information Courtesy of MSI @ https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-GAMING-PRO-CARBON.html
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