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The Board:
The MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard lives up to the name. Carbon fiber accents are used on all three black anodized heat sinks, and all ports on this board are black except at the top two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and the I/O panel, where there is some silver metal. This is broken up by red font accents on the USB 3.1 sticker, and on the Audio Boost 3 and Gaming LAN covers. All of the on-board LEDs are red except for the seven Mystic Light RGB LEDs on the back edge, near the 24-pin power connector but on the back side. Flipping the board over, you can clearly see these LEDs near the clear PCB spaces. You can also see that the audio components are almost completely isolated from the rest of the board except for a few connections.
The Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon is a standard ATX form factor with nine motherboard standoff mounts, and measuring 12 x 9.6 in, or 305 x 244 mm. This board has Guard Pro Technology that provides protection against humidity in the PCB, along with high temperature protection from the Military Class 5 components: titanium chokes and Dark CAPs for increased efficiency, lifespan, and temperature resistance. Circuit, ESD, and EMI protection is provided as well through shielding, fuses, and other measures.
The I/O panel layout is fairly standard, although there are some key differences to note. All of the ports are either black or red. Going from left to right, the first thing we see is the Gaming Device Port. There is a PS/2 combination port in red, and two USB 2.0 slots that are optimized for gaming mice. MSI claims there is three times more gold on the contacts of these ports than normal, making them responsive for peripherals. The DVI-D port is single link, so only resolutions up to 1920x1200@60Hz are supported. The HDMI port meanwhile supports up to 4096x2160@24Hz, or 2560x1600@60Hz.
Next up are two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, one in Type-A and one in Type-C (this is the version with reversible design). The USB 3.1 Gen2 ports supplied by the ASMedia ASM1142 chipset supports speeds up to 10Gbps. Further down the line is the HDMI port under two USB 2.0 ports. The Intel i219 LAN port supports gigabit LAN and features LAN Protect – 15KV anti-surge protection against lightning strikes and static electricity. This port lights up red during operation. MSI also includes their MSI Gaming LAN Manager that optimizes gaming traffic priorities. Underneath the LAN port are two USB 3.1 Gen1 ports, these were prior called USB 3.0 and still operate at 5Gbps – the only discernible difference is an updated nomenclature mandated by the USB-IF.
Lastly is the 7.1-channel high definition audio output dubbed Audio Boost 3 powered by Realtek ALC1150, able to simultaneously support 2 channels of stereo output through the front panel audio connection. Connectivity includes five 3.5mm gold plated jacks and an S/PDIF optical connection. The audio is isolated from the rest of the components, and this separation is lit up in red LED lighting when the board is powered on. The Audio Boost 3 is EMI-shielded, with dual headphone amplifiers, (Nippon) Chemi-Con audio capacitors, and Nahimic Sound Technology software. Even the front panel audio is isolated from the rest of the motherboard.
All of these features suggest a great onboard audio experience that should rival some dedicated audio devices, or at least prove satisfactory for all but the most discerning audiophiles. The only thing I am not a fan of is the blacked out 3.5mm ports, call me old fashioned but the ugly multi-colored ports at last made things easier to hook up when the computer is crammed in tight spaces. With these ports, the line out is the red colored one; the rest are black, so you will need to study the manual (or have clear access and good lighting) to try to read the I/O shield labels. The audio ports from left to right, top to bottom are: Center/Subwoofer out, Line In/Side Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line Out/Front Speaker Out, Optical S/PDIF, and Microphone In.
Moving to the opposite corner of the I/O panel, SATA ports 1 and 2 are bundled on a SATA Express connection. Although the interface has not really been adopted by manufacturers, it can still be used as two individual SATA ports through PCI Express. SATA Express supports NVM Express along with AHCI. Users can utilize all six SATA ports unless using the M.2 slot, which will disable SATA ports 5 and 6.
The first USB 3.1 Gen1 front panel header is right next to the SATA ports, while the second is near the 24-pin power connection as seen in the next photograph. Next to this is a JSPI1 header, which is used to initially program the BIOS. It can be used to repair any bad flashes if you can get access to an EEPROM programmer, you can find them with a quick Google search. If you have keen eyes, you can make out the pair of ASMedia ASM1467 used for communications on the SATA Express setup. There is also a Renesas microcontroller (MCU) IC labeled R5F104ACA, also known as group RL78/G14 used to control the RGB LED lighting.
Both front panel USB 3.1 Gen1 headers can be seen on the right, one mounted vertically and the other horizontal. They are labeled USB 3.0, which is the old name of USB 3.1 Gen1 before the USB-IF renamed it, and both operate at 5Gbps. Hardware monitoring and fan control is provided by a Nuvoton NCT6793D-M Super I/O integrated circuit located between the lower PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. Four Texas Instruments HD3SS3415 4-channel switches are responsible for different layout options including the three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots running in x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4 modes. These switches sit above the CMOS battery and the JBAT1 BIOS reset pins and JME1JCI1 Chassis Intrusion jumper.
There are an additional four PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, and an M.2 slot that can be upgraded to Turbo U.2 with a host card that must be purchased separately. The M.2 slot supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 3.0 standards, and can hold cards that are 4.2cm, 6cm, or 8cm in length. The SYSFAN1 fan 1 header is located above the M.2 region. Along the bottom are: the JAUD1 front panel audio, SYSFAN2 fan 2, JTBT1 (which appears to be an unused Thunderbolt header), JTPM1 Trusted Platform Module, JFP2 and JFP1 (the front panel headers for buzzers/speakers and switches/LEDs), and lastly the JUSB2 and JUSB1 headers for front panel USB 2.0 connectivity. Between the USB 3.1 Gen 1 headers is the JSPI1 header, used for initial BIOS programming and corrupted BIOS recovery. The chipset heat sink with carbon fiber overlay is a nice low-profile design that won't interfere with installed devices.
Up near the top left corner of the MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon is the 8-pin power connection, and in between the two heat sinks nearby is an Intersil 95856 4+3 Multiphase PWM regulator. The Military Class 5 Titanium chokes sit near and under the two heat sinks that cool the MOSFETs. It will be interesting to see how the VRM holds up to overclocking! Meanwhile the CPUFAN1 and CPUFAN2 CPU fan headers sit opposite each other, with the four DDR4 Boost slots in between. Below the CPUFAN2 is the SYSFAN3 fan header, meaning there is a total of five fan headers. After SYSFAN3 there are the EZ Debug LEDs: one LED for CPU problems, another for DRAM, and one for any VGA issues. Directly beneath the EZ Debug LEDs is the 24-pin power connection. The CPU socket area is fairly open – it should be easy to mount large-based cooling solutions, and easy to insulate for exotic sub ambient setups like LN2, dry ice, and phase change.
Last but not least are the LED lighting features. The "Mystic Light" RGB LEDs run along the edge parallel to the memory slots. MSI lets you control the rest of the LEDs as well, except the LAN port which is always lit up red when in use. Users can control the LEDs through the MSI Gaming APP software, through either an All LED mode (which as you guessed controls all LEDs, with no color options and just animation styles), or "Each LED" mode for separate control of both the red-only LEDs and the Mystic Light LEDs. The remaning LEDs are red and cannot be customized, so keep that in mind if you have a color scheme you are going for – with some its red or nothing. The LAN port is always lit up red when connected, but you can turn it off as desired.
The blank PCB art lets the Mystic Light through, and the LEDs also act as backlighting. The effect is noticeable and works best with windowed or clear cases, and ought to help your rig make a statement at LAN parties. It would be nice if MSI carried the RGB LEDs throughout the motherboard, as was the case on the newer MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard.
In the animated image below, I left the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card out of the system to provide a better view of the LEDs without it in the way. I cycled through the color spectrum as best as I could to see how well it reproduced the colors – which it did well in everything but pure white, where the LEDs came across looking more like an off-white leaning reddish purple. I can't fault the board for that, as most RGB LEDs are unable to pull off white colors well. The board also has one mode for cycling through the colors like a rainbow effect, but it doesn't allow users to select individual LED colors or mix rainbow colors with the flashing or blinking effects. Hopefully the software can be improved to add more illlumination customization options in the future. You can turn off almost all of the LED illumination as well, except for the LAN port.
The GIF demonstrates some of the color possibilities and the rainbow setting, although it doesn't illustrate that the rainbow cycled around actively. It would be possible to route the 24-pin cable over the top of the motherboard for a better view, but only if your cable is long enough.