Msi z170a gaming pro carbon review

MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon technical features

MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon unboxing and design

The MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon is presented in a black and red box where we see in large letters the name of the product and a sports car. On the back they indicate all the most important technical characteristics of the motherboard.

Once we open the box we find the following bundle:

MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon motherboard. SATA cable set, rear hood, instruction manual and quick guide, CD with software, CrossFireX cable.

As we can see, it is an ATX format board with dimensions of 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm for the LGA 1151 socket. The board has a sober design and a brown PCB. It incorporates the Z170 chipset that is compatible with all Intel Skylake processors on the market: Intel Core i7, i5, i3, Pentium and Celeron. It can even accept next generation Intel Xeon processors.

Rear view of the motherboard, for the most curious.

The MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon features two zones with cooling: power phases and one for the Z170 chipset. All its components are armored with Military Class technology. But what is this technology? Basically it incorporates improved components: power phases, chokes, capacitors of better quality than the rest of the most basic range. This helps us to better overclock, greater stability and, above all, durability.

Detail of the 8-pin EPS connection for auxiliary power to the motherboard.

The board incorporates a total of 4 64 GB compatible DDR4 RAM memory sockets with frequencies from 2133 MHz to 3600 MHz in Dual Channel and is compatible with the XMP 2.0 profile.

The MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon features a very interesting layout with three PCIe 3.0 slots at x16 and up to four normal PCIe at x1. The PCI Express 3.0 to x16 incorporate a shield that better cushions the graphics that are so heavy that they are on the market today.

It is compatible with Nvidia and AMD graphics cards . In SLI you can only connect two cards to x8-x8, while in CrossFireX up to 3.

As expected, it incorporates an M.2 connection to install any SSD with type 2242/2260/2280/22110 format (42/60/80 and 110 mm). As we have already discussed, these devices are very fast and have a bandwidth speed of up to 32 GB / s.

Regarding storage, it has six 6 GB / s SATA III connections with RAID 0.1, 5 and 10 support and a SATA Express connection (those that are vertical). It also incorporates a sound card with the ALC1150 chipset with compatibility with 7.1 channels, basic but very feisty.

In the lower right area we have the control panel, the fan heads, connectors for USB connections and the Dual BIOS UEFI that are incorporated in this new generation of motherboards.

Finally we detail the rear connections of the MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon. They are made up of:

6 x USB 3.0.1 x DVI. 1 X USB 3.1 Type A and Type C.1 x HDMI. 1 x Gigabit LAN. 7.1 sound output.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i5-6600k
Base plate:	MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon
Memory:	2 × 8 16GB DDR4 @ 3000 MHZ Kingston Savage
Heatsink	Corsair H80i GT.
HDD	Samsung 840 EVO 250GB.
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 780.
Power supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2

WE RECOMMEND MEG X570 Godlike is the new high-end motherboard from MSI

To check the stability of the i5-6600k processor at 4500 MHZ and the motherboard we have stressed with Prime 95 Custom and air cooling. The graphics we have used is an Nvidia GTX780, without further delay, let's see the results obtained in our tests with a 1920 × 1080 monitor.

BIOS

The BIOS is the same as its older sisters. It has all the options and we can get to have a performance of a high-end motherboard. We are very happy with the armored result.

Final words and conclusion about MSI Z170A Gaming PRO Carbon

The MSI Z170A Gaming pro Carbon is an ATX format motherboard and is positioned among the best quality / price options on the market. It is compatible with the new Intel Skylake processors thanks to its Z170 chipset, capacity to host up to 64GB DDR4 in 4 sockets, compatibility with 2 Way SLI and 3 Way CrossfireX devices and U2 connection for NVMe drives.

We recommend reading the best motherboards on the market.

Regarding its performance we have been able to do a great job regarding plates of 50 and 100 euros more than her. Its cooling is quite optimal, although it could have installed better heatsinks to be able to overclock more aggressive. Also highlight its RGB lighting system that allows you to customize the motherboard with 16 million colors.

As an improvement we propose 8 SATA connections and a killer network card for the most gamer. Its price in online store is 150 euros.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ GOOD COMPONENTS.	- BEST WITH 8 SATA CONNECTIONS.
+ POSSIBILITY OF SLI AND CROSSFIREX.	- AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE NETWORK CARD.
+ STABLE BIOS.
+ ADEQUATE PERFORMANCE.
+ PRICE.