In our next Intel Z270 motherboard review we take a look at the MSI Z270 GAMING PRO series with the Carbon edition; which boasts some prominent improvements over the previous generation.
Product on Review: Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon
Manufacturer & Sponsor: MSI
Street Price: £150 GBP / $180 USD
In recent years MSI has dedicated time and resources into their GAMING line, which encompasses a wide range of PC components designed and optimised specifically for avid gamers. Arriving at a more cost effective price-point, MSI’s GAMING motherboards are usually appealing to the eye and pack in the essential trademark MSI features. Today as we continue our analysis of the new Intel Z270 chipset, we turn to MSI for a look at their Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon.
MSI’s Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon provides gamers with a two-tone motherboard which is both aesthetically pleasing and laden with a multitude of improved features over the Z170 version of this motherboard.
Has MSI done enough to diversify from rival Z270 motherboards? Let’s find out!
About MSI
As a world leading gaming brand, MSI’s goal is to become the most trusted name in gaming and e-sport. We’ve dedicated countless hours and committed numerous resources to the eSports community to support the world’s most aspiring and best gamers and use their knowledge and expertise in our products in return. The insistence on 100% in-house design and manufacturing gives MSI the solid capability to implement innovative ideas and optimized design in our products.
Technical Specifications
Below are the technical specifications concerning the Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon:
CPU
• Supports 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors, and Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® processors for Socket LGA1151
Chipset
• Intel® Z270 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 Up to 3800MHz
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory
– ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (Modes: 16, 8, 4)
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x HDMI™ port, support a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz, 2560×1600@60Hz
• 1 x DVI-I, support a maximum resolution of 2560×1600@60Hz
Multi-GPU
• Supports 3-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
• Supports 3-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage
• Intel® Z270 Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 2 x M.2 slot (Supports Intel Optane Memory – 7th Gen Processor required)
RAID
• Intel® Z270 Chipset
– Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
Audio
• Audio Boost 4 (Realtek ALC 1220)
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
– Supports S/PDIF output
LAN
• 1 x Intel® I219-V Gigabit LAN controller
Back Panel I/O Ports
– 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port
– 2 x USB 2.0 ports
– 1 x DVI port
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type A and Type C)
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports (VR READY)
– 1 x HDMI port
– 1 x Gigabit LAN (Intel i219V)
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports
– 1 x Audio ports with digital out
Dimension
• 12 in. x 9.6 in. (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm)
• ATX Form Factor
• Supports 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors, and Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® processors for Socket LGA1151
Chipset
• Intel® Z270 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 Up to 3800MHz
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory
– ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (Modes: 16, 8, 4)
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x HDMI™ port, support a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz, 2560×1600@60Hz
• 1 x DVI-I, support a maximum resolution of 2560×1600@60Hz
Multi-GPU
• Supports 3-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
• Supports 3-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage
• Intel® Z270 Chipset
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 2 x M.2 slot (Supports Intel Optane Memory – 7th Gen Processor required)
RAID
• Intel® Z270 Chipset
– Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
Audio
• Audio Boost 4 (Realtek ALC 1220)
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
– Supports S/PDIF output
LAN
• 1 x Intel® I219-V Gigabit LAN controller
Back Panel I/O Ports
– 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port
– 2 x USB 2.0 ports
– 1 x DVI port
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type A and Type C)
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports (VR READY)
– 1 x HDMI port
– 1 x Gigabit LAN (Intel i219V)
– 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports
– 1 x Audio ports with digital out
Dimension
• 12 in. x 9.6 in. (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm)
• ATX Form Factor
Unboxing & Closer Look
For this review we’ve produced a video which reveals the packaging, bundle and a close, detailed overview of the motherboard. Please check out the video below for a comprehensive look at the feature-set:
Test Setup & Overclocking
Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i7-7700K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard MSI Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics GIGABYTE GTX 1080 G1 Gaming
Storage Corsair Force LX 512GB
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard MSI Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics GIGABYTE GTX 1080 G1 Gaming
Storage Corsair Force LX 512GB
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Monitor AOC U2879VF
Capture Device Epiphan AV.iO 4K
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Civilization IV & Total War: WARHAMMER
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Civilization IV & Total War: WARHAMMER
Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Real Temp
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Overclocking
Like previous generations, the Intel Core i7-7700K (Kabylake) is unlocked and also has flexible attributes in terms of the BCLK and ratio/multiplier. This makes the job of overclocking much easier.
Our current milestone is 4.9GHz with the Intel Core i7-7700K – GAMING PRO Carbon wasn’t able to achieve this result this clock speed with any amount of voltage but it did manage to reach 4.8GHz. So we nudged the voltage down as far as it would allow and our MSI board allowed a 4.8GHz @ just 1.3v which is a commendable result indeed.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z270 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but we believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Benchmarks: POV-RAY
Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
Benchmarks: TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8 Photoshop
The PCMark 8 Applications benchmark measures system performance using popular applications from the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. You can choose which tests to run based on the applications installed on your system. Each test automatically steps through a series of actions such as opening, editing and saving a file. The results are used to calculate the PCMark 8 Applications scores for the system.
Benchmarks: 3DMark
3DMark FireStrike Product PageFire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
Benchmarks: Civilization IV & Total War: WARHAMMER
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two recent gaming titles which are heavily CPU-based. For this test we remove the graphics card and rely on the integrated graphics from the Core i7-7700K.
Conclusion
By now it’s fairly evident that the Intel Z270 chipset brings with it some subtle improvements over the Z170 chipset and so it’s left up to motherboard partners to maximise product potential with innovative ideas. MSI’s Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon delivers on this innovation by offering up some creative features which really help to diversify.
Casting an eye over the previous generation of the GAMING PRO Carbon, it’s obvious that MSI has made some significant improvements with in this new version. It has a stronger digital power delivery system, features more steel armor, has more RGB lighting, more fan headers, Realtek’s new ALC 1220 codec and also carries with it some extras too.
The features which we think make this motherboard distinct boil down to two specific features, the M.2 guard and Lighting USB. The M.2 guard is a novel inclusion which employs a thermal pad for M.2 drives and it is the answer to a problem which plagues many SSDs of this standard. By their nature, M.2 drives struggle to remain cool and rely heavily on good computer chassis airflow. Various drives have been criticised for their inability to alleviate heat which has led to thermal throttle occurring – when the controller exceeds a specific temperature limit, the drive will automatically modify the clock speeds to bring down the temperature; thus affecting the performance of the drive. By MSI including this feature, they may well have introduced a gamechanger. With Lighting USB we can effectively double the bandwidth from our USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports when using devices simultaneously – rather than have the bandwidth split and divide into two.
Looking at GAMING PRO Carbon from a performance standpoint, this motherboard shows no signs of weakness with consistent results; even against motherboards which cost considerably more. Our overclock result was slightly tainted by just 100MHz from the current milestone of 4.9GHz but this is nothing to be overly concerned about. Applying an overclock to either a 6th/7th Generation processor is easy thanks to the intuitive UEFI BIOS which has all the options a novice or advanced user could ever want, in easy to reach menus.
Priced at £150 GBP / $180 USD, Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon represents decent value for money. For those wanting to tap into a strong feature-set, while keeping the costs down would be well advised to consider this motherboard. The two year warranty further solidifies a good value selection.
MSI has clearly shown how innovative they can be when it comes to motherboard design. Z270 GAMING PRO Carbon arrives with a catalogue of improvements over the Z170 version and combats two notable pitfalls.
VIDEO REVIEW
Pros
+ Subtle styling
+ Equipped with RGB lighting
+ Excellent performance
+ Steel reinforced slots
+ Includes M.2 shield
+ Double USB 3,1 bandwidth with Lightning USB
+ Plenty of fan headers
+ Features dual-M.2
+ Strong audio solution courtesy of Audio Boost 4
Cons
– Only comes with two SATA cables
+ Subtle styling
+ Equipped with RGB lighting
+ Excellent performance
+ Steel reinforced slots
+ Includes M.2 shield
+ Double USB 3,1 bandwidth with Lightning USB
+ Plenty of fan headers
+ Features dual-M.2
+ Strong audio solution courtesy of Audio Boost 4
Cons
– Only comes with two SATA cables
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
