MSI Introduces Z370 Gaming PRO Carbon Motherboard

Ron Perillo / 7 years ago

Following Intel’s pulling forward of the Z370 motherboard information NDA, MSI has now revealed their Z370 Gaming PRO Carbon AC. Obviously, this motherboard supports the latest 8th generation Intel Coffee Lake CPUs. However, it also has some very interesting features that were not on the Z270 Gaming PRO Carbon.

MSI Gaming PRO Carbon AC Features

Using a standard ATX form factor, the Gaming PRO Carbon packs plenty of features and eye-candy. By eye candy of course, I mean RGB LED features. The IO cover, PCH heatsink and the right side edge all have embedded RGB LED lighting. All are customizable via MSI’s Mystic Light software and can be made in sync with what ever the user plugs into the on-board RGB headers.

The AC in the name stands for the bundled 802.11ac Wi-Fi feature. This comes via a PCIe riser card which already has antennas. The Gaming PRO Carbon has three PCIe x1 slots so there is plenty of room. As a high-end gaming motherboard, adequate spacing between the top two PCIe x16 slots is necessary so this board has a triple slot support for the topmost slot. This ensures that dual-slot cards get adequate airflow. Plus, these two PCIe x16 slots have armor reinforcements.

In terms of storage features, the Gaming PRO Carbon has six SATA3 6G ports. Four of which are at an angle, and two are upright at the bottom right corner edge. There are also two M.2 slots supporting NVMe PCIe x4 SSDs. One supports form factors up to M.2 22110 and comes with a heatshield. The other supports up to M.2 2280 form factors.

The storage features extend to the USB ports. Two are USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports are available via an ASMedia ASM3142 chipset. One of which is a Type-A, while the other is a reversible Type-C. Eight more USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports are available via the Z370 chipset. Four of which are at the back panel IO, while four are through the internal USB header.

The audio subsystem uses the latest Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec with Hi-Fi grade WIMA and Nichicon Fine Gold series audio capacitors. Wired networking is provided by an Intel i219V.

For more information, visit: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z370-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-AC/Overview