MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi Motherboard Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Unfortunately, writing these reviews before the product launches means that stock is a bit erratic and pre-order prices are all over the place. I’ll update this part shortly after the review goes live, but you can check for stock and prices yourself on Amazon UK here. Prices should be around £259.99. Stock in the US is already showing at just $269.99.

Overview

This motherboard does have a lot going on, offering quite an impressive feature set considering the low price (relative to the £600-800 flagships) for a Z490 motherboard.

Build Quality & Design

MSI has done a good job of making a quality product, with a 12+1+1 Digital Power design and 8+4 Pin connectors, so even the big-boy CPUs from Intel will have overclocking headroom. The VRM heatsinks aren’t enormous, but they’re competent enough to hold our 10900K at 5.2GHz. I like that they’ve given us M.2 Shield Frozr on the M.2 drive bays, but they’re a bit in the thin side, and geometrically, I don’t think the board is aesthetically balanced. It’s not a bad looking board, but it is a bit of a random assortment of shapes and angles too.

Performance

All of the Z490 motherboards we’ve been testing performed broadly the same, which isn’t that much of a surprise, as they’re all using the same chipset and all using the Intel Core i9-10900K. Even these more affordable models managed to hold their own, which is fantastic. Of course, it’s the added durability, cooling, power management and connectivity that separate more expensive models.

Added Value

The board is Gen4 ready, so when Rocket Lake launches, you can keep your motherboard, which is cool. Plus, with M.2 Shield Frozr, your M.2 drives are protected and cooled. There’s a good range of USB 3.2 Gen 1 and Gen 2 with Type C, and even a Thunderbolt Header, PS2 port, HDMI and DisplayPort, and so on. I’m happy to see both WiFi6 and Intel 2.5 GbE LAN though, that’s a welcome addition. Plus you get the rather expected, but still fantastic ALC1220 Audio. Overall, that’s everything most of you will need from a gaming rig.

Should I Buy One?

While the design is a little marmite, the features and price are not. This is one of the best value points for Z490, and you get premium features such as 2.5GbE LAN and a 12+1+1 VRM setup at a very sensible price. This is certainly a good one for the gamers out there.