MSI MPG Z590 CARBON EK X Motherboard Review

Ben Enos / 4 years ago

A Closer Look

As we would expect, this board looks almost identical to the MSI Z590 Gaming Carbon WIFI that we have previously reviewed. The main difference we see is the bare VRM and power phases on this board, thanks to EKWB, including the monoblock that will help cool these and subsequentially alleviate the need for a standard VRM heatsink. Aside from that, they do look pretty much identical, but let’s have a bit closer look to see all that the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X has to offer.

No surprises when it comes to the EPS power connectors. MSI has gone with dual 8-pin EPS connectors to make sure whichever CPU you are using is getting the power it needs! When combined with MSI’s Core Boost Technology, these power connectors are going to make sure your CPU is reaching maximum performance.

Over to the top righthand side of the motherboard, we have a few fan connectors, and a Debug LED and a 5v aRGB header for all your RGB needs.

One good thing about not having the normal VRM heatsinks on the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X is that we can actually sneak a little peek at the power phases and controller. MSI has gone with a digital PWM IC with their 16+1+1 Duet Rail Power System.

The fun continues onto the bottom half of the board, and we have three M.2 slots, three PCIe x16 slots and a pair of PCIe x1 slots. Again, as this is a more premium board, we can see that all the M.2 slots have a heat shield on them, and while it’s not always needed, especially on Gen3 drives, it definitely adds an aesthetic improvement to the board.

On the side of the board, we have six SATA 6Gb/s ports. As always, depending on which M.2 slots you are using, you may lose a couple of the SATA ports. This is due to the 2/3 M.2 slots also running off the SATA interface. So, if using the M.2 2 slot, you will lose the SATA2 port. If using the M.2 3 slot, you will lose both SATA5 and SATA6 ports. If using all the M.2 slots on the motherboard, you will then be down to three SATA slots from the original six. This shouldn’t be a massive issue for most these days, but definitely, something to be aware of before purchasing. This is also quite common on Z590 boards and not just something MSI has done itself.

Across the bottom of the board, we have a whole host of connectors, headers, switches and the likes! Starting left to right, we have the front panel audio header, 5v aRGB and 12v RGB headers, an LED switch. We also have a few headers used for things like CPU power testing, debug ports and different diagnostics.

Continuing along, we have a single PCIe 6-pin power connector that will help give a bit of extra power to the motherboards PCIe lanes. We also have a pair of USB 2 headers, a USB3 header, a few system fan headers, and our front panel case connectors.

Taking a quick look at the back, and while generally we don’t see much going on here, but we have a few mounting holes to take note of. The holes around the CPU socket and the other four that have the white rings around them will all be used to help mount the monoblock onto the CPU and VRMs.

Once the monoblock is installed, we can see it covers the CPU socket and VRMs of the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard with ease and even butts right up to the rear IO casing. It really does fit in nice and gives that extra premium looks to the board and hopefully will help make your whole build really stand out.

There are several different ways to configure your loop. You can go with soft or hard tubing, and then depending on your hardware, and you would have several different ways to run those tubes. However, one thing is for sure, putting some fluid with a bit of colour into this monoblock on the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X really does help complete things! While purple may not be for everyone, you’ve got to admit that it does look good.

Onto the rear IO, and we have a mass amount of USB ports and all our other standard inputs such as the 2.5G LAN and audio inputs. We also have handy dandy flash BIOS buttons. This button will allow us to flash the BIOS of the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard without the need of their being a CPU. Also, some will be happy to know the USB Type-C port offers speeds of 20Gbps.