MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard Preview

Peter Donnell / 3 years ago

MSI is one of the bigger and best brands in the world for gaming hardware, and it looks like their Z690 range is going to be no exception. With the launch of the new 12th Generation, Intel Alder Lake CPUs are a huge range of new motherboards, which come with the latest LGA1700 socket, Z690 chipset and support for either DDR4 or DDR5, albeit the latter is typically on the more high-end boards. MSI has a large range of boards for this launch, from more affordable DDR4 models right up to their DDR5 flagships, which are likely to cost a small fortune. While not quite the flagship model, the MSI MPG Z690 CARBON WiFi is certainly up there, and sure to appeal to high-end gaming and enthusiast customers alike.

MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi

The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard is certainly well equipped and comes with one of the more robust power delivery setups we’ll see for this launch. It uses a Direct 18+1+1 Phases design, with 75A Smart Power Stages. That’s combined with huge heatsinks, which should ensure you can get the best out of the latest Intel CPUs, and push bigger performance with overclocking. Furthermore, you get the latest DDR5 memory support, there are two PCIe 5.0 lanes, giving you some future-proofing for next-gen graphics cards and more. There are even PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 mounts, ensuring you can get the best out of the latest storage hardware. Networking and connectivity look great too, with both 2.5 GbE LAN and the latest Intel WiFi 6, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, and 8 channel audio output.