MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC Review

Introduction

MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

Are you ready to take on extreme gaming with the new flagship AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs? Then you’re going to need a beast of a motherboard to go with your new CPU! The latest entry in the Gaming Pro Carbon AC series from MSI features the new TR4 socket, offering up support for the biggest AMD CPU to date, and all the lovely features it brings with it.

Kicking things off, we’ve got the new X399 chipset. The latest chipset offers up support for quad-channel DDR4 with 8 x DIMM slots on the motherboard, making room for up to 128GB of memory. Add to that four full-size PCIe slots, for quad-GPU configurations, or additional PCIe M.2 storage, taking full advantage of the 64 PCIe lanes offered up by Threadripper. If that’s not enough, there’s also 3 x M.2, 8 x SATAIII, 2 x PCIe-Ex1, and so much more!

Features

• Supports AMD^® RYZEN^™ THREADRIPPER^™ Series Processors
• Support 8 DIMMs, Quad Channel DDR4 3600+ (OC)
• Designed for Extreme Performance: 10+3 power phase, DIGITALL POWER Design
• MYSTIC LIGHT: 16.8 million colours / 17 effects controlled in one click. MYSTIC LIGHT SYNC support both RGB and RAINBOW LED strip
• 3D Printing Support: exchangeable cover and 3D X-MOUNTING screws
• Lightning Fast Game experience: 3x TURBO M.2 with M.2 Shield, LIGHTNING USB 3.1 GEN2
• VR READY and VR BOOST: Best virtual reality game experience without latency, reduces motion sickness. Supports Nahimic VR
• AUDIO BOOST 4 with NAHIMIC 2+: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experience
• DDR4 Boost with Steel Armor: Fully isolated, shielded and optimized DDR4 PCB design to give your DDR4 memory a performance boost
• GAMING LAN and Wireless support, powered by Intel®: The best online gaming experience with lowest latency and bandwidth management
• MULTI-GPU: With STEEL ARMOR PCI-E slots. Supports 4-Way NVIDIA SLI™ & 4-Way AMD Crossfire™
• WHQL certified for Windows 10

View the full specifications here.

Motherboard Overview

As I said before, this motherboard is crammed full of features. It comes with more RGB lighting than you’ll ever need, which is always good fun to play with. There are huge heat sinks for stable overclocking performance. The PCI, DIMM and M.2 slots are heavily armored for durability, plus it makes them look awesome. You’ve got Nahimic 2+ audio, powerful WiFi, 1Gbe LAN, Flashback+ and more.

Included Extras

In the box, you’ll get a backplate, all the cables you’re likely to need, SLI bridge, Wi-Fi card and antenna, and all the usual documentation.