MSI MPG X870E CARBON WIFI Motherboard Review – A New Carbon Vinyl

Conclusion - The Next-Gen AM5 Carbon

MSI MPG series are the ones that gamers should eye for as they offer the balance of that gamer aesthetic coupled with great features and great performance. Today, MSI introduced its high-end MPG X870E Carbon WIFI motherboard which is a strong outing for the AM5 lineup equipped with lots of upgrades.

On paper, the X870E Carbon WIFI features the same 18+2+1 DUET Rail power configuration but the X670E model features 90A power stages which have now been updated to 110A, allowing additional power to route to the CPU, offering higher stability and improved performance capabilities where needed. DDR5 support has also been upgraded to 8400 MT/s from 7800 MT/s plus there's also support for CUDIMM but only in the clock driver bypass mode which essentially defeats the purpose of the CUDIMM technology but at least you can run the CUDIMM sticks if you plan to use them in future.

In terms of storage options, you are getting four M.2 slots, three (1x Gen5 x4 & 2x Gen4 x4) of which sit under the same heatsink, and one Gen5 x4 with a dedicated aluminum heatsink with an RGB touch. This heat sink will ensure around 50-60C operating temperatures running the fastest 14 GB/s+ NVMe drives so you don't have to worry about heat accumulation. The PCIe slot configuration includes three slots (5.0 x16, 4.0 x8, 4.0 x4). There's enough space to run two dedicated GPUs which is good for AI setups and having metallic shielding means that you can ensure your PCIe slots don't wear away over time.

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For the BIOS, MSI has been at the forefront of adding new and improved features across its motherboard lineups and the X870 series is going to extend that philosophy. The BIOS for each motherboard gets a revamped design with new tuning options that allow PBO thermal point adjustments, TDP configurations, and performance switch/preset modes. There's also a Smart Button on the rear which can be configured with a certain tuning option and with one easy click, you can load into your saved configuration with ease rather than heading into the BIOS. The smart button is located next to the Clear CMOS and Flash BIOS buttons so you might want to pay extra attention as the wrong push can lead to unwanted behavior.

The things we loved about the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WIFI:

• Strong out-of-the-box performance
• Solid Design Aesthetics
• Great VRM Solution
• Up To 8400 MT/s DDR5 Support *CUDIMM Too
• Huge Amount of USB Ports (22 In total)
• USB4 Support
• Gen5 Compliant PCIe and M.2 Slots
• Two Gen5 M.2 slots
• Latest WIFI7 & BT5.4 Support (320Mhz Channel)
• EZ Toolless Design For M.2 & PCIe slots
• Solid BIOS Firmware

Things that we would have liked to see:

• A lower price
• Better placement for smart button

USB support is fantastic with a total of 22 ports available (9 on the front panel and 13 on the back) and dual LAN ports (2.5 GbE + 5.0 GbE) are also great plus there's also the ALC4080 codec for audio. There are 7 fan headers and four RGB headers on the motherboard. Wireless connectivity also exists with a WiFi 7 (320Mhz) and BT5.4 solution. MSI states that it is the only motherboard vendor that provides full 320Mhz channel support on its WIFI7 solution whereas the majority of other players have 160MHz channels. You also get an additional 8-pin connector to provide extra juice to the PCIe slots.

MSI is asking a $499 US price for its MPG X870E Carbon WIFI motherboard and while the price is a tad bit high, the powerful VRM and the features do make the product a bit more reasonable. We would have liked the pricing around $400 US but let's just say it's a premium high-end motherboard with tons of features and a lot of ease-of-life mechanisms which are worth paying the extra for.

Note - MSI also offers a 3 year warranty time for its X870E & X870 motherboards, the longest for all AM5 motherboards.