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Quality. It oozes from every pore of the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI. MSI has given us a chance to preview quite a few motherboards over the last few months, but none can come close to this. Not in price, not in features, not in looks.
The carbon black colour scheme that the MPG motherboards are known for are in full effect with the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI. It’s black, alluring so. It begs you to touch it. It yearns for its sockets to be filled with the highest end of components. This isn’t something you sully with filthy casual gaming hardware, the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI is a motherboard that should only be outfitted with the best of the best.
This isn’t just gaming hardware. This is gaming hardware art.
Using the new Intel Z890 chipset, the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI is an ATX motherboard is designed to support the Intel Core Ultra 200 desktop processors that recently came out. Both are cutting edge PC hardware, which is why the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI commands a hefty price tag itself.
To justify that, MSI has also crammed a ton of features into the motherboard.
You can take a gander of the hardware specs here, but the gist of it is that this something an enthusiast will truly appreciate. 256GB DDR5 RAM maximum capacity. HDMI 2.1, with 8K60 support. 3 PCI_E 5.0 slots. 5 m.2 slots for SSDs!
That’s just to get your interest! There’s 5G LAN, WiFi 7 and Thunderbolt 4 support all built-in.
There’s is a ridiculous amount of internal IO connectors to put everything from RGB lighting to cooling.
This is an insanely hardcore piece of tech.
The whole design of the motherboard is premium, with high quality parts in the makeup.
I’ve seen MSI Shield Frozr heatsinks used in their older motherboards, but the one in the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI just puts them all to shame. It’s heavier, it feels thicker (though I’m not sure if it actually is). It’s in a whole class by itself.
Come on, you have got to be impressed with this!
That large slab of black steel in the middle?
That’s a MASSIVE Shield Frozr heatsink. Not a sliver to cover an individual m.2 SSD, but a slab. An absolute unit of a heatsink. It covers all the m.2 slots underneath it all at once.
Brutal.
Here’s what the motherboard looks like with it removed.
Notice the 4 different m.2 slots?
That is twice what we have on our gaming rig (that we review games on) here at The Technovore. Not only is that a massive amount, it’s all tool-less too. Not a single screw to fiddle with means no need for a screwdriver or manual labor.
All you do is literally slot an m.2 SSD in, and then secure it in place with the tabs built-into the motherboard.
There’s also another m.2 slot just a teeny bit above the foursome.
This one’s all my its lonesome and is equipped with its own Shield Frozr heatsink. It’s similar to the four slots under it, as it too doesn’t require any tools.
No tool needed to remove the Shield Frozr heatsink. No tool needed to slot in the SSD. No tool needed to secure it in place.
No tool needed.
Period.
As somebody who has been building PCs since I was a teen, every time I take a look at motherboards, the first thing I think about is where I’ll be needing to screw and unscrew stuff. Motherboards like the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI with their tool-less approach makes me jealous of modern builders who don’t know how bad it was back in the 90s.
This m.2 slot is special too. As you can probably guess, it’s the lone slot on the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI that’s equipped with Lightning Gen 5 m.2 tech. If you have a super speedy SSD that’s capable of making use of that, here’s where you slot that in.
On the top end of the motherboard, the CPU enclosure sits like a king in a castle.
Only here, as if to underscore how important the location is, does MSI dabble with a dash of color.
While I wouldn’t really care most of the time, this is an exception.
With the jet black (and chrome) color scheme the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI got going on, the purple (and shades of it) used makes the enclosure really pop.
It is privy to one of the tightest latch I’ve ever encountered on a CPU enclosure.
It is seriously tight and requires a surprising amount of pressure to unlatch and even more to seal the cover back in. I see that as a good thing though. If you’re spending mucho amounts of money on a top tier CPU, you wouldn’t want it falling out of its home after you’ve attached it, do you?
Our last stop for this preview’s the backend of the motherboard.
It’s where you’ll be interacting with the device once it’s been stashed away in your desktop.
It’s a beautiful sight to see, isn’t it?
So. Many. Ports.
Everywhere your eye wanders, there’s a USB port there. It’s glorious! I’ve preferred a few more USB-C port though (the trio of buttons in the middle sure can be relocated to fit in more port) what is in the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI is already impressive.
Wait…to be exact, it’s more than impressive. It’s glorious.
If you’re a hardcore gamer building a new rig soon (perhaps for NVIDIA’s upcoming GeForce RTX 5000 series), there’s no better foundation to start from than the MSI MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI. After seeing what’s on offer, do you honestly think any other motherboard will suffice?
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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