Product on Review: MPG X870E CARBON WIFI
Manufacturer: MSI
MSRP:
- US: $499 excl Tax.
- AUS: $919 AUD
- UK: ~£450 inc. V.A.T. (TBC)
Editor: Tim Harmer
AMD are back scarcely six weeks after the Ryzen 9000-series launch, this time presenting the 800-series motherboards in partnership with major component manufacturers. Starting with a selection of high performance X870E designs and eventually extending down to mainstream and affordable product segments, the 800-series will be a broad top-to-bottom replacement for the 600-series going into 2025.
The 800-series continues AMD’s commitment to the AM5 platform, offering compatibility not only with ‘Zen 5’ Ryzen 9000-series processors but also 8000-series APUs and ‘Zen 4’ 7000-series chips. AM5 is expected to be a fixture in the market until at least 2027, indicating that these new designs will be compatible with processors launched as much as three years from now. That’s in stark contrast to Intel, who will be sunsetting LGA1700 later this year after just two discrete processor architectural generations.
X870E is the high-end desktop chipset for the range and takes many of its cues from its predecessor. It utilises a dual-controller solution for its chipset to layer on additional I/O capabilities compared to the single-controller X870 and B850, and thus is tailored for those who demand more peripheral support and PCI-Express lanes.
The chipset has full PCIe 5.0 support for x16 and x8/x8 modes on the GPU alongside a single PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 NVMe slot. Additional peripheral support is offered through the chipset’s general purpose PCIe lanes, typically through a plethora of M.2 NVMe storage and additional integrated I/O.
Clear improvements over X670E include improved memory support up to DDR5-8200 (OC), two USB4 40 Gbps ports as standard rather than an optional extra, and a more comprehensive CPU overclocking toolkit that augments software-based overclocking.
800-series motherboards are also some of the first to support WiFi 7 networking as standard. This allows the combination of multiple 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands into continuous data streams for higher realised bandwidth and better management of IoT environments.
In this review we’re looking at MSI’s MPG X870E CARBON WIFI, a high tier ATX continuation of the very well regarded CARBON range that mixes sleek aesthetic appeal and high performance gaming without necessarily being the choice of the enthusiast overclocker. Usability is very much the watch-word, with deft touches that should make living with the platform a very ‘EZ’ experience deep into its lifespan and after plenty of other hardware upgrades.
The design features 18+2+1 phase power delivery for high-end up-to 16-core CPUs, but isn’t quite so over-engineered as ‘boards that prioritise overclocking. Plenty of the front of the board is covered with heatspreaders for both the toasty VRMs and less demanding storage and chipset components.
Quick-release PCIe and M.2 slots emphasis the board’s ease of use, steel-reinforced PCIe slots drive home its long-term durability, dual LAN ports are a nod to the design’s versatility, and the four USB Type-C ports (two of which are USB4) show interested parties that it’s a forward-looking design.
To improve overall system stability when drawing power from the motherboard’s 12V rail, MSI have integrated an auxiliary 8-Pin PCIe power input into the motherboard. That’s not a common addition, particularly on boards that don’t support multi-GPU configurations, and likely is a nod to very high performance (i.e. RTX 4090/5090-tier) GPUs and heavy additional load through multiple fans and water cooling pumps.
WiFi 7 is of course supported, and so will Bluetooth 5.4 once the Windows 11 24H2 update rolls around in the very near future. Audio is also a big part of MSI’s implementation; with MSI Audio Boost 5 the CARBON utilises a Realtek ALC4080 audio processor and high performance capacitors to generate clean 32-Bit/384 kHz playback.
At an MSRP of $500 we’re creeping into premium territory and those are certainly some premium features. However, competition will squeeze this design from both sides, so it’ll have its work cut out staying ahead from the rest. Let’s see if it can by taking a deeper dive.
