Finding an all-black Intel Z170 motherboard isn’t all that easy – many boards gracing the market come with a splash of colour which tend to override or determine the overall theme of a system configuration but the Z170A GAMING PRO Carbon is the epitome of sleek.

Throughout Carbon there is a matt-black livery which will marry up with other computer hardware very well. But, even if you did change your mind, MSI has included RGB lighting with this motherboard – allowing the user to personalise with colour and special effects.

Although MSI has trimmed down some of the features on Carbon in order to meet the respective price-point, this board still boasts a solid feature-set which covers the basics that most system builders will require.


When we put Carbon through our benchmark suite it was immediately apparent how capable this board is. In a variety of scenarios Carbon offers great performance – pushing to the top of our charts in some situations. Although this motherboard wasn’t able to achieve our current milestone for overclocking, we did however manage to reach a pleasing result of 4.6GHz with the Intel Core i7-6700K. Reaching this point was easy thanks to the intuitive UEFI BIOS which has a great layout and plenty of options to modify.

Priced at £127 GBP / $170 USD, the GAMING PRO Carbon represents great value for money. Around this price-point other rival offerings lack of the finesse of this board a few of its features. So, if you are looking to transition over to Intel Skylake this is a good route to take.

The MSI Z170A GAMING PRO Carbon is the epitome of sleek. This motherboard oozes style and does so while offering a great feature-set at an affordable price.


Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.