MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi Review | Introduction and Technical Specifications | CPU & Mainboard

Introduction

We’ve often spoken about our frustration with Intel constantly changing their socket and requiring people to buy a new motherboard if they wanted to keep up. It’s not that we expect Intel to nerf their design potential, but given the price of Intel motherboards in general it would be nice if the socket held up for a while.

With the Z690 and its LGA1700 socket the Intel 12th Generation was a blinding combination of Performance Cores and Efficiency Cores, to the point that their latest release of the 13th Generation maintains the LGA1700 socket on the Z790 platform. Hooray for anyone who brought an expensive Z690 that you should be a BIOS update away from dropping a 13th Gen Intel in. Or at least that’s what we hope. We know for sure that the Z790 supports both the 12th and 13th Generation of Intel processors, so we can’t see why the reverse wouldn’t be true.

Naturally with a new chipset comes some new motherboards. We’ve got a few in the office to cover before the official launch, and we’re going to start off with the MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi.

The biggest reason we used the Carbon as our baseline tests was because it’s normally occupying a mid-range role in the MSI lineup. Whilst it may eventually be there, right now it’s one of the higher end motherboards. It’s a bit of a change for MSI to use the Carbon in this manner and, given that it’s around £550, we dread to think how much the Godlike is going to rock up at.

Pricing

At launch, MSI’s MPG Z790 Carbon WIFI motherboard is available for around £529.99 at carious UK components retailers. 

Technical Specifications