MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
$639 | AU.MSI.COM MSI’s quest to differentiate has actually driven some innovation.
The X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC is the final condenter in this roundup and it really reinforces the fact that, as PC enthusiasts, we’re living in an era where we’re spoilt for choice. Not only is AMD competitive again with Intel across a range of areas, particularly with high-end desktops, but the motherboards to support the new Ryzen Threadripper CPUs are consistently of high quality. This scenario has delivered choice to the end user and further increased the competition in the market — a welcome combo.
With RGB LED illumination having penetrated nearly every aspect of PC component production, it’s no surprise that motherboard designs are now typically muted with metallic highlights. Though we prefer the industrial influence of the Aorus ‘board, the MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC introduces a novel way to customise the motherboard aesthetics beyond RGB LED illumination. This board features three plastic plates screen-printed with a carbon visual effect; however, these units can be removed and replaced with bundled metallic gold or silver plates according to the tastes of the end user. There’s also potential here for PC modders to get creative with custom painted plates, repurposing the units provided for a further personalised flare.
On the RGB lighting front, the X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC is adorned with RGB illumination on the shield above rear I/O, audio component shield, PCH heatsink and a light bar on the lower half of the right-side PCB edge. This combination of lighting outlets provides sufficient accents to present the end user’s build with coloured luminance. Also on the RGB LED front are two RGB headers. One of these supports the use of the established 5050 spec RGB LED ribbons while the second header providers similar RGB LED ribbon support for the smaller 3528 spec LEDs (3.5mm x 2.8mm diode). This is the first time we’ve seen support for 3528 spec LED ribbons and question the proliferation of use of these lighting strips, but modders do enjoy choice, so time will tell how this split approach is received by the market.
The Carbon AC series has historically implemented an 802.11ac wireless solution placed on the rear panel I/O, hence the AC moniker. Indeed, the X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC does sport 802.11ac Wi-Fi via the Intel Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8265 wireless network interface controller (WNIC), though unlike the back panel I/O implementation of the same WNIC on the Aorus offering, the MSI solution is presented as a PCIe x1 daughterboard, with the Intel 8265 card needing to be installed via M.2.
This creates a potentially messy (or impossible) usage when considered with 3- and 4-way multi-GPU setups. We would have much rather seen a similar integration to that found on the Aorus.
In terms of performance, the MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC edged out the Aorus offering to claim second place, two points behind the leading RoG Zenith Extreme.
However, the differences across the range in performance experienced at standard settings was minimal, making features, layout, aesthetics and unique implementations a more significant set of assessment criteria to be addressed.