MSI MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi Preview

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

Very occasionally we get a product appear in the OC3D offices that looks so good we hope to see it again. As regular readers will know, nothing stays the same for long, and motherboards in particular are prone to redesigns. The X870E version of the MSI Carbon was gorgeous, and a real step forwards for this popular motherboard. We have to confess we were delighted then to see that the Z890 Carbon looks nearly identical.

On the off-chance you’ve missed our earlier previews and are wondering what this is all about, we will elucidate. Intel are launching a new range of processors, the Ultra 200S, and this means a new socket. LGA1851. New sockets usually mean a new chipset, and that means everyone gets the opportunity to redesign their product range. As the Intel Core Ultra CPUs have heavy AI leanings – including NPU cores on the die – a lot of the Z890 chipset features are aimed in that direction.

One place that the newest MPG Carbon motherboard stands out is in its networking capabilities. WiFi 7 is found on nearly all the new Z890 motherboards – certainly all we’ve seen up to now – but the Carbon boasts both a 2.5G and 5G LAN. Perfect if you need a home network and want to keep that free from prying eyes on your main internet LAN connection. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here are the specifications, and join us on the next page to see it in the flesh.

Technical Specifications

With two PCIe 5.0 slots and a single PCIe 5.0 M.2 – as well as four Gen4 ones – the MSI MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi has plenty of bandwidth available. All Z890 products we’ve previewed so far have dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C connectors, so clearly big bandwidth is a hallmark of the latest Intel Chipset.