MSI MAG Z690 Carbon WiFi Review

Introduction

The MSI Carbon range has long been a stalwart of solid performance. Some times when you get a model name that you recognise the end result can be a little up and down. It makes it difficult to purchase a product on brand recognition alone.

The MSI Carbon, on the other hand, might not have won too many outright performance awards, but neither has any of them been a catastrophe, with solid performance coupled to excellent reliability at an attractive price point. With the Z690s on the horizon it is only natural that MSI have chosen to continue with their popular Carbon range in the form of the MSI MAG Z690 Carbon WiFi.

With an all-black aesthetic, 75A 18 phase power stages and all the MSI hallmarks one has come to expect, it certainly has the potential to continue to be a model that everyone should consider. Let’s take a look.

Technical Specifications

With the 12th Generation CPUs and Z690 chipset there are a whole raft of updated features when compared to the previous model. The Carbon ticks every box, having PCI Express 5.0, 2.5G LAN and WiFi 6E for your networking, as well as support for DDR5 of the speed ratings that absolutely blow our mind, having got used to the abilities of DDR4. With plenty of power and the new Purple and Blue aesthetic in full effect, the Carbon certainly delivers on paper. Let’s take a look at it in the flesh before finding out if that paper performance is matched by real world results.