MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon Review

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As M.2 drives get ever faster, so heat is beginning to become a minor issue with them. The Carbon is provided with a heatspreader to help keep your expensive purchase as cool as possible and thus improve the longevity. Somewhat oddly given the twin M.2 slots, two of the SATA ports are of the vertical variety, something we thought was rightfully consigned to history. Similarly if you’re the type of person with a selection of drives it’s worth noting that the Carbon only has six SATA ports on board – including the two annoyingly vertical ones.

With most of us utilising AIO CPU cooling these days it’s great to see all the Z270 motherboards having a dedicated Water pump header. In fact wherever you look on the Carbon there are plenty of headers, from USB 3.1 front panel offerings to RGB strips and everything in between. Audio is supplied by MSIs Audio Boost 4, which combines a 600Ohm headphone amplifier with a curious audio split. Curious because it allows you to play audio from two different sources via the front and rear audio connectors. We can’t think of a use for this, but perhaps some of our more creative readers can.