MSI MPG B650 Carbon WiFi Review
Up Close
The packaging is clearly designed by people who make contact lenses, or perhaps headache tablets. It’s … different. Not to our tastes but it’s at least unlike anything else. If they just kept the lines slightly thicker it wouldn’t be as strange to look at. We’ll never mark down for stepping outside the box though.
Despite being a motherboard in the MSI MPG range, and based around the B650 chipset, there is still a decent amount of accessories provided. About the biggest change between this and the other Carbon we’ve just looked at is the use of the old style stubby aerials for the wireless connectivity.
It wasn’t that long ago that a motherboard with a B chipset would look like you’d brought it using the change found down the back of the sofa. The MSI MPG B650 Carbon WiFi on the other hand looks as good as any flagship model we’ve seen. It’s a glorious thing.
The Dragon logo is a big part of the westmost heatsink and IO cover, and it’s lit up too so you get a little flash and flair.
The bottom half sees a heat spreader on every M.2 slot which covers up all the unsightly bits and bobs that are usually found on a PCB. Nobody really wants to show off their capacitors and PCI Express chips. MSI have also toned down the amount of actual carbon effect that gives this particular model its name. That’s no bad thing as carbon effect has almost reached the status of pastiche.
As always we begin with the 8+8 12V CPU power inputs, and we have to say that straight away we are pleasantly surprised that the B650 Carbon has this arrangement rather than 4+8 or just a single 8.
The top right has 4 fan headers, with a dedicated pump header alongside the Mystic Light RGB headers.
