MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi: Basis in above-standard features

Two network adapters, over twenty USB ports, a really powerful VRM… in short, a motherboard for those with more demands than usual. The X870E Carbon WiFi is also rich in connectivity thanks to the two chips that make up the chipset’s south bridge. Overall, this makes it a very well equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that is more expensive, but you still don’t have to pay a devastating amount for it.

After two X870 motherboards (TUF Gaming X870 Plus WiFi and X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7), we finally get to a model with the X870E chipset. The “E” (Extreme) at the end signifies the use of two Promontory 21 chips, which gives the board more PCI Express lanes and therefore wider options for connecting all sorts of stuff.

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MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi

The second best-equipped motherboard for the AMD AM5 platform that MSI has to offer. The first is the MEG X870E Godlike at about double the price. Of course, the MPG Carbon WiFi is also one of the more expensive motherboards and not everyone will take advantage of its capabilities. But some users will definitely find them useful.

MSI sticks to the ATX format (i.e. 305×244 mm) for the X870E Carbon WiFi, so the individual connectors are quite densely packed. However, the spacing between the first and second PCI Express ×16 slots is quite large – 80 mm between their centers. The second PCIe ×16 slot (physically… electrically it’s ×4) will thus be usable even in the case of installing an excessively thick graphics card.

   

For more convenient removal of expansion cards from the first PCIe ×16 slot, the board has a mechanical button to remotely release the latch.

The PCIe ×16 slot latch is robust, with metal elements, with a compression spring.

Both the first and second PCI Express ×16 slots support PCIe 5.0. The third and last PCIe ×16 slot (electrically a 4-lane one), which is brought out of the chipset, supports only PCIe 4.0.

The motherboard has four M.2 slots for SSDs, two of which are connected to the CPU (PCIe 5.0 interface) and two, the third and fourth, to the X870E chipset (PCIe 4.0). Above all of these is then a cooler with a side latch that you push to release, and then remove the cooler by lifting it up. The first M.2 slot has a smaller separate cooler (84 grams), and slots M.2_2 to M.2_4 have a shared cooler – a single monolithic piece of aluminum weighing 195 grams.

There are a handful of angled connectors on the bottom right side. These are four SATA (III) connectors, USB-C (3.2 gen. 2×2), and 19-pin USB 3.2 gen. 1 for connecting the front panels of cases. These are in a pair, which means everything works out well for cases with four 10-gigabit USB Type-A connectors. Cheaper boards tend to be ready for only two of these connectors.

The power delivery is 21-phase, with 18 phases for Vcore (two for SOC and one for MISC). The specified current load capacity per phase is 110 A. However, to achieve high power efficiency, the VRM must be significantly oversized and loaded only fractionally. This is also in order to be able to cool critical components to sufficiently low operating temperatures with relatively simple coolers at all.

   

A look at the rear panel will especially please those who like USB ports. Fast USB ports. The slowest of the 13 total ports is the 10-gigabit port, there are ten of those (ten Type-A plus one Type-C). There are two USB4 (USB-C) ports.

Part of the USB ports are connected to the motherboard via a separate PCB with a Realtek RTS5420 controller. Also soldered to this small board are the Flash BIOS, Clear CMOS buttons and the Smart button, which is a multi-purpose programmable button for reset, LED off/on, Safe Boot or Turbo Fan. You can assign the selected function to it in the BIOS. By default, the Smart button is used to reset the motherboard.
Two RJ-45 connectors mean two network adapters – a fast one (2.5 Gb Realtek 8125) and a faster one (5 Gb Realtek 8126). Network connectivity is also made up of a wireless module (Qualcomm NCM865) with WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

On the cover between the VRM and the external I/O connectivity of the rear panel is an illuminated dragon logo typical of MSI. Its colors, effects and brightness intensity can be customized traditionally via Dragon Center and the (A)RGB LED management app.

Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.