MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon: A convenient choice for Ryzen 7

Parameters and details

We have added the third major manufacturer to our tests of X370 boards – MSI. The X370 Pro Carbon is about thirty euros cheaper than its opponents from Gigabyte and Asus, so it will be interesting to watch how these savings are reflected in overall quality and design. We don’t want to give away too much, but we can say that it is definitely worth checking.

Basic parameters

Details

Basic Pro Carbon (there is also a variation with Wi-Fi) is the golden mean among MSI AMD X370 boards. The price and equipment are therefore well balanced. A casual user of 1800X (for example) won‘t miss anything, and also won’t pay extra for any special features.

The selection and layout of the components is quite standard. There are three PCIe ×16 slots (and three more PCIe ×1 slots). The first two work in ×16/×0 and ×8/×8 configurations. The third (×4) is generation 2.0, so it is suitable for some SSD (NVM included). There is also a M.2 connector with shared bandwidth above it. That means that you don’t have to use an adapter for the second SSD. Most boards for AMD processor have only one M.2 slot.

When it comes to some possible collisions of a CPU cooler with RAM and graphics cards, the design is pretty decent. The first DIMM slot is traditionally 52 mm away from the center of the socket, and the first PCI Express ×16 slot is 94 mm away. So, even the largest coolers can be used without problems.

There are six connectors for fans – four for system fans, one pump_fan (with an aggressive preset for PWM), and one CPU_fan. We would appreciate one extra for CPU. Coolers with high performance and one fan only (usually liquid coolers) already have a relatively high consumption for just one connector.

The external connectors are missing DisplayPort. Instead we got DVI-D (Dual Link). The manufacturer apparently considered compatibility with older monitors. However, HDMI is included as well as USB type C gen 2. There are eight external USB ports (and eight internal).

The processor power supply circuit has 10 phases. Its design is a little different than those of Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming and Gigabyte Aorus AX370 Gaming 5. It is not a 6 + 4 but 8 + 2 layout (only two phases are for SOC, eight for Vcore). Two MOSFETs for each coil, Niko-Sem PK616BA (24A) + PK632BA (40A). Capacitors are fitted with MIL, which should be durable enough.

VRM heatsinks are really massive (174 g), but they don’t have ribbing, and basically it’s just a hollow aluminum. But at least the chipset (62 g) is nicely perforated, which is good. X370 chips have a higher heat output and without a cooler they can easily go above 100 degrees. You will find out more about components efficiency in next chapters.

We will also try to test how effective is the cooling cover for SSD in some following review. Perhaps in the upcoming article about how a position of a SSD affects their heating. This board with two M.2 slots seems like a good basis for it.

• Contents
• Parameters and details
• Fan control options
• Test procedures
• Reports from internal sensors (chipset, VRM, …)
• Circuit heating – stock + same OC
• Gallery of thermal images
• Consumption – stock + same OC
• Conclusion