Review: MSI X399 Gaming Carbon Pro AC

Conclusion

Perhaps befitting a truly high-end platform, there is no cheap AMD X399/TR4 board. Starting off at around £300 and rising to £500, most manufacturers tend to view the platform as reason enough to over the top on features.

MSI takes a more conservative approach with its offering, the X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC. The feature set remains robust, mind, and it's indicative of the very best Z270 boards we see from the Taiwanese giant.

We like the aesthetic, MSI does a good job in fitting a number of extras without blocking-off areas, and even the RGB lighting is restrained and understated.

In fact, triple M.2, four-slot PCIe, high-performance WiFi, support for USB 3.1 Gen 2 via ASMedia, and decent sound through the ALC Codec seems to be the preferred state of play in the £350 AMD TR4 market. We say this because Aorus and ASRock have very similar feature sets for this kind of outlay.

The real question then becomes of brand loyalty, and we believe MSI does more than enough to woo its fans with the solitary X399 offering.

Bottom line: a sensibly-designed X399 board that's ideally suited for that Threadripper build you may well be eyeing up.

MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

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The MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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