Conclusion
so we'd recommend MSI lop at least £20 in order to stay competitive at this end of the market...MSI releasing a full roster of Z490 boards comes as no surprise. The names in the range are familiar enough - Godlike, Ace, Unify, Carbon, et al - and the company has taken the opportunity to revamp the styling to reflect today's trends.
The MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi is a good case in point. We like the understated look, lots of space between the cooler and primary x16 slot, decent layout throughout, and the fact that the latest BIOSes offer flawless stability and correct interpretation of Intel's CPU speeds, which is more than can be said for some of the competition.
We'd like M.2 cooling to be double-sided, could definitely do with onboard buttons, and would ideally like a third M.2 slot, even with the lane contention that may bring.
The transition between generations pushes price up to £260 or so. That feels a mite expensive when up against cheaper offerings like the Asus ROG Strix Z490-H Gaming and Aorus Elite AC, so we'd recommend MSI lop at least £20 in order to stay competitive at this end of the market.
The Gaming Carbon range has always been a good staple for MSI. The Z490 variant gets most things right, but a few shortcomings precludes outright recommendation.
RGB is understated
Runs Core i9-10900K exactly right
Good spacing between slots
Feels £20 too expensive
MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi
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The MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi motherboard is available to purchase from Scan Computers.
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