![]() ![]() The fan and I/O headers are all in sensible places, heat sinks don’t get in the way and clearance isn’t an issue with regard to the socket or first PCI-E slot. The layout is highly practical as we have come to expect from MSI. Let’s start with the aesthetics and layout of the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon. The features are extensive, the aesthetics are somewhat restrained but still edgy and the performance is exactly what we expected from an enthusiast product. This board is pitched at gamers who take their tech more seriously than casually – and they nailed the brief perfectly. MSI went all out in terms of features that will appeal to gamers and didn’t worry about additional power connections or crazy overclocking features that most of us won’t use and shouldn’t have to pay for. The upper mid-range is probably the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon and at $279 you do get a fair bit for your money. The line up was extensive and perhaps a little excessive as MSI appears to have targetted every price point in the market from the cheapest business/home office requirement to the mad scientist tweaker. In April I had the opportunity to see the full line-up of AM4 motherboards from MSI at an event in Melbourne. Time will tell if this hurts AM4 motherboard sales as new generations of AM4 socket CPUs are released and people actually start upgrading. Gamers can buy an enthusiast board like the MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon with those extra bells and whistles at a reduced risk of buyer’s remorse knowing that the Ryzen 5 1500X CPU they can currently afford could easily be upgraded later to something with more grunt without the need to change the rest of their platform. The X370 is the enthusiast AM4 chipset that allows overclocking and the top performance options in terms of bandwidth and expansion. The relatively rapid succession of socket changes we see from Intel in the 115x socket has been frustrating at times but a necessary evil due to the performance gap between Intel and AMD’s previous generation of CPUs. How is this relevant? Longevity – There are gamers out there that were able to upgrade their CPU without changing their board during that time. ![]() Motherboard manufacturers were still making new 990FX series boards as late as last year to support a chipset and socket that was being replaced. AMD’s AM3/AM3+ socket stuck around since 2009 which has been a great innings. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |