The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI (DDR5) Motherboard Review: A Decent Mid-Ranged Z690

Conclusion

It looks to be an interesting time for consumers in what is likely to be our last couple of months before Intel announces and launches its next generation of Core series (Raptor Lake) processors. AMD already announced its Zen 4-based offerings through the Ryzen 7000 series, and the new AM5 platform comes with it. Despite the following offerings coming over the next month or two, the Intel Core 12th gen Core series and Z690 platform still has plenty to offer consumers looking to build a decent system or even something a little more modest on the wallet with chips such as the Core i3-12300 offering fantastic bang for buck performance. 

Even with the expected introduction of Intel's 13th Gen Core series processors sometime in the not too distant future, Intel announced that its LGA 1700 socketed Z690 series would offer support, albeit not much is known about what limitations Z690 might offer when compared to the next-gen of chipset if any at all. This means Z690 options such as the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI can still offer something to the market, even for Intel's Raptor Lake processors.

On the surface, the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI has plenty of solid features, including support for up to five M.2 drives, with only one of these sharing bandwidth with a single SATA port. Users can install up to three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2, one PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA M.2, and one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 drive. MSI also provides a total of six SATA ports. However, only four offer RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 array support, as two of the SATA ports are powered by an ASMedia SATA controller; this is a relatively normal thing today. 

Other features of the Z690 Carbon WIFI include plenty of USB real estate on the rear panel, with one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C port, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports, and four USB 2.0 ports. Other connectivity options include one Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller and an Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi. It would have been good to see a slightly better Ethernet controller, given the competition at the same price point offers more; the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master, which we reviewed, has 10 GbE, which is impressive for the price, and it's a good performer too.

Touching on the performance, the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI is competitive with other Z690 models on test, with a decent showing in our system tests such as power consumption, POST time, and DPC latency. In our computational and gaming benchmarks, we saw no anomalies, and everything is level with the rest of the models we've tested to date.

It also performed well in our overclocking tests, with 5.3 GHz on our Core i9-12900K's P-cores more than achievable if it weren't for the crazy temperatures at 1.40 V on the CPU VCore. Throughout our testing, CPU VCore VDroop was at acceptable levels until we hit 5.2 GHz at 1.35 V, with the CPU VCore hitting close to 1.40 V at full load. Another element where the Z690 Carbon WIFI performed well was in our VRM thermal testing, with temperatures around and below 80°C, which is good. However, similar models such as the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero and GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master performed better by around 15°C. Despite this, the MSI is still well within the rated specifications.

Final Words: The Competition is Very Strong, Price is too High

At the time of writing, users can purchase the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI from Amazon for $350, which is a fair price until you look at the competition's offering. For around $30 cheaper, users can pick up the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master for $320 at Amazon, which has one fewer M.2 port but adds 10 GbE networking. The Z690 Aorus Master is the better buy because it has a better quality power delivery. Although overclocking performance is similar, the thermal VRM performance on the Master is considerably cooler. 

Given the price the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master is currently selling, it's tough to recommend the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI. If MSI were to drop the pricing on the MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI by around $50, it would be much easier to recommend it in the current climate, as the original launch MSRP pricing for MSI was/is cheaper than GIGABYTE. Unless you prefer the MSI Click BIOS 5 firmware, like the aesthetic better, or have had great experiences in the past with MSI, the Z690 Aorus Master represents much better value for money.

Overall the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WIFI is a decent option with decent all-round performance, but for the more shrewd users looking for a better buy at a better price, there is more value to be had with a few other models at the $350 to 400 price point.