Board Layout

After being freed from the confines of its anti-static bag, the MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC shows off a gleaming white PCB with granular silver heatsinks. Even the shield for the CPU socket is a pristine white. The white of the PCB is broken by gray lines zig-zagging down the board. The quality of the color and texture of the heatsinks help make this a very striking and attractive board.

The back of the board is also white, broken only by the socket backplate and some warnings about case standoff interference. The back of the board is clean and quite uniform. The MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC is one of the most striking boards I have looked at so far. While some might say that the completely white aesthetic is polarizing (haha, get it?), I find myself liking it quite a lot.


The socket on the MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC is open, and most air coolers should not have any issues. The heatsinks, despite being quite hefty, offer a reasonable amount of clearance.


The single M.2 slot that is supported by the B360 chipset is located just under the CPU socket, as is common practice.


The MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC has two PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots which support CrossFire in x16/x4 mode, along with four PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots. There are five SATA 6 Gb/s ports in total, with four at a 90 degree angle and one facing up from the board. I like boards that offer at least one of both as it can make cable management easier.


The MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC has an interesting rear I/O; it forgoes the standard HDMI port for a DisplayPort 1.2. I like the change up, but am also not sure how many people are going to be using the onboard graphics with this kind of board outside of troubleshooting. The MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC does have an ever-important USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port. The full list includes:

• 1x PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo connector
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• 1x DisplayPort 1.2
• 1x DVI-D port
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port
• 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports
• 1x RJ45 LAN port
• 6x 3.5 mm audio jacks

The LAN on the MSI B360 GAMING ARCTIC is powered by an Intel I219-V chip.