Introduction

In today's review, we will be covering a special collaboration between MSI and EKWB. MSI has taken the well-received MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi, a mid-tier motherboard that keeps a good balance between price and features. Combined with the ability to create a large monoblock design EKWB's talented team brings to the table, you get the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X edition.

With the release of Intel's 12th Gen Core processors comes a new socket. This LGA 1700 socket is supported by the Z690 chipset, which also holds the privilege of being the first consumer product to offer both PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5. AMD is no stranger to stiff competition and has plans to release the company's own take on DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 to offer customers an alternative when it comes time to retire the old computer. Being Intel, we can only suspect that an HEDT followup is in the works. For now, the 12th Gen Core processors are holding firm as top-tier gaming CPUs.

Intel's 12th Gen Core processors offer native PCIe 5.0 support, which means future support of products that have just now reached the enterprise market. The Z690 chipset has been given a connection speed boost as well, with a change to the DMI 4.0 interference at 16 GT/s, a doubling over DMI 3.0 on the previous LGA 1200 socket. This increase of bandwidth allows not only for native USB 3.2 2x2 connectivity, but plenty of storage options as well.


The MPG naming convention serves as MSI's mid-range line for Intel motherboards. Generally offering similar performance to the MEG series, but without some of the premium features, the MPG Z690 lineup typically comprises three models, the Carbon, Force, and Edge. The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X serves as the highest entry for the MPG family.

This collaboration with EKWB has taken the MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi feature-set and placed an EK-Quantum Matrix7 monoblock over the 18 VRM power stages. In addition to this, an M.2 socket is also directly cooled, thus allowing for near-ambient temperatures during large data transfers. This helps alleviate potential heat-related issues that can accompany these intense user workloads. Fear not, though, the remaining four M.2 sockets include full heatsink coverage. To round out the experience, the newest WiFi 6E technology and 2.5G LAN are present and accounted for. There is a lot to cover in this review, so let's take a closer look at what the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X has to offer.

Specifications

Packaging and Contents

MSI uses the same box design as the Carbon WiFi edition, with lots of flare and purple and blue hues across the bottom half. One corner has the product name, with logos filling the remaining sections.

The back of the box is the only place EK Quantum waterblocks are mentioned. Since this is a collaboration between EKWB and MSI, related specifications are found to the left of the depiction of the motherboard. On the other side, little tidbits related to the monoblock are found, like RGB lighting and full VRM coverage.



The included accessories consist of everything necessary, with the manual, SATA and ARGB extension cables, and Wi-Fi antenna, to name a few. It even comes with an EK Leak tester, which is a nice addition for those who like to make doubly sure the loop can hold pressure, being leak-free, before powering the system up.

The full list of accessories includes:

• User manual
• Quick installation guide
• USB drive (drivers/software)
• SATA 6 Gb/s cables
• LED JRGB Y cable
• LED JCORSAIR cable
• LED JRAINBOW cable
• Wi-Fi antenna
• Case badge
• EZ M.2 clip
• MPG stickers
• Product registration card
• Small screwdriver set
• Small brush
• EK leak tester

Board Layout

The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X has the MSI dragon logo over the rear IO cover, which normally sits above the VRM heatsink. However, since this is a watercooled edition, the heatsink is missing entirely. Turn it around and the back has warning zones showing possible conflicts with cases and where the standoff should be placed.


The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X offers three PCI Express x16 slots, with the top two reinforced for extra stress support. PCIe slot one and two are PCIe Gen5 with a total of x16 lanes coming from the CPU. Slot one can either operate at x16 or x8. Slot 2 is wired for PCIe Gen5 x8 and will split the available lanes with the first slot if populated. The third slot is also physically x16, but internally wired for x4 PCIe Gen3.


There are five M.2 sockets on the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X, four of which are Gen4 x4. The one nearest the LGA 1700 socket touches the monoblock when installed and has thermal tape on the motherboard for maximum cooling capacity. The remaining Gen4 M.2 sockets feature full-coverage heatsinks. This leaves a single M.2 below the Carbon EL X logo as the only Gen3 x4 socket.


If for some reason the jumper used for clearing the CMOS does not work, you can of course unplug the battery hidden away below the rear IO cover.


The board has a total of six SATA 6 Gb/s ports on the side, angled 90 degrees from the board. MSI decided to label the four SATA ports coming from the Z690 chipset as 5–8 and the other two SATA A/B; the latter two go to a separate ASM 1061 SATA controller. When the Gen3 M.2 socket is in use, these two SATA ports connected to the ASM 1061 controller will be disabled.


The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X more or less has the standard assortment of ports for a Z690 motherboard including an optical S/PDIF Out port, Wi-Fi 6E, and 2.5 Gb LAN. It is nice to see extra USB 2.0 ports for peripherals like a keyboard, mouse, USB headphones, and game controller. All of these generally do not consume enough bandwidth to warrant the 10 Gbps ports on these devices.

• Flash BIOS button
• 1x DisplayPort
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port
• 5x USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type-A ports
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps Type-C port
• 1x Intel 2.5G Ethernet
• 2x Wi-Fi antenna connectors
• 5x audio jacks
• Optical S/PDIF Out port

VRM Overview