The Board - Layout

Everyone out there who despises boards with a bit of a specific color have got a lot to like with the MSI X99A GAMING PRO CARBON. There's a bit of silver in the slots and on the board's cooler, but the majority of this board is a nice flat black; front and rear.


The X99A GAMING PRO CARBON doesn't have a standard socket; there are select added pins instead. These pins should allow for better CPU clocking, and that is something I am eager to put to the test with both my Haswell-E and Broadwell-E CPUs. The DIMM slots are metal-reinforced for added strength; both to the slot and to signal quality.


The PCIe slots are treated in the same way as the DIMM slots, with added bracing fitted to the PCIe x16 slots for LAN-case uses, while the PCIe x1 slots are standard black plastic slots. There's a M.2 slot ready for such fast PCIe-based storage devices as the Samsung 950 PRO.


There are plenty of USB ports here on the MSI X99A GAMING PRO CARBON, and you'll find MSI's standard GAMING I/O ports with the PS/2 port, LAN port, audio ports and all getting a special treatment in one way or another. I was happy to see a Clear CMOS button and USB 3.1 Type-C here! Internal drive connectivity features a U.2 plug and a hefty compliment of SATA 6 Gb/s ports.


The board's bottom edge isn't standard either; on one side we have most of the usual stuff, including audio headers and such. On the other, we've got SATA Express, a few buttons, and more SATA ports!


Although there aren't that many devices that make use of it, MSI has included a SATA Express port along the board's bottom edge. There are some front-panel devices for USB 3.1 ports at the front of your case that make good use of the bandwidth offered to make sure you won't have to reach to the back of the case to get to the Type-C port there.