MSI Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON

[cadaveca]

When you want your PC to be fast, ultra fast, you are going to look at very specific products only. One you might not look at is MSI's Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON, a board truly designed to be one of the fastest boards on the market, ready to help you reach the finish line first.

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[erixx]

Very interesting. Cool that the (i suppose) G.Skill Trident Z 3866 (from X99 days) work with this!

I edited this because I didn't find what I asked, never expected that you used them, hehehe, how nice!

 

[pociej]

In test setup Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 2 TB is listed but UEFI reports ST2000DL003 which is Barracuda Green.

Is that a typo in article or UEFI incorrectly detected that HDD?

Edit:
That's (https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/Z270_GAMING_PRO_CARBON/images/bios_06.jpg) all options to control LEDs from UEFI?
I guess all is done be app or smartphone...

And one question about M.2 Shield, can it be removed from board or it's permanently attached to slot?

 

[Caring1]

Page 4 audio is mentioned as Nahamic, when it it should be Nahimic, (small typo).
LED's everywhere, listed as a positive, then again as a negative, is funny, especially as they can be switched off.
As for the shield on the NVME I suppose a positive about that is they help prevent damage from dropped items, even if their heat dissipation qualities are questionable.

 

[drade]

Thanks for the review. MSI continue to surpass my expectations. For the past three years I have been a loyal customer to MSI. This review reiterates why I buy their products. Very nice board.

 

[cadaveca]

In test setup Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 2 TB is listed but UEFI reports ST2000DL003 which is Barracuda Green.

Is that a typo in article or UEFI incorrectly detected that HDD?

Edit:
That's (https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/Z270_GAMING_PRO_CARBON/images/bios_06.jpg) all options to control LEDs from UEFI?
I guess all is done be app or smartphone...

And one question about M.2 Shield, can it be removed from board or it's permanently attached to slot?

Typo on the HDD, kinda. I have both drives, and when I assembled this revision of test system I grabbed the Barracuda LP instead of the 7200.12. the 7200.12 is a in my personal system. LOL. I had to go and check both systems too see what happened there! Thanks!

Lights; app or smartphone.

M.2 Shield, yes it is removed easily.

Page 4 audio is mentioned as Nahamic, when it it should be Nahimic, (small typo).
LED's everywhere, listed as a positive, then again as a negative, is funny, especially as they can be switched off.
As for the shield on the NVME I suppose a positive about that is they help prevent damage from dropped items, even if their heat dissipation qualities are questionable.

LEDs... Users seems very torn about them.

For me, the qualities of the M.2 shield are not questionable. It seems to me those that reported issues with it were using 512 GB double-sided drives, but I used a 256 GB single-sided 950 PRO, and found it to provide a minor benefit. This makes sense to me in big way, because of how airflow under the drive is affected.

 

[pociej]

Typo on the HDD, kinda. I have both drives, and when I assembled this revision of test system I grabbed the Barracuda LP instead of the 7200.12. the 7200.12 is a in my personal system. LOL. I had to go and check both systems too see what happened there! Thanks!

Yeah, I noticed that model number beacause I use 4 of them.
Screw everyone opinion, Seagates are pretty good!

Did you compare Barracuda LP noise to Red 2 or 4 TB?

And back to MSI Z270 Pro Carbon, when LEDs are turned off is something on board lights still?
Like Debug code display or status LEDs...

Most motherboards still have few LEDs on so there's no true "night mode"...

 

[cadaveca]

I try not to buy WD drives because I find them noisy. LP is very quiet, while 7200.12 is kind of noisy for me (hence why I wanted to use 7200.12 in test system ).

In the end though, in both instances those drives merely hold data, and are rarely used. For test system, it holds STEAM and benchmark installers, but doesn't get used during testing. In my personal system, 2TB drive I for my review files; pictures, results, written reviews, reviews I'm working on, etc... So it only gets used when I first get a sample and create initial files, then not used again until reviews are done, and are "archived".

Anyway, WD black drives really soured me to that brand for internal drives, but I do use many WD external drives for various purposes. Today's modern systems draw such low power that cooling requirements are very low, and as such, so is noise, so anything that might generate noise at this time in the market isn't getting anywhere near my rigs!

 

[pociej]

Right, they're good in terms of noise.
Recently I bought Seagate ST4000VN000 and it's much louder, more than I expected and I'm disappointed with performance, maybe I will try with one Red 4 TB and compare them myself...

Anyway, I'm trying to get rid of HDD beacause of noise so I'm putting them in NAS, external case and trying to have less with bigger capacity.
Now single ST4000VN000 and Seasonic Platinum PSU are things to swap for quieter models, maybe with Coffee Lake I will made significant upgrade...

I edited post above, added question about MSI Z270 Pro Carbon so would be nice if you could answer it too...

 

[cadaveca]

Yes, some LEDs stay lit, but just a couple. XMP LED and LEDs above the ram slots, IIRC. There is no post display, just four LEDs for that purpose, and they turn off after post process completes.

 

[erixx]

Dear Dave, I just link this in case that Ring voltage also has a solution.... https://play3r.net/news/overclock/o...-voltage-on-msis-z270-xpower-gaming-titanium/

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

A somewhat direct competitor to ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E motherboard, despite the ASUS one priced slightly more expensive, at about $20 more.

 

[cadaveca]

A somewhat direct competitor to ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E motherboard, despite the ASUS one priced slightly more expensive, at about $20 more.

I'll be reviewing that one too.

Dear Dave, I just link this in case that Ring voltage also has a solution.... https://play3r.net/news/overclock/o...-voltage-on-msis-z270-xpower-gaming-titanium/

Unfortunately, that's useless to users with this board.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

@cadaveca =D

 

[erixx]

Yeah, the schema is for another board... I thought that maybe a similar trick was offered for this one.
Thank you!

I am reading the MSI manual for the Mpower, and wow it is so much clearer and more helpful than Asus manuals. Very proactive stuff! Going to be unloyal to the latter....