Introduction

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 to bring PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 to the consumer market. With AMD Zen processors continuing to offer welcome competition among chipmakers, Intel has been struggling to keep ahead of the race in recent times, which last year's lukewarm reception of Intel's 11th Generation Core processors made evident.

Intel is at it again trying to win back consumers, and they are right on target. The company has slowly been losing ground in the multi-threaded production sector with workloads that prosumer and professionals are looking for in a work environment. Nothing currently comes close to AMD's Threadripper lineup, but the entry price point is equally high. Being Intel, we can only suspect that a HEDT followup is in the works. For now, the 12th Gen Core processors are holding firm as top-tier gaming CPUs. Accompanying these new CPUs is the Z690 chipset that not only has set the stage for what is to come, but allows motherboard manufactures to showcase what makes a complete experience.

The first big addition is that 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 also been given a connection speed boost with a change to the DMI 4.0 interference at 16 GT/s, a doubling over DMI 3.0 found on the previous LGA 1200 socket. The next-biggest change is dual support for either DDR4 or DDR5 memory modules by the CPU, which has motherboard manufacturers offering a variety of configurations. In addition to PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support, the Z690 chipset offers native USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connectivity. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 bandwidth offers speeds of up to 20 Gb/s. All of this combined has Intel ready to take back market share in a big way.


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 WiFi serves as the highest entry for the MPG family, providing a modest number of features while maintaining an attainable price tag.

The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi features a dedicated VRM design with 18 power stages, five M.2 sockets, and an additional BIOS flashback function to get you out of unwanted situations. To round out the experience, the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi also offers great connectivity with the newest WiFi 6E technology and 2.5G LAN for those who need to transfer data quickly. There is a lot to cover in this review, so let's take a closer look at what the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi has to offer.

Specifications

Packaging and Contents

The front of the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi box has a lot of flare with purple and blue hues across the bottom half. Directly in the middle is the product name. Across the bottom, some important tidbits are shown, such as Windows 11 support, TIM 2.0, Mythic Lights, and Lightning Gen 5 logos.

The back of the box does an excellent job of highlighting features this motherboard has to offer, like WiFi 6E and USB 3.2 20 Gbps, outlined in the columns going down both sides. Below the depiction of the motherboard is a list of specifications, which is always welcome. Overall, this is a prime example of how to show a potential buyer what is being offered with clearly laid out sections of the more detailed specifications for those who need further confirmation.


The included accessories consist of everything necessary, with the manual, SATA and ARGB extension cables, and Wi-Fi antenna, to name a few. It is good to see more companies including a USB drive for the drivers as building a computer with a DVD/CD drive has become increasingly rare.

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

Board Layout

Like on previous generations, the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi has the MSI dragon logo over the VRM section, though a slight redesign emphasizes the pattern of squares aligned in a diagonal orientation across the entire motherboard.

The back also has an alteration to the standard design with the inclusion of warning zones showing possible conflicts with cases and where the standoff should be placed.


With this new LGA 1700 socket for the Z690, new and old CPU coolers will need a new retention bracket if the mounting holes do not line up. Some additional care was placed into the layout of the capacitors, with one side clear of potential items of conflict for some mounts.


The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi 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. These are backwards compatible, allowing older PCIe devices to work without issues. 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 WiFi, four of which are Gen4 x4, and all of them feature full-coverage heatsinks. The upper-most M.2 socket has thermal tape on the motherboard as well. This leaves the rest to rely solely on the accompanying heatsinks. The M.2 socket below the Carbon logo (Z690 chipset heatsink) is where the Gen3 x4 socket is located.

Note that the manual mentions that using M.2 socket (#4) means the seventh SATA port will be disabled. However, the motherboard does not have seven SATA ports. That having been said, correct is that the lowest SATA port seen in the photo with a white sticker on top will be disabled.


Of the five M.2 Sockets, three have MSI EZ M.2 clips, which is a screwless design. It makes swapping M.2 drives without worrying about the loss of screws or needing to dig into the box a reality. I have lost a number of these tiny screws just this year alone and had to buy some. They are easy to misplace when in a hurry. The other two M.2 sockets can have the EZ clip installed, but at the expense of the heatsink. This is because the screws required to hold it down are now blocked by the EZ clips.


It was a surprise to find the battery tucked away near the VRM heatsink. If you need to clear the CMOS, it is best to find the required pins and jump those instead of taking apart the whole motherboard to get to this battery. The pins are on the bottom row, right above the USB 2.0 header.


The board has a total of six SATA 6 Gb/s ports on the side, angled 90 degrees from the board. As explained previously, this motherboard does not have seven SATA ports even though the manual states one will be disabled with the correlating M.2 socket populated. After some investigation, it seems MSI decided to label the four SATA ports coming from the Z690 chipset 5-8 and the other two SATA A/B; the latter two go to a separate ASM 1061 SATA controller. While the Z690 chipset does indeed only support four SATA ports, I am not sure why MSI chooses to rename these in the first place.


The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi has more or less the standard assortment of ports for a Z690 motherboard. This includes an optical S/PDIF Out port, Wi-Fi 6E, and 2.5 Gb LAN. The four USB 2.0 ports for peripherals like a keyboard, mouse, USB headphones or game controller are nice additions. All of these generally do not consume enough bandwidth to warrant consuming 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