MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X (Intel 1200)

The MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X is a beautiful board. Its great looks start with the carbon fiber aesthetic, and the excellent RGB implementation only builds on that. With an integrated rear I/O shield, full coverage M.2 heatsinks, and good storage options, the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X has a lot to offer. Out of the box, performance for the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X was good. Memory overclocking was great as well, as I reached 4000 MHz CL16 stable with my Trident Z Neo quad-channel kit. For CPU overclocking, I was able to achieve 5.3 GHz on all cores. The largest limitation to overclocking with Z490 is going to come down to dealing with the heat produced by the incredibly dense Intel Core i9-10900K. When it comes to VRM thermals, the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X did as well as you might expect, which is to say absolutely excellent. In my review of the MSI MEG Z490 Unify I said that there is no substitute for top-shelf power stages—turns out the substitute is water-cooling. At this price point, you are trading some features for that fancy water block. While there is 2.5 Gb/s LAN, there is just one LAN port and controller. There are also only two M.2 ports. However, at $399.99, the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X is by far the cheapest water-cooled board on the market, and an excellent choice for those who want a custom water-cooled board at an excellent price.

If you're a watercooling fan and slap copper on a variety of systems including mid-range ones, then the combination on offer here is interesting. Sadly, we can't really tell if you're getting a good deal seeing as the board isn't in stock anywhere in this guise, at least in the UK, and EK currently offers no Z490 standalone monoblocks on its website. We'd suggest waiting to see what the score is on that front. In terms of the motherboard, it's easy to think this is a £400 monster, when actually, it's not. It's very mid-range and really, given the choice of transplanting some old watercooling gear or a cheap waterblock on to the MEG Z490 Ace, or opting for the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X, we'd definitely choose the former. It's a far sexier motherboard and even has fan-assisted VRM heatsinks, but it didn't really have any issues cooling them when the fans weren't spinning. It's great to see a collaboration between EKWB and MSI and there will likely be plenty of people that would consider buying the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X as a drop-in item, especially as the eye candy is in abundance. However, performance at stock speed and overclocked is a little lacking, overclocking headroom is limited, and we feel it's better value to get a more premium motherboard with decent air-based VRM cooling and more features.