When any motherboard manufacture carries a name (or name lineup in the case of MSI) over from Team nu-Blue to Team Red it is always interesting (and sometimes fascinating) to see how they handle the dreaded phrase ‘consumer confusion’. After all both AMD and Intel are going out of their way to try and confuse with ‘Z890’ being Intel’s latest and greatest chipset… and ‘X870E’ being AMDs. Hell, AMD even has a chipset that drops the ‘E’ at the end. For the average jane & joe schmoe just getting into PC building that is sub-optimal to say the least. Thus, it is up to the motherboard manufacture to guide you to the ‘right’ chipset based option for the CPU you have previously chosen.
In the case of the X870E Carbon (as we are going to call it for brevity’s sake) MSI has found a very… interesting balance. On the one hand their Carbon models are pretty much the epitome of “classic conservative meets modern sensibilities’. This is why you will still find the classic conservative touch that mostly shuns over the top color choices in favor of a near mono-chromatic look. However, the operative word is ‘mostly’. If the AMD X870E Carbon looked just like the Intel Z890 Carbon we would not be happy. System builders would not be happy. Every potential buyer would not be happy. Thus to ensure that does not happen, MSI has opted for the blunt object meets cranium approach to easily telling their two modern Carbon models… via the use of pink.
Yes, that is right. Not ‘red’ for AMD and blue for Intel… but… pink. We do consider ourselves to be modern and metropolitan on some issues but… “pink”? That. That… ooof… that is a controversial choice. To be fair they probably were going for ‘magenta’ (aka “pink that leans red”) but most people are going to look at this box and think pink, not pun-riddled red. As such this ‘whimsical’ touch may backfire and hopefully gets fixed for the next generation of AMD Carbon boards… as when in doubt basic the K.I.S.S. method should always be applied. Red always works to signify it’s a product playing for Team AMD and Blue works equally well for Intel buyers.
On the positive side that is the only misstep to be found. For example the internal protection consists of multiple zones, with copious amounts of carboard acting as secondary crumple/stab zones. As such, we are more inclined to pretend this is a fuchsia or even a “modern magenta” accented shipping container and not a pink one.
Moving on. As with its Intel brethren the X870E Carbon’s included accessories exemplifies a duality that is hard to pull off. On the one hand the quality and quantity are well above average for the mainstream marketplace, and yet on the other it includes nothing that does not serve a purpose. So if you like cardboard door hangers or equally useless dross included with your ‘board you may be disappointed. We are not that type of buyer. To us all that flotsam and jetsam costs MSI money which in turn bumps the MSRP upwards on a “cost plu” basis. Needless to say, the accessory list mostly negates the whole “they want you to not only Think Pink… but pay for a pink accented box”.
As to specifics, in addition to the typical installation guide and user manua; warranty registration card; the very good WiFi + BT antenna (with excellent magnetic base); SATA cables (sadly only two); RGB cables; dual-purpose Y extension cable; their excellent ‘EZ’ M.2 clip (that is now upgraded to version 2!), and a cable labeling sticker; MSI also includes a USB flash drive for the software and accessories instead of a DVD. In 2024 this thumb drive may not sound like such a big deal but MSI were one of the first to do it on their entire lineup and they have forced others to follow suit. As such, we smile every time we see those little thumb drives and we just wish MSI had come up with the idea decades ago.
Also now included is a EZ M.2 clip installation tool. We are a bit ambivalent over this plastic key-shaped socket… as that is all it is. A plastic M4 socket (aka bog standard 5.5mm socket) with a built-in handle, and if you do not have a ton of these (they even come for free in most screwdriver kits these days)… well… you might need to turn in your PC builder card (and certainly will your Matter Hacker card). On the other hand, novices won’t have a 5.5mm socket, and while it is plastic it does get the job done on installing the new version 2.0 M.2 clips. So it is firmly in the nice addition that underscores MSI’s commitment to ease of use… but would a Chinesium-alloy version cost “that” much more? We doubt it.
This brings us to the actual controversial side of things. A feature that we typically would go over later in the review, and will, but it does impact the accessories so we are going to go over it now. This issue is one many may not notice until they go to plug in the WiFi+BT antenna… but everyone will when they get to that step of their system build. Older MSI motherboards (circa a couple months ago on the AMD side of things), like most, use the “Reverse Polarity SubMiniature version A” (aka RP-SMA) connector standard for their WiFi + Bluetooth antenna cables and headers. While ‘Reverse Polarity’ may lead some to believe that the positive and negative charge is reversed what it actually means is just the connectors and how they mate together are reversed. With “standard” SubMiniature version A connectors the male has the copper ‘post’ exposed and internal threading that mates with / slides into and over the female external threaded header on the WiFi module… yes engineers can be immature but in their defense this nomenclature can from the Days of Dongles and was not eyebrow raising back then.
In either case, with “Reverse Polarity” the female connector has the copper post exposed and not the male. However, the female is still externally threaded and the male is internally. Yes, this makes no sense by the naming standards that were used, but it makes more sense for the computer industry to do things this way versus the radio and telecommunications industry who came up with SMA in the first place. After all straitening a bent copper rod is easier to do when it is on a cable than when it is attached to the back of a motherboard (or even PCIe card). As such, by going back to a more normal SMA, MSI has technically removed a quirk of the industry and opened up all the more professional grade antenna arrays that are available outside the typical computer marketplace. In a perfect world we would be somewhat happy to see MSI fix this ‘industry quirk’… but we are not. At all.
We are not because the headers on the motherboard are most generously described as standard’ish female SMA connectors… while the connectors on the antenna cable is a male standard’ish SMB connector. Which makes no sense at all, but we get to that in a moment. First though, even if it was a bog-standard SMA header to SMA cable (which it is not), swapping the header style does come with a major downside. That downside is while SMA cables are a dime a dozen outside the PC industry… the majority of PC “WiFi” and “Bluetooth” antennas use RP-SMA connectors. Thus an adapter is required if you do not want to use the included antenna array. The reasons for why that may be the case can vary from the included antenna array’s cable is too short, you already have a better array, or you simply don’t want to use the new ‘EZ Antenna’. However, SMA-Male to RP-Male adapters are not all that common, arguably ‘niche’ to say the least, and thus they are typically expensive. For example up here in the People’s Free Democratic Republic of Canuckistan ‘fast AliExpress’ (aka ‘Amazon Canada’) want about ten canuck bucks for a pair of them. Even then the ‘ish’ comes into play.
As you can see on close examination the female header is not threaded all the way to the end – like would be on a SMA header. Instead it is smooth for the front half and then threaded… as the EZ cable that comes with this motherboard is not supposed to engage the threads as it is more SMB in nature. However, in a SMB header this motherboard header would not just be smooth copper inside. The outside should be smooth copper covering a secondary set of four to eight copper lugs in a circular pattern. These lugs engage the machined ring in the copper bayonet on the cable connector and together they grip tight. Sadly, they are missing on the motherboard end and MSI has had a tiny ring machined inside the copper tube housing… thus the only thing keeping the cable connected is a bit of friction. Thus making it a custom SMA/SMB… “SM-MSI” non-standard header.
On its own… okay, trying to make the motherboard antenna headers ‘universal’ and work with SMA and SMB/EZ is laudable. Even ground breaking if it had been implemented a bit better. However, the nail in the coffin is if you look at the antenna cable headers they are also not SMB headers either. Instead we have bayonet style header consisting of a central copper post surrounded/insulated by (white) plastic… but then instead of a solid copper with machined ring exterior, we have the six tiny friction lugs! Which simply cannot flex enough to produce enough friction for long term connectivity. Put another way, this cable connector is basically a MCX connector that has been modified to work with the… ‘custom’ SMA/B headers on the motherboard.
Taken as a whole… this makes not a lick of sense. It gives the worst possible combination of all three standards with only ‘installation speed’ being the upside to its existence. We truly understand that MSI did not want to have to pay Asus for the use of their, so poorly thought out we refuse to use it, Q-Antenna IP… but the configuration that they have come up with is not as good as the SMB standard it is loosely based upon; nor it as good as the tried and true RP-SMA screw on connector that it replaces.
To understand why we are so frustrated, and explain MSI’s design choices, a bit of background information is required. SMA is a great miniature connector for what it was designed to do. That is reliably connect Radio antennas to Radio transmitters, Radio Receivers, and Radio Transceivers in even moderately adverse conditions. It did this by using a thread and nut configuration that once tightened down… typically stays that way for years. However, it is not a “fast” connector and in certain conditions (like say blindly reaching around the back of a case to attach your WiFi antenna’s cable) it can be a royal PITA. This is why SMB was developed. The version B did away with the whole ‘nut and bolt’ attachment and replaced it with a bayonet lug design that relies upon a lot of metal on metal friction (aka ‘spring’ tension) to keep them in place. SMB was perfect for the typical radio installations where a lot of SM connectors in a climate controller environment are required… but a full time staff are there to track down the occasional loose connection and/or replace a bad part caused from the added force applied to the fragile header – as this is a brute force friction plug arrangement instead of precision screw on method of connectivity.
So why did MSI do all this (as it could not have been cheap) instead of just going with SMA or SMB or even MCX? A couple years ago Asus decided to make a cheaper, quicker alternative to the bog standard WiFi connector and called the resulting abomination a “Q-Antenna”. Which is a fancy way of saying that ASUS took a bog standard SMB connector and applied a healthy dose of enshitification to it via the use of cheap plastic. They have done this as it is cheaper to use thermo-molded plastic rather than precision cut copper connectors for the ‘friction’ mounting that makes SMB fast, easy, and fairly reliable… and they could also claim that they had created a new and better standard that no one else could use lest they be sued by ASUS’ team of lawyers for patent (troll) infringement.
As such MSI had to make their own version or pay a hefty per header fee. Obviously after one too many committee meetings the plan of using SMB but with SMA compatibility and reduced stress on the motherboard’s rear I/O panel was born… and just like any “designed by committee” idea it fails at nearly everything this EZ design was born. On the positive side, installation is certainly not going to put much stress on the rear I/O panel as bog standard SMB would… and is faster than SMB. So that is something we guess.
Yes, we are biased… and puzzled. We personally dislike this trend that ASUS has pushed upon the industry and applaud MSI for at least trying to make things as easy as ASUS… but they forgot one critical detail. That detail is the whole point of using a version of the SubMiniature version A connector standard is because it is secure. Once you screw the male cable on to the female header is stays put. First time. Every time. Sadly even with Asus(‘s Folly) it is mostly just friction that holds the cable in place. Yes, either ASUS’s or MSI’s method will save you time. In fact both will be a bajillion percent faster and easier than the “old” way of things. However, that translates to a couple seconds to maybe a minute of saving per header in the real world. Which in return nets you a connection that is going to jiggle loose from vibrations over time. Vibrations that come from say from PC case fans or even too much bass from your PC Gaming’s speakers. Bluntly put, this is just a recipe for random frustration as inexperienced people blame either drivers or the WiFi controller for Mr. Murphy coming for an extended visit. This is a known problem with ASUS and yet MSI has doubled down on it. Truly. Puzzling.
As such, our recommendation is if you do decide to use the included WiFi+ BT array “as is”… that when you do plug it in, do a double wrap of black electrical tape around each header. That should last years. Or if you want to do it properly… do what we do when we use ASUS boards in a custom build. Grab Ye Olde bottle of “Non-Conductive Adhesive” (various Loctite, Henkel series… hot glue) and give it a dab. That will get the job done and keep it done for the lifetime of that rig. As an added bonus if you do it right you have to look to see the modification (vs. ugly black tape). Just understand that you will be cutting it free when you replace the motherboard, but since your next motherboard will also come with a new antenna array to go along with its new WiFi controller… that is not much of a downside now is it?!
All hyperbole aside, this is a missed opportunity by MSI. Instead of opting for this new ‘EZ’ hybrid mishmash they could have shown the market a better way. An already standard way. A SubMiniature B (SMB) connector way. MSI is obviously well aware of it, and took pains to try and make a cheaper & gentler version of it, but SMB is better. As it is an existing “prior art” standard it would have skirted any ASUS IP issues just as easily as this EZ “standard”… as ASUS used SMB for the basis of their new and shiny connector. Furthermore, since true SMB to SMB connectors rely upon machined metal lugs and not thermo-molded plastic for its friction fit it would have netted a tangibly better result than what ASUS offers. A better result without the need for propriety connectors while offering (nearly) zero concerns over longevity of said fitment. So much better a result that no one would care that MSI changed the standard.
Alternatively, MSI could have not only one upped ASUS at their own game but two upped them via the use of a standard Micro CoaXial connector (MCX) on both the antenna cable and the motherboard headers. Much like this EZ hybrid, and standard SMB and ASUS Q-Antenna, MCX is also a friction fitting; however it is a design that gives a louder ‘click’ when it is correctly connect and is about 30% smaller than a SMA connector. This would have allowed MSI the luxury of potentially fitting a 3×3 ‘EZ’ array in to the same(ish) footprint as what 2x2s are taking up now. Thus offering better performance and “EZ” on/off connectivity.
As an added bonus, MCX cables are widely used for GPS receivers so after-market cable extensions and adapters would have been downright (pardon the pun) easy to source. That is how you move the entire industry forward and not sideways. Hopefully future iterations of this EZ connector will be further refined and fix the underlying concerns we have with it… or at the very least they come with motherboard headers that have threading all the way to the end so that we can ignore it and use a bog standard SMA cable without the need of tearing down the board and replacing pigtail headers.
Until either option happens, we probably are going to swap out the headers for known reliable, known standardized ones. For those interested in such a solution DuckDuckGo/Yandex… Google “MHF4 to RP-SMA Bulkhead” or “MHF4 to RP-SMA Pigtail” or “MHF4 to RP SMA Female” and get ~5cm cables as you will only need the couple centimeter long ones (as this is not a “budget” board that put the WiFi card way down by the PCIe slots). Though in all likelihood if we take the time to do all that we will also take the time to swap out the WiFi controller card for an Intel AX210… aka the last ‘generic’ Intel WiFi + BT controller that Just Works™ on AMD boards. More importantly this swap of cards would also net better compatibility as the Intel controller works with Windows 10 and 11… not just Windows 11. Albeit at the loss of WiFi 7 abilites.
