In some ways the Carbon X870E’s look and ‘personality’ do not fit its shipping container at all… in others it does. This is in no shape nor form a slight/slam or any other form of a backwards compliment. Instead we are pleasantly surprised by the Carbon X870E and could easily argue this is the most flexible Carbon MSI has built to date. What we mean by that preamble is if you have been building systems long enough you get a feel for what demographic a company is targeting/focusing in on with a given board, and with such a… flamboyant box we fully prepared to open up said box and be greeted with a downright ‘fabulous’ looking board. One that would not be our cup of tea, but could see certain demographics loving it. That would have been perfectly fine as the world does not revolve around us and there are plenty of motherboards we would never, ever… ever use in a build.
We personally love using Carbon series motherboards in a noticeable chunk of our builds because of their consistency in features and looks. Some may not like it but we like monochromatic boards because they are so easy to build an entire custom PC around. They shun the limelight and let the custom components shine brightest. Put another way They Take Care of Business but don’t feel the need to loudly proclaim it to the world. That is actually pretty good definition of what the Carbon X870E is, does, and offers.
For example, we like the fact that the MSI has further toned down the text on this motherboard’s heatsinks. Yes, the VRM has a big ol ‘MPG’ on it. Yes, the X870E chipsets heatsink has another… and the 3-way M.2 heatsink is virtually covered in a MSI MPG logo. However, most of this is not painted in a bright white paint (nor red like its predecessor… and certainly not neon green like the next X890 TomaHawk) instead most of it’s a more subdued gray.
Furthermore, as we have said in the past, that large logo on the ‘chipset’ heatsink (and tri-M.2’s heatsink) is going to be covered by the typical 3 slot video card… and what is not can easily be covered by a dab of touchup black paint (or in a pinch a black sharpie). In other words, this Carbon can be extremely low profile in its approach to aesthetics. Which is something you cannot really say about the Asus ProArt Creator (and its controversial graphic on its X870E chipset heatsink)… and the ProArt is downright elegant, sophisticated and understated in its looks compared to Republic of Gamers “Look AT MEEEE” approach.
Conversely, if you do want a board that does standout and is actually a big part of the final build’s overall attraction, this Carbon can also be right up your alley. As with previous Carbon’s this big boi has that self-same large LED dragon logo over the top of the rear I/O portion of the VRM heatsink… and speaking from experience its 16.1 million color combinations with an actually good diffuser covering said LEDS works fantastic at boosting the testosterone (or estrogen) of any build. Of course, if that is the opposite of what a build is supposed to be it can also either be turned off or even unplugged. Making it very user-friendly regardless of what type of build this board is going to be used on.
Also helping to boost the overall style of the Carbon X870E nicely is the fact that this board comes with both generation 1 and generation 2 ARGB headers. To be precise, this motherboard comes with a total of five RGB controller headers. Three are generation 2 (“JARGB_V2” in the manual), and a single gen 1 header for those times you want to reuse your older RGB LED strips (labeled “JRGB1” in the manual).
The fifth is in the form of a nicely upgraded “JAF_2” header which combines the abilities of RGB header with that of a fan header. Allowing one to plug their fancy RGB fan’s two cables into one port. Of course, to use this special header one must first use the included (sadly… but obviously proprietary) adapter cable, and then connect the two cables to it. But since it is a flat ribbon cable it can easily be tucked behind the board. Thus helping to keep a ‘clean’ look to your final build.
Before moving on, and for those who use earlier gen Carbons with a ‘EZ Conn’ / JAF header, one will be pleasantly surprised to know that this is not just Gen 1 RGB compliant but can now power both Gen 1 or Gen 2 RGB LED enabled devices! Thus turning this into a 3+2 or 4+1 RGB header board. That is a nice upgrade to say the least.
Also in the nicely upgraded side of things is the location of the various RGB headers. Yes, most (3 of the 5) are located at the bottom of the board but one of the JARGB (gen 2) headers is now pretty darn close to the CPU fan headers. Thus allowing for easy custom light shows on say an Artic Liquid Freezer III that comes with A-RGB enabled fans. Better still, the JAF header is no longer just an after thought like it was in earlier boards. So instead of being placed higgledy-piggledy it now gets some love and is centrally located on the edge of the board – right next to the ATX 24-pin power connector. This location may not be ‘perfect’ for all scenarios but it is flexible enough to now power front AIOs’ fans, top mounted AIO fans’, or even in a pinch side mounted AIO fans (think Corsair 7000D for point of reference). Noice… and just underscores the theme of ‘flexibility in both aesthetics and actions” that the X870E Carbon is obviously going for.
Furthering this theme of flexibility MSI has kept their fan favorite additions that add a dash of elegance to the board. For example in the, now last generation, Z790 Carbon MAX II only the top most PCIe slot got MSI’s “PCI-E Steel Armor” treatment. Not the other slots… and since that Z790 3.0 board is a much newer motherboard compared to the X670E Carbon we were concerned that the X870E Carbon would also be downgraded. Thankfully, that is not the case. Instead both PCIe 5.0 slots get the royal treatment. Yes. That means the lone PCIe 4.0 slot is nekkid but that actually makes sense from a function over form point of view. With it being black and not silver it is easy to know which slots are PCIe 5.0 and which are PCIe 4.0 enabled. Thus giving this Carbon a ton of “rizz” but not to the point of making it less user-friendly.
The same is true of the DIMMS. Yes, they do not get the Steel Armor treatment… but it would have done nothing to help improve DDR5 wonkiness. Bluntly stated, such treatment is just for aesthetics and if a set of RAM is not going to work at its rated speeds… a bit of EMI shielding probably would not have helped. All it would have done is give novices a false sense of security and needlessly increased the asking price.
Moving on, and firmly in the nicely upgraded camp, is the fact that the top most PCIe slot now not only gets the EZ treatment but is actually the best implementation of an ‘easy’ PCIe slot we have seen to date. Typically these ‘easy’ latches are nothing but a spring loaded latch connected to a long ‘bar’ that the button moves. Want to remove a video card? Press, hold and pull the GPU. When done, release the button and the latch springs closed. Want to install one? Same idea… that takes away one hand from the serious business of not damaging delicate PCIe pathways on an expensive GPU. Furthermore if you are not perfect in your alignment and the GPU is not fully seated that latch can slam into the GPU’s PCIe tongue and damage it… or worse appears to close and then takes you ages to track down that intermittent gremlin.
Compare and contrast that very easy, albeit finicky style with what the “Wicked Smaht” MSI designers came up with. Here the button is like a pen and locks (and ‘clicks’) itself in at a given setting. So the methodology is different and simpler. Push the button the make sure it is in the locked position. Install the card with two hands. To unstill push the button, and then remove the card with both hands. This is not only safer, but since the latch is still spring loaded you can hear an audible ‘click’ when the card first pushes the latch out of the way and then springs back into the locked position when your card is fully seated. Thus making it the best configuration to date… and simply smokes the new ‘tilt to un/lock’ design Asus has gone to (and in a couple years some poor schmoe is going to kill the socket and maybe the card by forgetting about the whole tilt to remove nonsense).
Now with that said. This EZ PCIe Release Button is not perfect. Yes, it gives audible and tactile feedback. Yes, they include a window to show the status of the PCIe latch. Neither however are all that helpful for novices. First, that window is too small to see the locked and unlocked icon from any worthwhile distance. It needs to be changed to a bigger window that changes to a solid RED or WHITE to easily indicate the status of the locking mechanism.
Mix in the fact that the button itself is a solid color and it only moves by about ~3mm… and a lot of people (even ourselves who actually read the manual) will be playing a guessing game of ‘is it or is it not” when this board is installed in a working system with a big honking GPU installed. To be blunt, MSI should not only increase the size and color of the window but make the button itself a two-tone affair. You see a white ring on the button? Its unlocked. Can’t see the ring? Its in the locked position.
Also in the “sure to be confusing” end of the spectrum is you install a card while it is in the locked position. Not the unlocked like one might assume. Once again. Press to lock and install. Press to unlock for uninstall. Not press to unlock, install, press again to lock… like some would logically conclude. So yes. We fully expect a lot of irate first time users whose card is not fully seated because they ‘forgot’ that step. We understand the reasoning behind this quirk, as it is why the top of the PCIe latch is curved metal and how MSI can give you an audible ‘click’ feedback… but it is a tiny bit counter-intuitive. Make no mistake. This is the easiest, the safest, and the most robust ‘easy’ configuration we have seen to date. It just that it is a first try and needs a couple rough edges rounded off in future iterations. At which point it will go from being merely best in class to the gold standard upon which all others must be weighed and measured against (and probably found wanting).
To summarize, this is a board that is rather conservative in its appearance but flexible enough in its options to work with everything from business orientated ‘belt and suspenders’ basic builds all the way to custom “the build cost more than a used car” end of the spectrum. So yes. this board may not cost as much as some of the competition does but it is pretty much the embodiment of ‘do not judge a book by its cover’. Just as it should as that is what MSI’s Carbon series have always been about: flexibility without nose bleed MSRP. As such it is not a Good Thing™ but a Great Thing that MSI has carried on that proud tradition into the AMD 800-series chipset based model(s).
