MSI MPG Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi II Review

Final Score: 90 out of 100

With the release of the all new, and overall improved, MSI MPG Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi II, MSI has cemented their place at the top of the Intel Motherboard food chain. Yes. That does sound hyperbolic… but we are in no shape nor form being hyperbolic when we say that between the Pro Z790 series for entry level ‘business builds’, the TomaHawk for value orientated builds, the Edge for “Value Plus” builds, and the CARBON MAX WIFI II for premium mainstream builds the old IBM adage of the 70s and 80s rings true today for MSI. That adage is “Nobody ever got fired for choosing (a) MSI (motherboard)”.
Equally impressive is that, unlike Inbreeding Breeds Morons of the 1980s, MSI are not resting on their laurels. Much like a shark has to keep swimming, MSI’s Research and Development department are constantly evolving and improving their lineup. Even when they already have the arguable lead they go ahead and make it tangibly better. This “Keeping Up the Skeer” is why no matter what brand you have favored in the past MSI’s current lineup demand you pay serious attention to them.

With the Carbon MAX WiFi II this takes the form of better USB connectivity options. Noticeably better (wired) Networking connectivity. Noticeably easier RMA process; and above all else, a noticeably better (if quirky) BIOS. Yes. We doubt too many will care that you get two USB 4 ports now $400 USD / $580 CAD. Yes. We doubt too many will care that you get 5GbE networking for the same or even less than what the others want for 2.5GbE. Yes. We doubt, as we have little faith in humanity left, that few will care about rock solid BIOS firmware or how good MSI’s RMA is up here in “America’s Hat”… as few notice a lack of problems. They want a system that Just Works™ and only notice things when they go wrong. Just Works™ is almost a great way to define what the Carbon MAX WiFi II is, routinely does, and what it offers knowledgeable builders.

Sadly, the Carbon MAX WiFi II is not perfect. Yes. Qualcomm is the de-facto choice (right now) for WiFi 7. Yes. Qualcomm driver team are horrible at their job as they refuse to develop Windows 10 drivers. Yes. The new EZ connector for the WiFi and Bluetooth antenna array… is a major downgrade. Yes. We would have rather have seen a Chelsio or Intel (or even Marvell) 10GbE NIC instead of the 5GbE RealTek MSI opted for. Of these three issues only one really matters. With the first… “Qual’ is as Qual’ does”. Like it or not Qualcomm is the 800lb Gorilla of the wireless market, and their only ‘real’ competition, Intel, has just recently started to get the lead out and elimiante the BE200 chipset manufacturing bottleneck. As such, everyone and their dog picked Qualcomm for their 3rd revision Z790 motherboards. On 10GbE vs 5GbE debate we understand why MSI went 5 instead of 10. The 10GbE options are for their Uber-Premium models, and if the lowly Carbon had also offered it, whelp… who would pay so much more for their MEGs when the Carbon fulfills 99.9 percent of ones needs?!

A less cynical answer is ease of use. With 10GbE it is router and switch dependent on whether or not you are going to actually get 10Gig speeds without also messing with MTU size. With 5GbE the worst case scenario is you will ‘only’ get 4 to 4.2GbE with 1500MTU. Even in the worst case scenarios, few will notice the difference between 4 and full bore 5gig… and those that do will already know how to optimize a network for increased networking performance (and know about the pros and cons… and headaches with Jumbo Frame). Considering the MPG lineup is for mainstream buyers we understand why MSI did not want to include a feature that requires noticeably higher priced gear and more work… to get it to work on all networks. That would go against their unofficial design philosophy of It Just Works.

This leaves the EZ connectors. Its is just not a good design, nor one we would trust without some ‘tweaks’. The best of which is spending a couple bucks, replacing the pigtails on the rear IO with standard ones… and crimping on new (and standard) RP-SMA connectors on the included antenna array. All of which you should not have to do. MSI need to rethink their EZ Antenna idea and think a little less outside the box as there is already a perfectly good, and easy, connector that fits the ‘EZ’ moniker to a T.

Thankfully, as it is only a couple dollars and a few moments to fix, we cannot in good conscience consider this issue a deal breaker. The Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi II is just too good a value overall to do it dirty like that. So, while MSI still has room for improvement, if this is a sign of what is to come when the 15th Gen Intel CPUs land Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock and all the rest had better bring their A+ game… as their A game is not going to cut it.

Thank you MSI for actually exceeding our expectations. We eagerly are looking forward to what your RnD wizards think up next.