Moving our focus to the rear I/O port selection one could assume that not much has changed here either. Much like the WiFi MAX 1.0 and original Carbon WiFi the Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi II offers a very good, and variety I/O selection for your computing needs. Make no mistake… there are compromises. There is quite literally only a certain amount of real-estate to go around and every manufacture has to balance more of X versus more of Y. However, MSI are masters at covering all the bases and the Carbon series just highlight how good they are at doing just that.
So while, yes, some other motherboards will come with more USB 5Gbps ports (two on the Carbon MAX II versus four on the STRIX-E, Dark Hero…and Gigabyte Aorus Master X). Some will have more USB 20Gbps ports (one vs two on the Gigabyte Aorus Master X). Some may even have a better NIC (5Gbe vs 10Gbe on the Gigabyte Aorus Master X). However, two USB 5Gbs, seven USB 10GBs (SIX type A, 1 Type-C), a single 20Gbs port (via -once again – ASMedia ASM3242 controller that the WiFi and WiFi Max 1 used) and a freakin’ 5Gbps Ethernet port plus WiFi 7 and BT 5.4 is pretty much going to satisfy the vast… vast majority of mainstream buyers. It even will nicely scratch the itch of some enthusiasts and make justifying 2 to 3+ times the cost of ‘enthusiast’ Z790 boards darn difficult (especially this late into the Socket 1700’s lifecycle).
Furthermore, the reality of what this board offers versus its predecessor is a lot more nuanced than ‘good enough, for most’. To be blunt, it may not appear that things have changed on just a quick glance but MSI has made major changes. Changes that some will make it an almost killer value… and we already went over (multiple times now) why some will strongly dislike the changes that the Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi II design team decisions have wrought.
Let’s quickly kick the dead horse one last time. Those non-standard WiFi+BT antenna headers and the use of a Qualcomm ‘M865 controller which only offers Windows 11 drivers. This is easily the biggest negative of this board and whoever spec’ed that combination need to be reined a wee bit. At the very least MSI should have included adapters so that while everyone would not be ‘happy’ with the changes few will be disgruntled enough to get out the pitchforks and burning torches. That however is the only downside to this boards rear I/O features.
Now on to the good.
By including the PD100W PCIe adapter board MSI’s Carbon MAX II is right up there with the best of the best in the amount of USB power it has to offer. Yes. There is room on the rear I/O for an addition Type-C header. Yes, they could have swapped out the older ASM3242 controller for the newer ASM4242 and given the Carbon WiFi 3.0 board USB 4 / 40Gbps headers in the rear I/O panel area. The fact of the matter is that is not happening with this generation of motherboards. The ASM4242 runs hot. Hot enough that design teams will either have to tie it into the VRM’s rear I/O overhanging heatsink (fairly easy with a small redesign)… or giving up on 100 watts of USB power delivery goodness. Hopefully next gen USB 4.0 controllers will not have this issue or we may see USB 4 on the rear I/O but without the PD portion of the new standard also enabled. Which would be disappointing to say the least. Either way this is a major step up from Gigabyte’s Aorus Master X, and brings parity with Asus’ more expensive Dark Hero and its 2x USB 4.0 and 1 USB 20Gbps (albeit the DK’s 20Gbps port does support the 60watt PD standard, whereas the Carbon series does not).
The other really, really good new feature is the dropping of the “mediocrity in action” 2.5GbE controller in favor of a controller capable of 5/2.5/1 GbE (RTL8126 to be precise). Much like the inclusion of USB 4.0, this change places the new Carbon MAX WiFi II right at the upper echelon of ‘mainstream’ motherboards. It arguably even surpasses some earlier Z790 enthusiast priced boards (e.g. MSI’ very own MEG Z790 Ace and its dual 2.5GbE offering). So while yes, we (mostly) dislike RealTek NICs with the passion of a million white hot suns… even we have to admit it is better than what not only the majority of the competition are offering… but also what MSI offered previously. This is a standard we have been agitating for and we sincerely hope MSI is the one who finally relegates 2.5GbE to budget boards only end of the market. Especially given the fact that some (inexperienced) people could never get Intel 2.5GbE to be 100 percent stable 100 percent of the time on 100 percent of builds.
Now to the room for improvement. MSI should have taken a page from Gigabyte (and/or their own ‘ACE’ design) and upgraded the onboard audio. Yes. The combination of Chemi-Con caps, and (USB based) Realtek ALC4080 Codec is very, very decent. Especially with the fancy shield that MSI has opted for. However, it is pretty much the default ‘mainstream combination’ of choice for onboard audio these days.
As such there is still plenty of room for improvement. For example Gigabyte has been offering mainstream boards with swappable op-amps since the Gigabyte Green motherboard days. If that was not possible, as few will ever swap the op-amps, at the very least the change to Realtek ALC4082 Codec with an ESS ES9280 DAC would have at least given them near parity with Gigabyte (depending on specific board). Admittedly… Gigabyte rules this corner of the marketplace and their boards always come with superior onboard audio, but the 4082 with dedicated DAC would have been better than the 4082+ES9218 combination that the Dark Hero offers buyers (as the 9280 offers integrated analog-to-digital conversion for the microphone that the 9218 lacks).
That however is about it on the ‘room for improvement’ list. Overall the new MSI MPG Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi II is an extremely well thought out, well designed board. One where even the quirks are relatively easy to fix. Which is not something we can say about all motherboards in this price range!
