The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
by Gavin Bonshor on April 30, 2020 10:00 AM ESTMSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WIFI
MSI's MPG models represent a more affordable gaming-centric option when compared with the MEG range. Starting with the top MPG model out of three for Z490, the MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WIFI has two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, six SATA ports, dual Ethernet on the rear with a Realtek 2.5 and Intel Gigabit controller pairing, as well as Intel's Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface.
Its design consists of carbon look heatsinks across the board with integrated RGB LED lighting at the top of the rear panel cover, and again on the chipset heatsink which can be customized via the MSI Mystic Light RGB software. Following a similar design is the PCB, which is black with grey lined printing. For expansion is three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8+4, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The board has two PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots with individual heatsinks, while the six SATA ports support RAID 0,1, 5, and 10 arrays. The MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WIFI has support for DDR4-4800 memory across four memory slots, with a total capacity of up to 128 GB.
Being the top model of its Z490 gaming-focused MPG range, the MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WIFI has plenty on the rear panel. Starting with networking, there is a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 G Ethernet port, Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface antenna connectors which has BT 5.1 support, as well as a PS/2 combo port for legacy keyboard and mice. Looking at USB, MSI has included a single USB 3.2 G2 20 Gbps Type-C, four USB 3.2 G2 10 Gbps Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. A Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec powers the five 3.5 mm audio connectors and S/PDIF optical output, while a DisplayPort and HDMI video output pairing make it possible to use integrated graphics on supported Comet Lake processors.
The MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WIFI slots into the competitive Z490 mid-range segment. It ticks a lot of boxes with good USB 3.2 G2 support, with Intel's Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface and a Realtek 2.5 G Ethernet controller. It has support for multi-graphics setups, as well as users looking to utilize the Intel integrated graphics, and has enough storage capacity for gamers to utilize in creating a solid Intel-based gaming system. MSI hasn't provided information on pricing at this time.
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Tomatotech - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Get better hubs then. At least mains powered hubs.I understand not everyone has wifi/ ethernet printers, bluetooth / radio mouse / keyboard / headset, or usb hubs in their monitors, but there does seem to be slightly less need for lots of USB ports compared to a few years ago.
Beaver M. - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
Not an option due to several reliability issues and issues recognizing claimed "better hubs" in the first place. Even well known big companies produce crappy USB hubs.As a normal user I have
a printer
a mouse
a keyboard
a gamepad with USB dongle
a USB headset
an external HDD
several external USB ports for USB sticks, temporary Bluetooth dongles, charging devices, etc., which can be up to 4 at a time
Specialized
things:
a joystick
a USB microphone interface
Not really unusual.
Add webcams, card readers, Wifi adapters and many other not really unusual stuff and you still wont have anything rare.
Lots of USB ports are important. Period. And it doesnt even matter if its an ATX board or a NUC. They are always very important.
duploxxx - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link
wow so many USB that you need in the back, how long have you been searching on the internet to find all of these? You can buy cases that also serve USB, or backend brackets….a printer : wireless
a mouse - keyb sure
a gamepad, connected from the back? often to short cable
a USB headset ---- audio connection which you can link with USB mic….
a USB External HDD.... zzz one that you can put away for backup or just horrible initial design from storage perspective
several external USB.... all front unless you Always use your usb dongles and put them in the back "loooooool"
joystick.... yeah use gmaepad and joystick at the same time. same as the gamepad regarding cable length
webcam... easy connection in monitor hub
card readers... again in the back used all day right....
USB wifi adapters? really are you joking?
in other words lots of pathetic feedback... learn to design a desktop computer
Beaver M. - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
Low USB port count has been a problem far longer than 5 years.Only Asus seem to have gotten the hint at some point, but Asus is crappy quality and CS.
Seeing Gigabyte adding enough now is a good sign, because they usually were the ones having the least amount of them.
I agree on the hubs. Not only do they die, some of them even nuke your mainboards USB ports through feedback loops. Not to mention they always either have connection problems or issues with sleep or hibernation.
Chaitanya - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Whats wierd is most of the boards from Asus and Asrock have multiple 40mm fans to cool VRMs while they seem to stick solid slabs of Aluminium and calling it a day unlike Gigabyte and Msi(on top end atleast) who have proper finned heatsinks.Deicidium369 - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
The only reason people think Asus are a high end manufacturer is their price and the truckloads of equipment they give to anyone with more than 10 subs on Youtube. Gigabyte or go home.Beaver M. - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
Agreed. Same with ASRock and their crappy customer support and massive USB issues.Gigabyte always tried to add important features. Remember when they added their "extra ounces" of copper? All other manufacturers whined that it doesnt do anything and Gigabyte should stop because its a "waste of resources". LOL!
Now they all do it because it makes the mainboard much more reliable.
Sure, they dont have the best OC boards, but in the last few years OC has become very niche, because you cant really OC CPUs well anymore, unless you want to use LN or custom liquid coolers.
Andrew LB - Sunday, May 10, 2020 - link
I've been building/repairing/upgrading computers for people for close to 30 years and I've had more problems with Gigabyte than any other current major brand. Abit was even worse but they're long gone. I'm willing to bet that those of you who say a company has bad customer service was due to you contacting them via e-mail. Pickup the phone next time and i bet it will go much easier.Best CS from my experience is EVGA.
taz-nz - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
To many board still don't have attached back plates, should be standard now.Nice to see gigabyte bring proper finned heatsink to Mid range board, pity so many other boards still have cosmetic lumps of aluminum, instead of proper VRM heatsinks, and worse that so many still choose to cover the those so called heatsinks with cosmetic plastic covers that only reduce airflow and hurt thermal performance more, while also interfering with large air cooler fitment.
Oxford Guy - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
"What's interesting is how similar the Z490 and Z390 chipsets are in terms of specifications, which adds the question of why Intel has opted for a new socket, on what is effectively a refresh of its 14 nm process node."Baffling is a better word than interesting.
If AMD weren't so competitive then it would make more sense to paint oneself into a corner even more.