Test – MSI Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon AC |Specs | Price

Hi all!

We are back at MSI today with once again a small motherboard, the Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon AC! Under this name, which smacks of marketing excess, hides a motherboard in mini-ITX format equipped with the latest Intel Z270 chipset, particularly designed for overclocking. The mini-ITX format being more and more popular with people looking for a compact PC, it will be very interesting to see how it behaves during the tests.
Who says mini format also generally says higher price than their more “classic” counterparts, this is the case here with the 200 € requested, let’s see if the card from MSI is worth its price!

The MSI Z270I Gaming Pro Carbon AC is therefore a motherboard in mini-ITX format, therefore 17 by 17 cm, which is really tiny for a motherboard. It is equipped with the latest Z270 chipset from Intel, compatible with the latest “Kaby Lake” processors (but also Skylake) ranging from the small Celeron to the larger Core i7 from Intel. Note that as usual the Z270 chipset can support the overclocking functions of “K” processors (i3 7350K, i5 6600K / 7600K and i7 6700K / 7700K), which other chipsets (H270 and B250) can not do.
The motherboard is compatible only with DDR4 memory, ranging from 2133 to 3600 MHz for 6th generation processors (Skylake) and from 2133 to 3800 MHz for 7th generation processors (Kabylake). Note that the “Kabylake” processors can natively manage the frequencies of 2133 and 2400 MHz against “only” 2133 MHz for the “Skylake”, all higher frequencies will be considered as overclocking. The MSI Z270I Gaming Pro Carbon AC can manage a maximum of 32 GB of RAM via its 2 memory slots, which allows you to see coming for an individual ????
In terms of expansion ports and of course because of the smallness of the card there is only one PCIe 3.0 port operating at 16x here, we expected no less and it will therefore be possible to operate it. full capacity graphics card. If you want to do multi-GPU, whether CrossFire or SLI, you will have to go your way!
On the storage side here and despite the size of the card, there are still 4 Sata 6 Gb / s ports with the possibility of RAID 0/1/5/10, enough to have generally more than enough peripherals in a mini-ITX box. An M.2 port is also part, going up to 2280 and compatible PCIe 4x or Sata 6 Gb / s).
No worries either in terms of connections because there are 6 USB ports (3.1, 3.0 and 2.0) at the back in addition to the 2 internal connectors which will be used for the case.
The network part is also pampered with 1 Intel Gigabit I219-V controller as well as a WiFi AC 8265 controller still from Intel which also includes bluetooth up to 4.2. Suffice to say that everything is covered here for all needs.
The small card from MSI is really well provided, and this at all levels, we expect however not less when seeing the 200 € requested!

So there clearly MSI announces the color, on the front face of the box we do not find a picture of the motherboard but of a racing car, with the small 5 star “rating” showing how efficient the Z270i is in Games. I don’t know who falls for this kind of business practice again, no one I hope. Apart from that of course are present the logo of the brand, the name of the model, and the logos of use. The motherboard is also “VR ready”, I wonder what that can mean for a motherboard 😉

We continue in the “gaming” style and excessive marketing here with a small listing of the strengths of the beast, namely the presence of RGB LEDs, a “gaming” network and anti-surge protection with a “stylish” LED (lol) and so on. There are still some interesting data in all this flashy, namely the technical characteristics and the rear connections.

When opening, we find the motherboard packed in its antistatic bag, underneath as usual is the bundle!

The bundle contains everything you need to install the motherboard, the manual of course as well as the I / O plate, the drivers as well as the antennas for WiFi, an extension cable to connect LED strips and stickers to identify them correctly. Sata cables. However, we regret the presence of only 2 Sata cables, for a card at 200 € it would be the least of things to have at least 3 (for a DVD player, an SSD and a mechanical hard drive).