MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC review

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A motherboard tested

MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

We review the X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC review from MSI. A motherboard with looks and many features on which to embark with that new Core X processor series. This motherboard is intended for Intel's Skylake-X processors that will be released this summer based on Socket LGA2066, however, the motherboard also supports Kaby Lake-X procs in the form of the quad-core Core i7 7740K and Core i5 7640K. 

This year holds one of the more weird releases in relation to Intel. Here in the EU Intel has killed all marketing, press and PR activities. Hence the majority of media all over Europe is not receiving any information from Intel anymore, that’s the same samples wise. That said, Intel does not seed processor samples for review anymore, therefore the reviews this week are based on a handful of cherry-picked websites that are on a marketing-drip directly from Intel. The rest of the media will need to somehow borrow their samples from Intel partners. It’s a big mess with everything and anything Intel alright when it comes to media related matters. It is all quite confusing really. That means we need to borrow our samples from our closest partners, and yes... even they do not have enough samples available, if they have a processor and can lend at all. We did however get our grubby little paws on a 10-core Skylake-X processor, as such welcome to this full review (but not thanks to Intel).

Intel’s primary processor business has been releasing and refreshing quad-core processors for years now with an E type (e.g. Broadwell-E / Haswell-E) processor release every now and then. They had no rush and have been competitive and relaxed all the way for years now. Zen or Ryzen Intel did anticipate, but the AMD consumer aimed Threadripper 16-core and Naples server segment 32-core made Intel step up its game a notch. Initially it was expected that Intel would announce a new 10 and maybe 12-core processor based on Skylake-X architecture. With everything that has been going on, there now have been a number of announcements going from top to bottom with an unexpected quad-core Kaby Lake-X release as well as announcements that entails Intel will release 18-core processors.

There’s more to it than that as Intel might simply be trying to steal some of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper momentum. First, the Skylake-X processors up-to 10 cores are going to be released. You will not see any availability for the 18, 16 and 14-core parts anytime soon. Skylake-X will release up-to 10-cores (only). It is rumored that in August we’ll see the 12-core part. In October you should see a review on the 18-core parts, but there is even a rumor that the 18-core 2000 USD flagship might not see good retail availability until 2018, likely driving that insane 2000 USD price upwards even more. And sure, you will see some reviews on that part this year, but showing a working processor in a review and retail availability, well these are two very different things.

Back to the motherboard yo! The MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC we'll show you today is the more exclusive segmented product and certainly is a good decent motherboard alright with proper carbon looks and feel. On the next page, a word or two on the processors and architecture, after which we'll dive into a full photo-shoot with the MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC.

 

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All hail the new MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC - It is sexy alright.

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