Product Showcase

The MSI B360 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard is to be considered the budget solution in that Cofee Lake (8th gen) series motherboard range that sits in a 109 USD range, and will likely become a sub 99 USD product once volume availability kicks in. As much as they could, MSI packed it with features like DDR4 XMP support up to 2667 MHz (this is an Intel restriction), one full PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2, Realtek ALC 1220 audio and an Intel Gbe LAN.

The motherboard includes all of the standardized features like the ability for one full x4 PCIe Gen 3 M.2 SSD slot (with heat spreader cooler), and even two X16 slots. However, one runs x16m the second at x4. Three PCIe x1 slots are present as well. And that's where 'budget' kicks in. Most people merely install a graphics card, and that's enough then really. You'll also spot a variety of USB3.1 Type-A & Type-C Gen2 ports.

 
The I/O panel of the MSI B360 Gaming Pro Carbon reveals six USB 3.1 ports with one type-c connector and then two USB 2.0 connectors The motherboard features two PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 (x16:x4) expansion slots and three extra x1 slots. For a budget configuration, really you cannot complain. A Realtek ALC1220 audio codec is the source for audio which will uses enhanced quality capacitors. The board gets one 10/100/1000 Ethernet controller from Intel.

 
 
The board is powered by one 8-pin ATX power header to the processor. A small detail, the primary x16 PCI-Express slot is metal protected reinforced which helps with the stability of heavy graphics cards.

The board has four DIMM slots. Coffee Lake is limited to dual-channel. This board supports up-to DDR4 2667 MHz memory, you may install up-to 64 GB of it. There are two active LED zones, the audio circuitry and the chipset heatsink which can be regulated with MSI software.