CONCLUSION

   After spending almost 3 weeks with the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard by MSI I have mostly positive things to say about it. Build quality is good (excellent for the EKWB parts), performance is more or less on par with what you’d expect from a high-end model (lands in the middle of the pack however) and both CPU and VRM temperatures are great really. Still not all is perfect and so the most significant drawback the MSI MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard has is total cost since on top of the extra you end up paying for the EK Quantum Momentum monoblock by EK Water Blocks (even though there was a significant price cut recently which somewhat offsets this) you obviously also need to have a custom water cooler like the one i used for my tests (and regardless of model that will not come cheap). The end result is certainly worth it (just for the record with ambient room temperature at 23 degrees the CPU running at 5GHz never surpassed 65 degrees Celsius during all my tests) but this is still a somewhat niche product. Another issue I found was the lack of motherboard buttons and having gotten used to power on/off and reset buttons this didn’t sit well with me, not when even lower end models have them.

   With a current price tag set at USD649 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 390.67Euros inside the EU (EK Water Blocks) the MSI MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard is certainly overpriced, at least on the other side of the Atlantic (I did find it for less but only via 3^rd party sellers with not so good ratings). Granted, due to inflation everything is more expensive today but I really do think MSI needs to balance that price tag to reflect the one we have over here. Long story short if you already own a custom water cooling kit or if you’ve always wanted one the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard by MSI should be on your radar and since it does deliver as advertised it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Overall Build Quality
- CPU & VRM Cooling (EK Quantum Momentum Monoblock)
- 2xPCIe X16 4.0 Slots
- M.2 PCIe 4.0 Slot
- DisplayPort v1.4 & HDMI v2.0b Video Outputs
- 2.5GbE Ethernet Port
- MSI Center Software
- Price (EU)

CONS

- Price (USA)
- Extra Cost (Liquid Cooling Kit Required)
- No Onboard On/Off/Reset Buttons