THE MPG Z590 CARBON EK X

The black and grey color combination MSI chose for the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X motherboard is somewhat typical (black and red would look a lot better).

Since the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X comes bundled with the EK Quantum monoblock by EK Water Blocks the VRMs have no cooling over them.

Two 8pin motherboard connectors are located on the far left top of the motherboard.

By having 4 DDR4 DIMM slots the MPG Z590 CARBON EK X can accommodate up to 128GB worth of RAM with speeds all the way up to 5333MHz.

One of the RGB headers is located on the far upper right corner right next to a post display.

The 6 SATA III native connectors are all angled.

Here you can see all 3 M.2 ports exposed along with the PCIe slots and two more RGB headers on the lower end right next to an LED on/off switch.

The I/O has a quick BIOS flash button (just place the BIOS in a FAT32 formatted USB flash drive and place that drive in the tagged USB port) right next to 4 USB 2.0 ports, v1.4 DisplayPort output, V2.0b HDMI output, 2 USB 3.2 ports, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C Port, 2.5G RJ45 port, two Antenna ports, S/PDIF output and five 3.5mm jacks.

Unfortunately, there's no backplate underneath the motherboard.

The EK Quantum Momentum monoblock by EK Water Blocks features their velocity cooling engine with low restriction and high performance (the top is made by CNC machined glass-like cast acrylic).

This monoblock not only features a flow indicator (useful to see if your water cooling system is working properly) but it's also equipped with a 3-pin D-RGB (addressable) LED strip.

Turning the monoblock over we find a total of 4 nickel-plated copper pieces (remember, the VRM pieces need to be paired with the bundled thermal pads).