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The market for Z270 mini-ITX motherboards is fairly small since it takes vendors considerable R&D to come up with mini-ITX designs due to the increased complexity. The fact mini-ITX motherboards are also niche products that shift lower volumes than ATX boards means less models are designed for market. Despite this, MSI's Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon AC offers a good all-round solution to the prospective Z270 buyer with a nearly mainstream price point.
In the UK it is priced near £170 which puts it in competition with the Gigabyte Z270N-Gaming 5 (£180~) and close to the ASUS ROG STRIX Z270i Gaming (£200~) and ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac (£200~). ASRock's Z270M-ITX/ac and Gigabyte's Z270N-WIFI aren't really direct competition so the fact they both undercut MSI's offering by around £20-30 is almost non-consequential.
Even though a solid all-rounder the MSI Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon does have drawbacks, mostly with respect to the UEFI, which potentially gives MSI the ability iron these flaws out in the future – provided they are not rooted in the hardware design. If addressed, this MSI motherboard would be a considerably more attractive option than it is at present.
We encountered some issues with the stability of the CPU frequency during overclocked scenarios that were beyond the normal turbo range, these instability didn't seem to be temperature or power related. However, this issue didn't occur in all applications and overclocked performance was mostly comparable to other boards. Another couple of UEFI pitfalls to be wary of were a limited range of LLC options and inability to control system fan headers independently of one another.
There's still a lot to like about the Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon with its sensible choice of connectivity, competent performance, good RGB LED lighting and competitive pricing. Some of its rivals may be slightly better-equipped but there's little to challenge MSI's efforts at the same price point.
The MSI Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon AC is available at Overclockers UK for £172.99. MSI’s standard manufacturer warranty duration for this product is 3 years.
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Pros:
- Excellent audio quality
- Solid connectivity and storage options for its size
- Good all-rounder
- Price competitive Z270 Mini-itx option
Cons:
- Limited LLC Options
- System Fan headers not independently controllable
- Awkward RGB header placement
- Some inconsistency with overclocked frequency stability
KitGuru says: A solid all-round mini-ITX gaming motherboard for Intel's Z270 platform, the MSI Z270i Gaming Pro Carbon AC is a sensible choice.
