YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE DRIVER
YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE UPGRADE
YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE FULL
YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE PRO

It’s pretty standard stuff here but also important to note that no corners were cut by MSI to skimp on packaging.

YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE DRIVER

The accessories are found under the board tray with an easy to read manual, cable labels, rear IO shield and driver CD. The cardboard inner packaging is sturdy and well fitted with little room for movement.

YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE PRO

When unboxing the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon, I found it to be well packed and consistent with every other MSI motherboard I’ve seen in the last 4 years. LED lighting on the LAN port and USB/VR ports is a nice touch and makes for easy identification of the RJ45 network port in the dark or under a desk. The rear IO shield has the MSI Gaming Dragon displayed and is otherwise simple but still with a premium feel to it.

The black PCB has a stealthy look to it which allows the subtle RGB LED lighting to be more of a highlight on the heat sink and accent around the edges without dominating the board with bling. The “carbon” aesthetic isn’t over the top and has been tastefully worked into the board design. The RAM slots are easy to access and use the twin locking levers at either end rather than a single locking lever at one end.

The fan and I/O headers are all in sensible places, heat sinks don’t get in the way and clearance isn’t an issue with regard to the socket or first PCI-E slot. The layout is highly practical as we have come to expect from MSI. Let’s start with the aesthetics and layout of the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon. The features are extensive, the aesthetics are somewhat restrained but still edgy and the performance is exactly what we expected from an enthusiast product. This board is pitched at gamers who take their tech more seriously than casually – and they nailed the brief perfectly. MSI went all out in terms of features that will appeal to gamers and didn’t worry about additional power connections or crazy overclocking features that most of us won’t use and shouldn’t have to pay for. The upper mid-range is probably the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon and at $279 you do get a fair bit for your money. The line up was extensive and perhaps a little excessive as MSI appears to have targetted every price point in the market from the cheapest business/home office requirement to the mad scientist tweaker.

YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE FULL

In April I had the opportunity to see the full line-up of AM4 motherboards from MSI at an event in Melbourne. Time will tell if this hurts AM4 motherboard sales as new generations of AM4 socket CPUs are released and people actually start upgrading. Gamers can buy an enthusiast board like the MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon with those extra bells and whistles at a reduced risk of buyer’s remorse knowing that the Ryzen 5 1500X CPU they can currently afford could easily be upgraded later to something with more grunt without the need to change the rest of their platform. The X370 is the enthusiast AM4 chipset that allows overclocking and the top performance options in terms of bandwidth and expansion. The relatively rapid succession of socket changes we see from Intel in the 115x socket has been frustrating at times but a necessary evil due to the performance gap between Intel and AMD’s previous generation of CPUs.

YOUTUBE OVERLAY MSI DRAGON EYE UPGRADE

How is this relevant? Longevity – There are gamers out there that were able to upgrade their CPU without changing their board during that time. Motherboard manufacturers were still making new 990FX series boards as late as last year to support a chipset and socket that was being replaced. AMD’s AM3/AM3+ socket stuck around since 2009 which has been a great innings.

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