MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon EK X Intel Z490 LGA 1200 ATX DDR4-SDRAM Motherboard by MSI

GAME IN STYLE
The MPG series brings out the best in gamers by allowing full expression in color with advanced RGB lighting control and synchronization. Experiment on another level of personalization with a front LED strip that provides convenient in-game and real time notifications. With the MPG series, transform your equipment into the center of attention and top leaderboards in style.

The MPG Z490 CARBON EK X comes with a custom-designed EK cooling solution, a monoblock that aesthetically blends with the motherboard. The iconic carbon fiber and matching engraved design shows its refined quality and distinctive looks. To unleash the high performing for 10th gen Intel core processors, the custom-designed EK cooling solution that offers pristine cooling for both the CPU and VRM power delivery section is used to prevent thermal throttling, allowing gamers to sustain heavy gaming loadings without the noisy environment. It's ready for everything!

PREMIUM HARDWARE DESIGN
With years of experience, MSI is no stranger to building high-performance motherboards. Our R&D and engineering teams have reviewed countless designs, evaluated a wide selection of high quality components, and developed products for reliability even under extreme conditions.

EK CUSTOM-DESIGNED CPU + VRM WATER COOLING
Sustain the high performing for 10th gen Intel core processors, a custom-designed EK cooling solution that offers pristine cooling for both the CPU and VRM power delivery section is used to prevent thermal throttling, allowing gamers to sustain heavy gaming loadings without the noisy environment. It's ready for everything!

M.2 SHIELD FROZR
World’s fastest SSDs can start to lower performance when getting hot. Part of the motherboards heatsink design, M.2 Shield Frozr is the next generation M.2 thermal solution to avoid this by offering the best thermal protection to make sure that SSD maintains maximum performance.

FULLY CONTROLLABLE IN BIOS AND SOFTWARE
MSI motherboards let you manage speeds and temperatures for all your system and CPU fans. Total Fan Control allows you check your primary system characteristics in a simplified graphical interface. You can also set up to 4 temperature targets for CPU and motherboard, which will adjust the fan speeds automatically.

OPTIMIZED FOR WATER COOLING
Designed to support the most popular All-In-One & customized water cooling solutions on the market. A dedicated water pump PIN header supports up to 2 amp, giving you full control of the water pump speed. A clearly marked ‘keep-out-zone’ allows for easy and safe installation and a perfect fit.

12 + 1 +1 DUET RAIL POWER SYSTEM
Unleash and sustain maximum performance with an aggressive VRM design built with digital CPU power system. Combining 8 + 4-pin power connectors and exclusive Core Boost technology, MPG series motherboard is ready to sustain heavy gaming loadings.

CORE BOOST
Core Boost technology combines MSI’s premium layout and digital power design which allows for faster and undistorted current delivery to the CPU at pin-point precision. This creates the perfect conditions for multi-core CPU while doing

1-SECOND OVERCLOCKING!
MSI Game Boost enables one-second overclocking, giving you the performance boost you need to get more FPS.

LOAD-LINE CALIBRATION
What you set, is what you get. LLC makes sure your CPU voltage remains 100% stable under any load. This greatly improves stability when demanding more CPU performance.

OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION
Prevents potential short-circuit damage to the CPU and other critical components.

DIGITALL POWER DESIGN
A fully digital power design allows for faster and undistorted current delivery to the CPU at pin-point precision. Creating the perfect conditions for CPU overclocking.

DOUBLE POWER CONNECTORS
8+4 pin connectors deliver adequate power even for an overclocked multi-core CPU

PRE-INSTALLED IO SHIELDING
Featuring the pre-installed IO shielding, makes your installation process easier and safer. The patent-pending design protect your IO ports and also prevent electrostatic discharge damage, makes your motherboard a strong gaming foundation.

XL CLIP
The enlarged PCI-E clip helps you swap or remove your devices easier. Keep the PCI-E slot stronger and safer.

EZ DEBUG LED
Run into trouble? Onboard LEDs for key components will indicate the source of the problem so you know exactly where to look to get up and running again.

EZ LED CONTROL
A built-in LED button on the motherboard to control your light effect. Turn on/off your light in a second!

MORE RELIABLE CIRCUIT TRANSMISSION
6 PCB layers allows for higher bandwidth and faster transfer speeds. This is also beneficial for reliable circuit transmission.

FORTIFY YOUR SYSTEM WITH PCI-E STEEL ARMOR
MSI PCI Express Steel Armor slots are secured to the motherboard with extra solder points and support the weight of heavy graphics cards. When every advantage in games counts, Steel Armor shields the point of contact from electromagnetic interference.

ULTIMATE MOTHERBOARD PROTECTION
Double ESD protection doubles up the grounding layer around the mounting holes, preventing static discharge surges from damaging the motherboard.

LIGHTNING GEN 4 SUPPORT, READY 4 THE FUTURE !!!
MSI Z490 motherboards adopt tons of components, enhanced layout placement and PCB design dedicated for PCI-E Gen 4 solution, ensure the higher bandwidth and faster transfer speeds stability, ready 4 the future!

ENHANCED PERFORMANCE
High performance MSI motherboards are loaded with advanced features and the latest technology to overwhelm any challenge at hand no matter whether you’re a gamer, prosumer, or PC enthusiast.

EXTREME STABILITY & COMPATIBILITY TESTING
MSI conducts thorough memory testing with the most popular memory brands under extreme conditions to ensure your system runs stable no matter what. Our memory partners include brands like Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, G.Skill and many more to optimize memory modules, configurations and even improve overclocking.

A HUGE STEP OF DDR PERFORMANCE
MSI OC LAB does not merely work hard on extreme overclocking. Compare to Z390 motherboard memory XMP profile, MSI does have great improvement on performance and efficiency for Z490. Easy to enable XMP profile with auto power settings to get the best memory speed and stability.

EASY OVERCLOCKING WITH XMP PROFILE
The XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) in MSI BIOS are tested and certified by MSI OC LAB. It is easy to enable with auto power settings to get the best memory speed and stability.

FAST AND FUTURE-READY STORAGE
MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EK X motherboards support all the latest storage standards, which allows users to connect any ultra-fast storage device. Higher efficiency makes your work easier.

OPTANE: BOOST YOUR HDD TO PERFORM LIKE AN SSD
PC Enthusiasts can now enjoy the performance of an SSD on their HDD by coupling it with the new Intel Optane Memory device. Intel Optane technology provides an unparalleled combination of high throughput, low latency, high quality of service, and high endurance.

EASY RAID SETUP WITH M.2 GENIE
Looking to go all out in terms of raw data speed and put multiple SSDs in RAID 0? Setting this up can prove to be quite the challenge. That’s why we created M.2 Genie, a brilliant feature to make setting up RAID 0 for M.2 and U.2 much easier and less time consuming.

DRAGON CENTER
MSI brand new Dragon Center unifies a suite of MSI software utilities into a single centralized application. Take control of advanced motherboards features and unleash endless possibilities.

CLICK BIOS 5
Get more from a loaded BIOS designed for ease of use. Fine-tune the motherboard for gaming performance, efficiency, or overclocking world records!

GAME BOOST
Quickly overclock your CPU with a single button for more performance.

XMP
Choose from a preset XMP profile and automatically overclock compatible DDR memory.

M-FLASH
Conveniently flash or upgrade the BIOS in a few minutes from the CMOS Setup Utility.

HARDWARE MONITOR
Get immediate access to your critical hardware information in real-time including temperature, memory capacity, clock speed, and voltage.

MEMORY TRY IT
Get extreme speed out of your system memory and get more performance.

SEARCH & FAVORITES
A permanent search & favorite option in the top right corner moves you through the BIOS menus quickly.

MSI APP PLAYER
Developed under an exclusive partnership with BlueStacks, the MSI APP Player brings seamless gaming experience between mobile games and PC platform, and leverages customized features as specific keyboard lighting and better graphics with multi-task works.

CONNECTIVITY
MSI motherboards are built with a variety of connectors to satisfy gamers. Enhanced audio, advanced LAN networking capabilities, USB and Mystic Light turn any gaming experience into an immerse one.

HIGH-BANDWIDTH AND LOW-LATENCY NETWORK
2.5Gbps LAN provides incredible data transfer speed faster than general Gigabit LAN. This is a premium solution for demanding users.

SURFACING WITH THE REAL MU-MIMO TECHNOLOGY
The WIFI 6 adopts the latest OFDMA and two-way MU-MIMO technologies and could provide up to 4X network capacity and efficiency in the high signal density environment. Comparing to the WIFI 5, which can only send the data packet to one device at a time on each channel, the WIFI 6 could combine the packet, separate to several devices and allow signals from the different devices bundled together. This new technology provides all the devices in the same network environment with same and harmonious traffic bandwidth in an efficient way.

OPTIMIZE ONLINE GAMING TRAFFIC FOR LOWER LATENCY!
MSI GAMING LAN Manager automatically classifies and prioritizes the latency-sensitive applications for online games, giving you the best online gaming experience with low latency.

HIGH DEFINITION ALC1220 AUDIO PROCESSOR
Supports DSD Super Audio CD playback & recording (64x better than regular CD quality)
120dB SNR / 32-bit

HIGH QUALITY AUDIO CAPACITORS
A high fidelity sound experience with exceptional acoustics and realism for studio level headphones is ensured.

HIGH QUALITY AUDIO JACKS WITH S/PDIF
Keep your sound perfect by transmit your audio with pure digital signal

ISOLATED AUDIO DESIGN
Like a dedicated sound card, audio components and circuits have been laid on a reserved motherboard section and electrically isolated.

SEPARATED AUDIO LAYERS FOR CLEAN LEFT & RIGHT CHANNELS
Using separated layers in the PCB ensures equally pristine sound quality for both left and right audio channels.

Audio Boost protects your ears by eliminating those annoying loud popping sounds when you plug/unplug devices or turn your PC on/off.

DOUBLE BANDWIDTH WITH LIGHTNING USB 3.2 GEN 2x2 20G
Using USB 3.2 devices has never been faster! Featuring the Lightning ASmedia 3241 USB 3.2 Gen2x2 controller, MSI motherboards offer never before seen USB speeds up to 20Gb/s when connecting the Rear USB Type-C. The Lightning USB 20G connectors are covered with gold to ensure a better signal and performance.

USB FRONT TYPE-C
MSI gaming motherboards support USB Front Type-C that allows gamers to connect with the latest USB devices. Built up a system with MSI PC case to have the most convenient experience.

TRUE COLOR MYSTIC LIGHT ON MOTHERBOARD
Splash on some color and vibrant RGB lighting effects using MSI Mystic Light with 16.8 million colors and 29 LED effects.