MSI is launching their X299 motherboard series with a trio of options, the X299 GAMING M7 ACK, GAMING PRO CARBON AC and a new TOMAHAWK motherboard.
The X299 GAMING M7 ACK above is their current flagship model, designed with 10+1+1 phase DigitALL power, Loadline Calibration and MSI’s Turbo Socket which should give you some impressive overclocking ability. The M.2 slots are covered by MSI's Shield FROZR which will keep the drives well within their temperature thresholds ensuring there is no performance hits because of excessive heat. The board also features Killer Double Shot PRO technology, which allows you to combine the two Killer E2500 Ethernet NICs and the Killer 1535 Wi-Fi connections which will be interesting to see in action when we eventually get a chance to test it out.
The GAMING PRO CARBON AC is the pretty boy of the trio, it sports removable heatsinks and is compatible with any of their new X-Mounting accessories; fire up your 3D printer and create your own for a custom look. Along with the interchangeable heatsink covers are MYSTIC LIGHT RGB LEDs spaced around the motherboard to highlight your system in the colours you choose. The board features MSI's Game boost function, a one click overclocking solution to get you gaming as quickly as possible, though you can always disable it and manually tweak your settings. With Turbo U.2 and M.2 slots you can run the latest NVMe drives at full speed, the M.2 sticks will be cooled by the M.2 Shield to ensure you don't see throttling.
The newest incarnation of the TOMAHAWK series is designed to be sturdy, it features stainless steel heatsinks and MSI Steel Armor design; we still wouldn't recommend tossing it around but for a LAN machine you should be confident in transporting your system. This motherboard also features the new M.2 Shield FROZR cooling for your M.2 SSDs the Turbo U.2 slot uses the Steel Armor design in a similar fashion. The front USB Type-C port will make it easy to connect a VR headset to this motherboard to take advantage of MSI's VR Boost feature.