MSI has debuted its latest motherboard called the X299M-A Pro. This motherboard is apparently the company’s second micro-ATX form factor motherboard after the X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC, which was unveiled two months ago (read more about it here.) That said, do keep in mind that this motherboard only supports two Intel Core X processors: Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7740X.
When it comes to design, the MSI X299M-A Pro comes in an all black aesthetic. Oddly, there doesn’t seem to be any LED-lit areas around this mainboard, but some consumers may prefer this. That aside, this mainboard is indeed perfect for those who are looking to build a small form factor system based on Intel’s Kaby Lake-X CPUs.
Specifications-wise, the MSI X299M-A Pro motherboard is fitted with four DIMM DDR4 RAM slots (dual-channel); two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots; two M.2 slots; and six SATA 6Gbps ports. In addition, the MSI X299M-A Pro is fitted with several USB 3.1 ports and a Realtek ALC1120 CODEC audio solution as well. Whilst official pricing has not been confirmed by MSI, folks at TechPowerUp do expect the MSI X299M-A Pro to be priced at around US$170 (about RM718).
Regardless of what one may think about Intel’s X299 platform, one thing remains clear: there are more X299 motherboards in the market today compared to AMD’s X399-based mainboards – which says a lot about the chipset. But the fact that some consumers may find it difficult to differentiate between X299 motherboards that support Skylake-X and those that are only compatible with Kaby Lake-X still makes the platform rather unappealing to us.
(Source: TechPowerUp)
