Packaging and Accessories
The box for the MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi has a large picture of the board across the front which is always great to see. Over that they have the model name and in the bottom right corner is the standard AMD wrap-around which lets you know that this is an X870E motherboard as if it being in the model name didn’t already and the wrap-around lets us know this is an AM5 motherboard has support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. The big elephant in the room however is on the bottom left corner, that big warning label. We now know that this will burn in as little as two hours, can cause death or serious injury if ingested, and that you should seek immediate medical attention if you swallow or insert into any part of the body. The back of the box has a second picture of the X870E Carbon Wifi and then next to that, they have icons and names of a few of the key features for the board. The back also has a specification listing and a line drawing of the rear I/O. This is good information to have, along with the pictures of the board itself for anyone shopping in person.
When you open the box up, it comes wrapped in its static protective bag and is tucked in a cardboard tray with cardboard over part of the board like a blanket to keep it safe at night err… keep it from moving in transport. Up under the cardboard tray, you will find a few accessories and some documentation. For documentation, you get an EU regulatory booklet and a generic quick installation guide. You also get a color paper inviting you to post a review of your experience with the board and to register with MSI and let them know to get a $20 Steam gift card. You also get a sticker sheet which has a metallic-like finish over it. One half of the sheet is filled with labels that have pictures letting you know they are for fans, SATA cables, RGB lighting, and display connections. The other half has MSI badges and a few cute Lucky the Dragon stickers.
For accessories, you get two black SATA cables, a 1 to 2 RGB extension cable, EZ front panel cable, aRGB extension cables, and the 1-3 EZ conn cable. You get a USB drive with the MSI logo on it. There is an EZ M.2 Clip II and then the key is the EZ M.2 Clip II remover.
Then of course the X870E Carbon Wifi comes with a wireless antenna, it's in the product name. This is the same antenna that I’ve seen MSI use for a while now with one change. The cable now has snap-on connections where they used to have to be screwed down. MSI’s snap-on design is different from what I saw with Gigabyte and Asus, they didn’t use any plastic here, it's just metal clips which should hold up better. Not that you should be removing them often. The antenna itself comes in two parts and you have to put it together. It has a V-shaped base and then the antenna part. The base has rubber feet on it and two holes to hang it if you want as well which could be very useful.
