MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard Review

X99A Gaming Pro Carbon Circuit Analysis Continued

The audio on the X99A Gaming Pro Carbon is based on the Realtek ALC1150 codec along with three Texas Instruments OP1652 amplifiers. There are also 13 Nichicon audio grade capacitors to improve audio quality and PCB division of the analog audio domain from the rest of the motherboard's digital domain.

The X99A Gaming Pro Carbon does have an Intel NIC that uses the i218v as the PHY. The ASMedia ASM1142 is used to provide the two USB 3.1 ports on the rear IO and two Texas Instruments type-C port controllers are used on the rear and internal type-C ports.

A VLI VL805 provides four USB 3.0 ports from a single PCI-E 2.0 lane. A Texas Instruments DS80PCI402 4-lane PCI-E 3.0 repeated with equalization and de-emphasis is used to PCI-E signal integrity between the last PCI-E 3.0 slot and the U.2 connector.

There are also five ASM1467 PCI-E re-drivers used to maintain signal integrity when SATA and PCI-E bandwidth is switched between ports. The nuvoTon NCT6792D is the main Super IO used for fan control, temperature and voltage monitoring, and PS/2 on the rear IO.

A Renesas microcontroller, the R5F104ACA, is used to control all the RGB LED functions along with extra independent controllers. There are multiple PCI-E 3.0 quick switches located all over the motherboard to switch around PCI-E and SATA bandwidth between slots and ports.