Review

MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK Motherboard Review

We are back with another motherboard review. This time it is a motherboard for entry level gamers. A new AMD B550 chipset-based motherboard from MSI, the MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK Motherboard. The MAG range of MSI motherboards passes through a rigorous quality testing and are designed to be a symbol of sturdiness and durability. The MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK is a full ATX form factor premium hardware designed motherboard with a wide selection of high quality components and developed for reliability even under extreme conditions,

Now let's see what MSI TOMAHAWK B550 board have for us.

Features

• Support for 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors and future AMD Ryzen™ processors with BIOS update
• Supports DDR4 Memory, up to 5100+(OC) MHz
• Lightning Fast Game experience: PCIe 4.0, Lightning Gen 4 x4 M.2 with M.2 Shield Frozr, AMD Turbo USB 3.2 Gen 2
• Premium Thermal Solution: Extended Heatsink Design with additional choke thermal pad rated for 7W/mk and PCB with 2oz thickened copper are built for high performance system and non-stop gaming experience.
• Enhanced Power Design: 10+2+1 Duet Rail Power System, Digital PWM, Core Boost, DDR4 Boost.
• Latest Network Solution: Onboard 2.5G LAN plus Gigabit LAN with LAN Manager deliver the best online experience without lag.
• Mystic Light: 16.8 million colors / 29 effects controlled in one click. Mystic Light Extension supports RGB and RAINBOW LED strip.
• Pre-installed I/O Shielding: Better EMI protection and more convenience for installation.
• Audio Boost: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experience.
• Multi-GPU: With Steel Armor PCI-E slots. Supports 2-Way AMD Crossfire™

EXCLUSIVE FEATURE

PREMIUM THERMAL SOLUTION

HIGH-SPEED TRANSMISSION

THERMAL SOLUTION FOR MORE CORES AND HIGHER PERFORMANCE - With more cores’ processors, thermal and power design is more important to make sure the temperature keeps lower. MSI extended PWM heatsink and enhanced circuit design ensures even high-end CPU to run in full speed with MSI motherboards.

HIGH-BANDWIDTH AND LOW-LATENCY NETWORK MAG B550 TOMAHAWK features high-bandwidth and low-latency 2.5G plus Gigabit LAN for power users. Onboard 2.5Gbps connectivity provides incredible data transfer speed faster than ever before. MSI LAN Manager automatically classifies and prioritizes the latency-sensitive for your applications, giving you the best online experience with low latency.

Specifications

Package

Board comes in a nice black cardboard box with model number, image of the board and details about supporting technology and features.

Inside the box

MSI TOMAHAWK B550 comes with very nice set of accessories

Looks

Board made with a black PCB of E-ATX Form Factor size 12 in. x 10.7 in. (30.5 cm x 27.2 cm). A black-grey coloured metal-shield covers I/O and chipset heatsink. Some light grey-while colour line graphics covers half board giving the whole motherboard a nice black- grey theme.

Layout

Detailed layout of board.

Removing Heat-sinks

Heatsinks are made up of dense aluminum with thermal pad installed, giving great passive cooling to VRM MOSFETs and chipset.

Component Layout

Let's now see what all components MSI have planned for this board.

This board features 12 phase Renesas ISL99360FRZ smart power stage configuration at VRM section driven by Renesas RAA229004 controller. Every phase VRM section is rating 60A per power stage and capacitors for smooth CPU power

Testing

BIOS

Bundled Software

Benchmarks

Overclocking

Power Consumption

Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.

Pros

• New AMD B550 Chipset
• Dual LAN
• 2.5G Networking supported
• Good bundled Software
• Easy Overclocking
• Pre-installed I/O Shielding
• USB 3.2 Gen 2 connectivity

Cons

• NIL

Conclusion

The MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK motherboard is listed with a price tag of Rs.17K(approx.) for mainstream and gamers with great design, USB 3.2 Gen 2 connectivity, 2.5G networking supported, Pre-installed I/O Shielding, RGB LED support and more makes this board a great deal of people looking for a new AMD B550 Chipset build. With nice VRM design we were easily able to overclock AMD Ryzen-9 3900X CPU upto 4.4Ghz max and 4.2GHz super stable with 32GB of memory running at 3200Mhz.

Finally, considering the looks and price MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK is one of the top price performance board for new AMD B550 chipset and is worthy our PC TeK Reviews PERFORMANCE Award.

Manufacturers Info

Thanks.

Comments