MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi Motherboard Review

Verdict and Conclusion

When it comes to affordability, you really can’t beat the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi. Costing round USD $250, it’s designed and targeted at the mainstream market, and it’s perfect for gamers and system builders who wants to build an affordable system based on the latest Ryzen 7000 series of processors. It supports DDR5 ram with speeds of up to DDR5-6400 OC+, AMD EXPO memory profiles, and comes with a DisplayPort and HDMI output, as well as WiFi 6E. It does lack a lot of the enthusiast features found on the higher-end X670E motherboards, but having said that the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi does come with plenty of features that’s more than enough for most users.

As with most B650 motherboards, there’s no PCIE 5.0 slot for next-gen graphics cards, but instead you get a PCIE 4.0 x16 slot, which I think is enough for most gamers. Another feature which is lacking, is the support for PCIE Gen5x4 NVMe SSDs, which is a shame,  but you do get 3 x M.2 slots for PCIE Gen4x4 SSDs. The original specification of the B650 chipset offers only 4 SATA ports, but surprisingly, there are 6 SATA ports on this motherboard. And finally, if you love RGB then you’re out of luck, the motherboard doesn’t come with any. However, you do get 2 x 3pin ARGB and 2 x 4-pin RGB headers for additional lighting of your choice.

For stability, the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi features a 14+2+1 Duet Rail Power System for maximum performance with an aggressive VRM design. And the whole thing is cooled my a massive extended heatsink covering the entire IO shroud. Nice! You also get 2 additional Shield Frozr heat sinks which helps to cool the M.2 SSDs.

Another frustrating point I need to make (not MSI’s fault) is the compatibility issue with EXPO certified memory. Using Kingston’s Fury Beast RGB DDR5-6000, I was only able to run them at DDR5-5600 speeds. Apparrenty, there’s a list of compatible memory from qualified vendors for trouble-free installation. I suggest you check MSI’s QVL page here for memory compatibility and QVL (qualified vendors list).

During our tests, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X processor and a GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. We managed to pull some decent scores in all of our benchmarks, including a Cinebench R23 scores of 25,883 (multi core) and 1,867 (single core). For PCMark 10, we got a score of 9,129, and a score of 8,017 for PassMark9.

For UL’s latest Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark, we got a score of, 10,736 and 8,000 for the video editing suite. For 3DMark Speed Way and Port Royal, we got a score of 5,153 and 12,936 respectively. And finally, for Timespy and Firestrike, we got decent scores of 18,146 and 39,562 respectively.

Pricewise, the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard costs around USD $259 from Amazon – https://amzn.to/3PCCRlH. At this price, it’s one of the most affordable AM5 motherboard on the market, and should be good enough for most mainstream users.

Pros:

• Excellent Price and Affordability
• Good performance
• AMD B650 chipset
• Supports AMD Ryzen 7000 series processor
• Supports DDR5-6400+ (O.C.)
• Realtek 2.5G LAN and AMD WiFi 6E
• Includes DisplayPort and HDMI output

Cons:

• No PCIE 5.0 slot
• No support for PCIE Gen5x4
• No onboard RGB

Final Words:

If you’re planning to build a new system based on the Ryzen 7000 processor, and you’re looking for a mainstream AM5 motherboard that offers affordability and decent performance, then take a look at the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard. You won’t find any thing better for around USD $250.

You can buy the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard for around USD $259 from Amazon – https://amzn.to/3PCCRlH

Related articles

• MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 Power Supply Review (with 16-PIN 12VHPWR Connector)
• MSI MEG Coreliquid S360 AIO CPU Cooler Review
• MSI PS63 Modern 8RC (Prestige Series) Laptop Review
• MSI GE75 Raider 9SG (with GeForce RTX 2080) Gaming Laptop Review
• MSI GE65 Raider 9SF (with GeForce RTX 2070) Gaming Laptop Review
• MSI Optix MAG27CQ Curved Gaming Monitor Review