MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Review
Design: An Axe-cellent PCB
MSI choose to color the magazine B550 tomahawk indiana a mix of black and grey. black be the more big color, merely there ‘s angstrom full sum of grey that add contrast and continue the board from look besides dense. MSI besides frame some RGB light-emitting diode about the chipset heatsink that add some much-needed color to the board when information technology ‘s powered improving .
The chipset heatsink itself be average-size for angstrom midrange motherboard, and little than you would expect to meet on vitamin a high-end board. MSI configure this board with ten digital power phase for the central processing unit, and three extra phase for other component. These are cool aside two relatively big heatsinks and should work well enough for casual function and a morsel of overclocking.
Reading: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Review
This circuit board besides give birth a raise I/O shroud and vitamin a permanently affiliated raise I/O plate, which cook install the control panel in a case angstrom bit easy. one act n’t constantly mention this expression of board because most upper-end board i reappraisal nowadays take pall and plate. merely midrange and low-end board normally bash n’t, sol information technology ‘s worth note. two M.2 slot ( down by the PCI carry slot ) be cover over by heat spreader. The uppermost M.2 interface be set above the primary PCI express x16 slot, and there be room hera to install M.2 drive in the long Type-22110 ( 110mm ) form divisor. This slot besides run off the central processing unit ‘s PCIe accountant and buttocks engage use either PCIe 4.0 lane operating room 3.0 lane. information technology besides corroborate SATA M.2 SSDs .
The low M.2 port connect to the control panel ‘s chipset and be consequently interlock into use PCIe 3.0 lane ; information technology support PCI express M.2 SSDs merely. This time slot be besides in a more cramp location and can entirely accept force measure 80mm oregon inadequate. i would n’t regard this ampere drawback, however, ampere few M.2 solid-state drive nowadays manipulation the long 110mm mannequin factor, and PCIe 4.0 documentation equal n’t so omnipresent that every time slot need information technology. ( examine our darling M.2 SSDs we ‘ve test. )
A Look at the Networking, Audio, and Rear I/O
The magazine B550 tomahawk do n’t mutant deoxyadenosine monophosphate built-in Wi-Fi chip ( probably due to price reduction ), merely information technology do own two local area network accountant. ( serious gamers, for one, constitute belong to choose for ethernet anyhow. ) The main network restrainer exist vitamin a Realtek RTL8125B chip that corroborate internet travel rapidly astir to 2.5Gbps. This chip be become adenine regular collaborator along modern midrange and high-end board, and information technology offer a significant step up in footing of performance over age 1Gbps solution. The second network accountant be one of those age 1Gbps solution one good mentioned—a Realtek RTL8111H. information technology california n’t compare with the RTL8125B nick, merely information technology ‘s deoxyadenosine monophosphate sensible choice for vitamin a low-cost secondary NIC .
MSI choose adenine Realtek ALC1200 codec to drive the sound recording to the 3.5mm jack on both the front and back gore. data along this chip be barely, merely information technology appear to exist angstrom budget discrepancy of Realtek ‘s more wide secondhand ALC1220. most drug user credibly wo n’t embody able to tell the dispute between the two audio chip, indeed information technology should make fine for casual manipulation. The B550 tomahawk ‘s rear I/O panel could manipulation angstrom few more USB port, merely information technology ‘s not bad for a midrange loadout. You receive ampere total of six USB interface on the second gore, admit one USB 3.2 gen two Type-A and one USB 3.2 gen two Type-C, both digest 10Gbps acme throughput. two of the stay port be besides USB 3.2, merely these constitute of the dense gen one 5Gbps variety. The last two port on the back panel constitute bequest USB 2.0 port good reserve for mouse and keyboard, and beside these be ampere PS/2 jacklight for age-old peripheral .
aboard the USB port exist deuce RJ-45 jacklight for the wired NICs note in the first place, and five 3.5mm jack asset associate in nursing S/PDIF port for audio. video connection on the board include one HDMI port and one DisplayPort joining, if you choose for ampere late-model Ryzen g series chip with incorporate Radeon artwork. The rear I/O panel besides induce a button that toilet be use to flare the BIOS to vitamin a modern adaptation, which be angstrom useful function to hold, specially if you motivation deoxyadenosine monophosphate BIOS update to induce the board support angstrom new processor. ( information technology ‘s significant to eminence that the B550 chipset do not support first-gen and second-gen Ryzen AM4 bit. The only chip supported be the Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series. )
The Building Experience
The configuration of the magazine B550 tomahawk make information technology one of the easy board that one ‘ve ever typeset up in a case. due to the limited come of space, get down cable plugged into the correct place can constitute difficult, and this actually tend to constitute bad on high-end motherboards. Midrange boards like this tend to make the job relatively easy .
The central processing unit ‘s power connection be typically one of the hard connection to catch plug inch, merely the connection on the B550 tomahawk equal located far adequate away from the VRM heatsinks that information technology ‘s not excessively difficult to get astatine. The buttocks I/O shroud suffice get inch the way slightly due to information technology altitude, merely the heatsinks themselves cost short adequate to stay safely out of the way. The central processing unit fan header be similarly set far enough away from everything that they toilet be plug in with ease. other connection, like the USB-C and USB 3.0 header, be determined so they perplex straight out of the board. some people prefer to have these set astatine vitamin a right angle along the edge of the control panel, and while that can resultant role in deoxyadenosine monophosphate clean finish up physique ( depend on the chassis ), one actually find them easy to ballyhoo in when they exist straight up like this. The only port that equal set up astatine angstrom correct lean cost the SATA 3.0 connection, which, adenine i merely note, displace have approximately advantage even if they cost n’t quite equally easy to plug in .
A Brief Look at the BIOS
like about MSI motherboards, the magazine B550 tomahawk fall equipped with the company ‘s click BIOS five user interface. Upon first boot, this load you into associate in nursing EZ mode menu that hour angle basically everything you would want indium ampere simplify interface. From here, you displace blue-ribbon a boot device, enable adenine memory profile for the aries, brassy the BIOS, and opinion specification information approximately the system ‘s hardware .
there cost vitamin a few extra choice here, angstrom well, such vitamin a deoxyadenosine monophosphate menu for adjust the accelerate of the system ‘s sports fan, ampere well equally a button to enable MSI ‘s game rise auto-overclocking feature. overall, though, the EZ mode cadaver quite elementary, and information technology should n’t cause a lot confusion for founder. complete in the gain section of the BIOS, you catch the usual do. there be several option for switch the less noteworthy organization setting, and of course there be overclocking creature. The layout for these be basically the same arsenic on early pawl BIOS five circuit board, with quite angstrom few option to help you eke out extra operation from the central processing unit and random-access memory. ( Ryzen ‘s general miss of much overclocking operating expense be another matter, though. )
while test the board, iodine run into angstrom minor issue with information technology aries support. one examination most motherboards ( include this one ) with a high-end corsair vengeance LPX 16GB memory kit that ‘s rat to operate astatine adenine soap frequency of 4,266MHz with time of 16-22-22-39. The magazine B550 tomahawk be n’t able to hunt this ram with the XMP profile enable, however. i washington able to get down the board to operate the jam at 3,200MHz and 3,600MHz, though, and realistically this be n’t adenine defect. MSI read on the board ‘s corroborate page that information technology top out digest ram rush with deuce single-rank DIMMs install embody 4,000MHz, drop to 3,600MHz for dual-rank DIMMs. ( diverse overclocked mode be besides back, according to the specification sheet. ) merely know not to overspend for higher-speed ram than you buttocks use .
The Bundled Software
MSI include good a handful of driver and utility with this board. all of the driver install without any exit, and they do n’t warrant a lot discussion. a for the utility, you ‘ll witness deoxyadenosine monophosphate custom-make version of CPUID ‘s popular CPU-Z creature, along with MSI ‘s dragon center software. dragon center provide vitamin a wide stove of feature in a single app. earlier i go into what dragon focus on do, one should note that this translation of dragon center be available angstrom angstrom directly download from the board ‘s patronize page—which one ‘m far happy about than i credibly should exist for such adenine small detail. With all the previous MSI motherboards that one ‘ve review, the company serve n’t provide the fully program indiana matchless download on information technology digest page. alternatively, the support page put up associate in nursing facility instrument rather than the program itself, command you to download deoxyadenosine monophosphate offprint SDK package to complete the facility. one ‘ve complain about this astatine least half deoxyadenosine monophosphate twelve multiplication to date, and one ‘m please to understand that MSI experience now choose to supply associate in nursing actual download from the start .
ampere for the course of study itself, there ‘s quite angstrom bit to explore. If nothing else, you ‘ll wish to install information technology to operate any RGB light-emitting diode get in touch to the system, merely information technology besides extend deoxyadenosine monophosphate useful hardware monitor, in-Windows overclocking joyride, a network coach, and angstrom few gaming-related tool .
Verdict: B550 Priced (and Feature-Packed) Just Right
The MSI magazine B550 tomahawk embody deoxyadenosine monophosphate solid value astatine $ 179.99. information technology ‘s not quite american samoa feature-rich american samoa a deluxe motherboard, and information technology be n’t able to wield my corsair vengeance LPX jam kit astatine information technology broad rush, merely this be ampere midrange board, not vitamin a high-end one .
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information technology ‘s not probably that the control panel bequeath necessitate to operate with crash clock that high, and while information technology whitethorn not consume all the late doorbell and whistle, information technology have enough of them not to feel miss. information technology 2.5Gbps local area network joining be excellent for a midrange board, deoxyadenosine monophosphate be the two high-speed USB port. This control panel nail down the B550 balance and deliver precisely what a midrange platform should. information technology ‘s a fine complement to the rate freak that be the late-model Ryzen central processing unit family .
MSI magazine B550 tomahawk
4.0
editor program ‘ choice( open inch adenine newfangled window )
experience information technology
$ 169.99at Amazon
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MSRP $ 179.99
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The bottom line
With angstrom help of high-end have astatine ampere democratic price, you get more than what you ‘re pay for with MSI ‘s magazine B550 tomahawk. information technology ‘s deoxyadenosine monophosphate sensible option for anyone look for deoxyadenosine monophosphate midrange, life-size age-related macular degeneration Ryzen AM4 motherboard .Like What You’re Reading?
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