MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk Motherboard Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Unfortunately, writing these reviews before the product launches means that stock is a bit erratic and pre-order prices are all over the place. I’ll update this part shortly after the review goes live, but you can check for stock and prices yourself on Amazon UK here and Amazon US here. We expect it to be around £195/$190.

Overview

MSI has been on a bit of a winning streak with their mid-budget motherboards in recent years. Their B450 Tomahawk has been a huge success on AMD platforms, and I suspect this will be the same for the upcoming Intel platforms. A little more expensive than its Z390 offerings, but the performance and features are still some of the best value for money for consumers in the Z490 launch.

Build Quality & Design

Keeping with a pretty much all black and grey theme, the Tomahawk offers up a more premium aesthetic without a huge price tag. More affordable models tend to look a bit “over the top” with their designs, but I think MSI has just about kept it within reason here. There’s a small bit of RGB LED on the chipset, but otherwise, it should blend in easily with your rig.

The 12+1+1 VRM configuration is promising, and with 8+4 CPU headers, there’s no doubt it’s a capable motherboard for maxing out the latest Intel CPUs and dealing with extended workloads. The large heatsinks look great, but they’re going to be very functional too.

Performance

All of the Z490 motherboards performed rather close to each other. On any other day, I think most of them would have traded place in the benchmarks too. Of course, that’s to be expected, as they’re all the same chipset and socket and shouldn’t impede the CPUs performance. What really sets them apart, however, is their additional features.

Added Value

There’s plenty of connectivity on offer here, with 6 x SATA ports, as well as a pair of M.2 mounts. You get a fully armoured PCIe slot, albeit the board only supports Crossfire, not SLI, so keep that in mind. The addition of both Intel 219V Gigabit AND Realtek 2.5GbE LAN is appealing too. You also get a good range of USB ports, Type C, and excellent audio thanks to the Realtek ALC1200-VD1 chipset, which is backed up with a few Chemicon capacitors.

Should I Buy One?

At this price range, and with these features, I think this is one of the strongest consumer boards out there right now. Excellent connectivity, great overclocking potential, and it won’t completely destroy your wallet. Perfect!