MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge WIFI Motherboard Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Coming in at $199.99 in the U.S. or £168.53 here in the U.K., the MSI MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI is fairly priced compared to its competitors. As I am sure you can imagine, I always like to look around at prices right before I write this part to get a little idea of what’s out there. Being competitively and evenly priced with others will allow users to decide whether to purchase or not based on looks and features rather than just going for the cheapest option available at the time.

Overview

The MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI has most of the features we could want from a B550 motherboard. In terms of those features, we have everything from PCIe Gen 4 to 2.5G LAN, WiFi 6 and much more, including plenty of USB ports. On the quality side, MSI has not let us down with their MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI, and it is everything we would expect it to be from them; this board ticks most of the boxes for a B550 ITX and will do you proud.

Build Quality & Design

MSI has gone with an 8-layer PCB, extended heatsinks, FROZR shields and much more to ensure the MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI has a quality look and feel to it. This board even has a MOSFET backplate, pump fan support and USB Type-C on top of many other things. The ZERO FROZR M.2 shield itself speaks on the thoroughness of the design process and the fact that MSI didn’t want to leave anything out. While this board may be small, it is still comprised of quality components, and it shows!

Performance

The performance on offer is absolutely amazing for such a tiny board. As many will know, we try to do all our testing similar to what the average user would do, firstly we update our BIOS, set BIOS to default, then set the XMP of our RAM, and that’s it! From there, we boot into Windows and run all our test, and in the case of the MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI, I was quite surprised at some of the results. You will notice that this board may have better results in a lot of the testing, which is excellent to see. MSI have certainly covered all their bases; value, design, and performance are all top-notch when it comes to the MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI.

Added Value

The extended heatsink with an additional thermal pad for the chokes is a more than welcomed added-value feature. When we combine this with things like the M.2 FROZR SHEILD, MOSFET backplate and 8-layer PCB, it is easy to see the MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI has things to offer that others don’t. However, when you also throw in all the standard features we would hope to see from a B550 board, you really do have a great product on your hands.

Should I Buy One?

If you are in the market for a new ITX motherboard for a RYZEN CPU and don’t quite need everything X570 has to offer, then yes! The MSI MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI has a lot going for it and is designed with quality and performance in mind. Remembering that you can also update the BIOS without the need for a CPU to be installed is just another one of those little things to help and persuade you to chose this board over any others you may be looking at.