MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk Motherboard Review

MSI is launching quite a lot of motherboards for Z490 and they’ll be hitting a wide range of price points too. From the affordable gaming boards to their ultimate overclocking monsters, there’s bound to be something for everyone. However, the Z490 TOMAHAWK has a lot of broad appeal in the gaming market, with a good feature set that doesn’t go too crazy. Just enough features to build a high-end gaming PC, get great performance, and not spend more than you really need to. It sounds like a winning combination to me.

MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk Motherboard Review

Of course, with Intel 10th Gen support and the Z490 chipset, it’s a modest upgrade on the Z390 hardware. It’s future proof with Gen4 support, albeit that’s all down to it being added to any upcoming CPUs. There’s large heatsinks, robust power delivery hardware, and more for your overclocking needs. Furthermore, you get fast networking thanks to the 2.5G LAN. Albeit, this is the first Z490 board on my desk this week that doesn’t have WiFi 6. However, you do get Turbo M.2, Lightning USB, Audio Boost, and more.

Features

• Supports 10th Gen Intel^® Core™ / Pentium^® Celeron^® processors for LGA 1200 socket
• Supports DDR4 Memory, up to 4800(OC) MHz
• Ready 4 the Future: Support Lightning Gen 4 Solution for the future
• Premium Thermal Solution: Extended Heatsink Design and M.2 Shield Frozr are built for high performance system and non-stop works
• 2.5G LAN: Upgraded network solution for professional and multimedia use. Delivers a secure, stable and fast network connection
• Turbo M.2: Running at PCI-E Gen3 x4 maximizes performance for NVMe based SSDs
• Lightning USB 20G: Powered by ASmedia 3241 USB 3.2 Gen2x2 controller, offering never before seen USB speeds up to 20Gb/s with USB Type-C
• Audio Boost: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality
• Multi-GPU: With Steel armor PCI-E slots. Supports 2-Way AMD Crossfire™

What MSI Had to Say

“The MAG series was born through rigorous quality testing and designed to be a symbol of sturdiness and durability. Focused on providing the best user experience, the MAG series has a simple installation process coupled with a friendly user interface making it the best choice for entry level gamers.” – MSI

Z490 Motherboard Reviews

Of course, today is the launch of the new Z490 motherboards as well as the new 10th Gen CPUs from Intel. Check out all of our Z490 reviews below.