MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WiFi Motherboard Review

A Closer Look

The overall aesthetic on this motherboard is really impressive, with a very dark oiled steel look to it that has an almost blue inkiness to the darker greys. It’s a very impressive design, with lots of large and almost oppressive-looking heatsinks around the CPU, with aggressive lines cut through the metal at 45 degrees, matching the overall brushed metal look too.

The two large VRM around the CPU are quite deep, and the leftmost one also stretches to go under the rear I/O shroud, giving it a very clean and tidy aesthetic.

There are four more large heatsinks dominating the lower sections of the motherboard too, labelled 01-04, these are actually the M.2 mounting points. However, there’s a fifth heatsink for the chipset too, which just says Tomahawk on it. There’s also a fully armoured x16 PCIe 5.0 slot at the top, an x4 slot in the middle, and a full-size slots running in x8 at the bottom.

With the heatsinks removed, you can see that the CPU takes advantage of a 16 Phases Mirrored Power Arrangement, which features 90A chokes. A high-quality 7W/mK thermal pad is also applied between the VRM and the heatsinks.

The CPU draws power from CPU-PWR1, but there’s an optional PWR2 header for more demanding CPUs, or to just provide more stable voltages overall should you need it.

The Tomahawk I’m reviewing is a DDR4 motherboard, so you can likely use your old memory if you’re upgrading, However, there is a DDR5 version of this motherboard, so be sure to order the one you really need!

The rear I/O is pretty plentiful too with a DisplayPort connector, HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 1 and Gen 2 and a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20 GB/s Type-C port. Also, thanks to the chipset, we do have 2.5G LAN and WiFi 6E with 2 Antenna connectors along with 7.1 channel Realtek audio. For troubleshooting, the board also features a Clear CMOS button and BIOS button, which is something we’ve typically seen on higher-end boards.