MSI Z170A TOMAHAWK (LGA1151) Motherboard Review

John Williamson / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Currently, the MSI Z170A TOMAHAWK is available from MoreComputers for £91.82 including free shipping. While this is astonishing value, there’s competition within MSI’s own product range. For example, the Z170A GAMING PRO CARBON can be procured for a total of £104.09 and supports SLI. Saying that, some users might dislike the carbon fibre aesthetic and have no intentions of going down the dual graphics card route in the near future.

Overview

The motherboard incorporates a stunning colour scheme which caters to the core gaming demographic while adding a new twist. Clearly, motherboard makers have compiled far too many red and black products which are becoming a little tiresome. Of course, this theme allows them to target a large number of enthusiasts and ensure various components blend in perfectly. However, I do think it’s essential to try and give consumers greater flexibility via more spectacular design philosophies. Thankfully, MSI’s decision to use white highlights on the heatsinks paid dividends and really helped the motherboard to have a unique appearance. Granted, aesthetic beauty is a subjective matter, but I think MSI have done a phenomenal job. One area in particular I adore is the audio segment which features a distinctive pattern and creates a wonderful contrast with the black PCB.

Despite the motherboard’s affordable nature, there’s a surprising amount of premium components including an 8-phase power delivery, 10K capacitors and solid ESD protection across the PCB. Not only that, the motherboard features a good audio solution with Chemi-con capacitors and a dedicated headphone out. While it’s not the best I’ve tested in terms of clarity, the frequency response is decent and should please the average user. Honestly, it’s a pretty good effort for a budget Z170 motherboard and I expected the results to be much worse. Other superb features include USB 3.1 connectivity, support for high-speed M.2 NVMe drives and even the option to install a WiFi module. Clearly, the main concession comes in the form of the PCI-E setup which only allows for 2-way Crossfire. This means anyone considering an SLI rig will have to look elsewhere. I don’t believe this is a huge issue because SLI support in recent times has been fairly poor and the kind of user selecting two or three cards usually have the disposal income to purchase a premium motherboard.

As per usual on MSI motherboards, the overclocking procedure was ridiculously easy and I reached 4.8GHz within a matter of seconds. Additionally, the CPU remained stable with a lower vCore than I’ve seen in some time which suggests either the CPU is still developing or the motherboard is capable of better stability at lower voltages. Whatever the case, I thoroughly enjoyed my time overclocking on the Z170A TOMAHAWK. MSI’s Click BIOS 5 is engineered to provide a wonderful user experience for novice users while catering to professional overclockers who demand a huge array of tweaks. This is now a very polished BIOS and contains a number of fantastic inclusions such as the Board Explorer.

In terms of benchmarks, the motherboard has a strong showing in CPU intensive tasks and consistently pushes above its weight. This even applies when the processor has been overclocked, and it’s astonishing how much performance you can get on a tight budget. The memory performance was a little mixed but the overall picture remained positive. One area, in particular, the motherboard excelled in was storage and I couldn’t believe how fast the M.2 read speeds were. It’s not all good though because the TDP and UDP network performance left a lot to be desired and I’m still fairly perplexed by the mediocre speeds. Nevertheless, the motherboard is capable of superb performance in most aspects and a great investment for someone who requires a feature-rich Z170 product.

Pros

Decent audio
Excellent value
Good overclocked results
Gorgeous colour scheme
Magnificent M.2 speeds
Premium components
Terrific stock performance
Superb software package
Wonderful BIOS layout

Cons

Disappointing network performance
No SLI Support

“MSI have added another stellar motherboard to their impressive Z170 line-up which offers wonderful performance, a brilliant BIOS layout and striking aesthetic design. These elements combine to make the Z170A TOMAHAWK one of the best options on the market for the sort of person who prefers to use a single discrete graphics card.”

Editors-Choice