MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Wi-Fi

[Combatus]

If you want the benefits of X870E on AMD's Socket AM5 platform, then the MSI X870E Tomahawk is one of the cheapest options around. But what does it offer over X870 and B850 boards, especially those that cost a fair bit less?

Show full review

 

[Caring1]

Nice looking board.

 

[human_error]

Wish MSI would fix the X670E boards where the top M2 slot won't work with WD NVMEs in BIOS versions from 18 months ago onwards. Reminder they broke it with a BIOS update and have never fixed it, despite a large number of reports to them from users.

Would be interesting to see if the issue also happens on this board - WD SN850X and SN770 are definitely not detected by the X670E tomahawk's top M2 slot.

 

[Rover4444]

I'm still pissed off about this board. Who the hell puts a 3x1 in the second slot? Couldn't spare the bandwidth from one of those m.2 drives, huh?

 

[Kwadratowicz]

I'm in the middle of thinking about mother board for am5, and I was thinking quite nice mother board, but then i saw temperatures of nvme, and why they've reinvented corded heater -. -

 

[Tea_n_Crumpets]

*slams desk* TWENTY-ONE USB PORTS!

Jokes aside, though, amazing board for the price. The PCIe lanes shared between the 2nd m.2 and the usb4 ports kinda sucks, but for me personally I find any SSD at 1 GB/s or more to be more than adequate for everything but some kinds of SSD-heavy professional work, and in those cases I dont see them buying a clearly gaming-focused board like this. Being a PCIe-slot fiend I'd also have loved to have two gen4x4 slots instead of one being only gen3x1, but I do see that most current enthusiasts are getting more use out of m.2 ports than full PCIe slots nowadays...

 

[Shakj]

I small Detail for some Users. The PCIE_PWR1 at the bottom is not optional. You can get some really strange problems without it.

 

[mtosev]

Nice AM5 motherboard.

 

[_roman_]

Wish MSI would fix the X670E boards where the top M2 slot won't work with WD NVMEs in BIOS versions from 18 months ago onwards.

Is it a MSI problem? or a Western Digital = WD = Sanddisk issue? I had several low performing Sanddisk SSD drives.

Note: Samsung is also full of problems with storage with various hadware configurations for years.

-- 4 SATA / HDMI connector / no DP Connector - not worth reading any further.

 

[human_error]

Is it a MSI problem? or a Western Digital = WD = Sanddisk issue? I had several low performing Sanddisk SSD drives.

Note: Samsung is also full of problems with storage with various hadware configurations for years.

-- 4 SATA / HDMI connector / no DP Connector - not worth reading any further.

Yes it is an MSI issue as they broke compatibility with a BIOS update. Drives worked fine before the MB BIOS change, the problem is that it was broken back when AMD were making boot time improvements. So you have to choose faster boots, or Nvme compatibility in M2 slot 1

 

[Noci]

I small Detail for some Users. The PCIE_PWR1 at the bottom is not optional. You can get some really strange problems without it.

Please enlighten me, as this board is high on my options list for a possible AM5 upgrade path (once it is locally available for € 300 or less).
Does it mean the board doesn't supply the PCI_E1 slot with enough juice via the ATX 24-pin to run a decent GPU?

Haven't heard of this (yet), but the world is full of surprises.

 

[wesarnquist]

I small Detail for some Users. The PCIE_PWR1 at the bottom is not optional. You can get some really strange problems without it.

Can you please explain? I don't understand

 

[Balzoro]

I had this MB and returned it. Interesting that this review just came out, this board was as hot as it gets around the time the 9800x3d launched.

Anyway, my personal experience with this product was that MSI makes great hardware, but not the best BIOS. I thought I just had bad luck with the issues I was having, but after seeing the amount of people complaining on their forums I returned it, got an ASUS one and never had issues again.

 

[thestryker6]

Disappointing MSI didn't move the EPS12V connectors to over near the DIMM slots on any of the AMD boards, other than Godlike, like they did with Intel. Otherwise seems like a solid value board for the high end chipset like its Intel analogue.

 

[Nhonho]

Do you know if the X670E and X870E motherboards still have the problem reported in this news?

Crucial Discovers Flaw in AMD X670E Motherboards: Gen 5 NVMe Slots Drop to Gen 1 Speeds, Cause Boot Issues

Memory and SSD maker Crucial noticed an uptick in support requests by users claiming that their Gen 5 or Gen 4 NVMe SSDs would drop to PCIe Gen 1 speeds, besides being unable to boot into Windows after a restart. Crucial then did some digging, and localized the issue to users with motherboards...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Shakj]

@Noci @wesarnquist Oh boy. I am so sorry, it should be optional. https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI...rd--Designed-for-Next-Gen-AI-Computing-144544 Background: I followed a thread for weeks where someone had all kinds of problems, missing keyboard-inputs, boot-problems, disappearing ssds and network. And after sending the board for rma an getting it back he plugged in the PCIE_PWR1 (not used it before) and all problems were gone. BUT (i checked the latest messages now) he also switched the cpu, so it probably was the cpu.

 

[azrael]

You can rarely go wrong when it comes to an MSI motherboard...

Well, except if you care about ECC support.

 

[Noci]

@Noci @wesarnquist Oh boy. I am so sorry, it should be optional. https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI...rd--Designed-for-Next-Gen-AI-Computing-144544 Background: I followed a thread for weeks where someone had all kinds of problems, missing keyboard-inputs, boot-problems, disappearing ssds and network. And after sending the board for rma an getting it back he plugged in the PCIE_PWR1 (not used it before) and all problems were gone. BUT (i checked the latest messages now) he also switched the cpu, so it probably was the cpu.

As pointed out in the MSI article, the extra PCIe 8-pin power connector is there only to deliver some extra power to the MB to increase stability when stretching it to the max.

Indeed the problems mentioned in that thread are (logically thinking) not related to, but most likely by a misinterpretation of symptones or just an assumption blamed on the fact it was not connected.

So for me that is no reason to remove this MB from my upgrade options list , thx for the clarification.

 

[ErikG]

Just buy cheaper x870 Tomahawk.

 

[Noci]

Just buy cheaper x870 Tomahawk.

Nah, only € 28 difference for less PCIe lanes sharing, thats a marginal investment I'm willing to do when the time comes.

Still there are more (X870E) options, only they come with higher prices , this MB just looks like a promising candidate with all the options and price compared to the competition.


Also curious for this yet to be released MEG X870E ACE, probably will cost an arm and a leg....

https://www.msi.com/blog/new-gaming-motherboards-roundup-at-computex-2025

 

[Rover4444]

Just buy cheaper x870 Tomahawk.

Nice, rebranded B650E. The X670E Tomahawk blows both out of the new boards out of the water.

 

[Chomiq]

Nice looking board.

I actually don't like that yellowish font.

 

[Noci]

Nice, rebranded B650E. The X670E Tomahawk blows both out of the new boards out of the water.

I'm not familliar with this technique of watercooling

 

[GK1951]

I have this mb with a 9950x3d, 64 gigs (2x32) of DDR5-6000 and a RTX 5090.

EXCELLENT MB!

 

[danc]

• USB4 ports share bandwidth with second M.2 port

How is this a con?

This is totally a positive and exclusive feature of select MSI 800 boards

it gives you option of gen4 usb4 or gen5 m2 or half each

Other 800 boards are wasteful, is either usb4 or gen5 m2 only, or you prefer stealing 8 lanes from your gen5 gpu slot if you want more than 1 gen5 m2? You don’t even get 3 gen5x4 m2 after having your gpu lanes stolen