Component Analysis

Carved out of a square section of PCB sits the B850 chipset, plus it's heatsink, which sits separately to the other heatsinks, unlike on pricier X870E boards that often have to go through an expensive process of dealing with dual chipsets and the cooling that requires. Here, things are much simpler, and cheaper as a result.


MSI has chosen the Realtek ALC4080 audio codec to power its three audio ports, which is located amongst the isolated audio circuitry, which has separate layers for both left and right audio channels, and capacitors on the edge of the PCB. This runs over the USB bus, which is the key difference between it and 1200-series Realtek codecs. Next to this is the 5 Gbps Realtek RTL8126 Ethernet controller, while a lot of the competition has opted for 2.5 Gbps from Intel.


The Wi-Fi module is removable by detaching the I/O shroud and VRM heatsink and removing a pair of screws on the underside of the PCB. Its connectors support both standard screw-on aerials and MSI's EZ Antenna push fit connectors. The chip in question for th board's Wi-Fi 7 credential is Qualcomm's QCNCM865. This is well protected with a plastic cover for the aerials to prevent them becoming dislodged and the module itself being secured to a metal surround.


For added security the antennas themselves are glued in place, but this is easily removable if you ever want to switch out the module for something else. The housing is a two-piece design that's held together with a screw and metal flanges.


For anyone interested in the underlying configuration of the board, you can see the block diagram above. The only part you need to be wary of is that third M.2 port, which shares lanes with the PCIe Gen 4 x6 slot.