As always with refresh motherboards, price is often a sticking point, thanks to previous models still being available, in this case the MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Max Wi-Fi does have the non-Max version to contend with. Thankfully, the suggested price of around $320 seems to be roughly similar to the older model, which currently costs around $300. As we've seen, there isn't much here to warrant spending significantly more than that.

The 64 MB BIOS has limited perks other than a slightly slicker Windows installation for Wi-Fi users, and the next generation of AMD processors will be compatible with older boards with a 32 MB BIOS, and we've yet to see any other concrete benefits. The base clock overclocking and PBO integration is definitely another fun bit of tweaking you can do and without locking in a manual overclock. The fact MSI offers some presets to play with means it's simple to have a go yourself too. Even though there are base clock adjustment pins on the PCB, the fact they are just pins that need to be jumped or used with a momentary switch means that they're not particularly accessible, and a fun accessory would have been some kind of installable buttons here, or even integrated ones. Still, it's probably considered too niche for that.

Thankfully, all the best bits of the award-winning MAG X870E Tomahawk Wi-Fi are here, with decent VRM and SSD temperatures—albeit not so much on the second PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port—minimal PCIe lane sharing, plenty of features that make building your PC that little bit easier and more satisfying and also a decent number and variety of USB ports and fan headers. We especially like the 27 W power delivery over the Type-C front panel header, which will be useful for charging smartphones and the like, and while its EZ Conn header and EZ Front Panel Cable don't have as much benefit here as they do on the very compact MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti Evo Wi-Fi, they're still unique and useful features. As usual, we also have USB4, PCIe Gen 5 GPU and M.2 support and two of it's three M.2 heatsinks have tool-free installation too. It's a solid motherboard that has a couple of jazzy new features, but they won't benefit everybody.

Which brings us on to the competition. Offering the twin X870 chipsets of X870E brings with it the usual bandwidth and feature benefits and the MAG X870E Tomahawk Max Wi-Fi is one of the cheapest options out there to do so. Gigabyte's X870E Aorus Pro, while a little less bland-looking, costs about the same, lacks enhanced power delivery over the Type-C header, besides having slower Ethernet and a more dated-feeling EFI. The mighty ASRock AMD X870E Taichi Lite is a little cheaper, but is quite basic in some areas and has an inferior EFI. Another slightly cheaper option, the ASUS TUF Gaming X870E-Plus Wi-Fi7, failed to pick up any of our awards thanks to lackluster cooling and lacking some modern features. Spending more on something such as the ASUS ROG Strix X870E-H Gaming Wi-Fi gets you a slightly better EFI and software plus a thermistor header, but it also struggled to cool our double-sided PCIe Gen 5 SSD. It's only approaching $100 or so more that you'll see significant gains in features or aesthetics with boards such as the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite X3D Ice, which also has a 64 MB BIOS, or indeed MSI's own MPG X870E Carbon Max Wi-Fi that we'll be looking at soon.

It seems MSI has hit the sweet spot, even if availability seems a little scarce for the MAG X870E Tomahawk Max Wi-Fi right now. So long as you don't pay much more than $20-30 more than the standard model, then it's a solid choice with plenty of features that's a decent home for your hardware, even if this refresh doesn't add anything revolutionary.