MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi Review

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Given current global events perhaps MSI need to take another look at the branding of the Tomahawk. Nobody needs to be reminded of death and destruction when trying to play a game.

A few of the recent MSI Tomahawk motherboards we’ve looked at had a lot of lime green on them. We don’t mind that at all, as it’s the MAG colour scheme. The B650 Tomahawk though is pure white and black.

When you’ve seen as many motherboards as we have you can usually spot the more affordable ones from their design cues. Our recent review of the MSI 760M looked very much like a value offering. The B650 Tomahawk, on the other hand, could be mistaken for a full X670E one on the top half.

The reduced amount of thermal heatspreaders on the bottom half is perhaps the only clue that this is a B series motherboard instead of AMDs full-fat X offering.

There is a reason the heatsink on the newest MSI MAG motherboard is so chonky. 14+2+1 power phases, boasting 80A. There might not be any PCI Express 5.0 lanes here, but you can still use any of the current or future Ryzen CPUs. That’s a lot of power and a highlight of the B650 Tomahawk.

Often the lesser chipset motherboards compromise the amount of USB ports you have. The Tomahawk has no such issues. You even get a Type-C port on the back. With WiFi 6E and a 2.5G LAN you’re not short of networking speed either.