MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk Review

Introduction

The new Z690 motherboards and processors have revitalised the Intel range, bringing a lot of cutting edge technologies to market.

Like all early adopter type products the DDR5 models suffer a little from the costs involved in having that on the motherboard itself, as well as the difficulties and costs involved in sourcing a DDR5 kit to put in them. As if Brexit hadn’t ruined the supply chain enough the COVID global situation has a long-lasting effect on pretty much everything that requires electronics. It’s a glimpse of the thing that preppers have been waiting for. Anyone who has tried to get hold of one of the latest generation consoles knows that they only exist as an idea.

When we spoke to MSI we requested the DDR4 version of their Tomahawk motherboard because it is the most cost effective way of getting on the Z690 train and, as we saw when we reviewed the ASUS TUF, there is very little performance loss. However, as getting hold of anything is hard right now they only had the DDR5 Tomahawk to send us, so that’s the version we have for you today. With a design aimed at being the affordable option in the MSI range, certainly when compared to their Unify, let’s find out how well the MAG Tomahawk performs.

Technical Specifications