MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk Preview

Up Close - Overview

It's funny how quickly iconography gets replaced in people's thinking. When we think of a Tomahawk we conjure up images of the indigenous peoples rather than cruise missiles. We're sure that eventually the macho posturing names of hardware will give way to something else. Hands up all those who'd buy a MSI Kitten with Neko themed accessories? Just us? Okay then.

Inside the box we have a good selection of accessories, with the drivers still on a CD rather than the USB key we've seen on the MSI MEG range. The MAG and MPG ones have always been a little lower down the MSI chain though. You do still get a case badge though.

We're writing this not long after the Gigabyte Vision G and the Tomahawk has a similar utilitarian aesthetic. It's very much a motherboard designed to get a job done, rather than drop your jaw with curves and carefully blended heatsinks.

The white parallelogram blocks definitely catch the eye on both the power phase and chipset heatsinks. Otherwise the heatsinsk themselves look very chunky and likely to soak a lot of heat into them before your case airflow gets rid of it. Which is their job after all.

The power design in the case of the Tomahawk is made up of 45A MOSFETs bringing up to 540W of power delivery. Should you want to squeeze the most out of your new CPU.

Having looked at the board as an overview let's move on to check out the details of each section.