msi B550 Tomahawk MAX WiFi Motherboard

Yesterday, I opened my case to swap out the SSD on the board and found that the lwer right edge of ther board had sort of peeled off. I know what you are thinking but I swear this is NOT of my doing. As per 1st picture, that’s not the original state of the peel. It was even more caved in and I went and try to scrape it off thinking that it was some sort of, idk, thermal paste of soemthing. End result – 1st picture. I did do quite a bit of stability test on the board as there’s no official warranty (I think. Anyway, tried my luck registering the board with receipt on MSI’s site and, as expected, they won’t cover), so maybe the edge of the board melted or something (or maybe a cockroach came inside the system to bite it off? Idk)

I also think this might be a refurbished board (perhaps by MSI themselves instead of Amazon or whoever Amazon got this board from as the rest of the packaging looks totally new) instead of a new board. Judging from the 2nd picture, it looks like some sort of liquid stain is on the heatsink and dried out.

Despite all of that though, board works totally fine. I tested almost all the ports of the board (except for the 2 unpopulated DIMM slots, the type-C ports, PCI-e x1 slots and 2nd gpu slot) and nothing is wrong so far. Overall, a value for money purchase thus far (will update if that peel caused issues)

I had a great experience using this motherboard to upgrade an older system. Everything works out of the box using Windows 10. I didn’t have to install any extra drivers or bloatware from the manufacturer.

Setup and configuration was easy. All the connectors are accessible and nothing is placed in a weird spot, so cable routing was a snap.

You should be aware that that there are a limited number of PCI lanes shared between the PCI-E connectors and the M.2 slots. It’s not a big deal but read the motherboard manual for a complete description of all the PCI-E slot and M.2 slot configurations to understand how many lanes you can have accessible.

For me, other than a video card I used one M.2 and a bunch of PCI-E x1 cards so the limited lanes wasn’t an issue for me.

The M.2 slot connected directly to the CPU is also right next to the CPU socket so be aware that there will be limited space around it for a large M.2 drive cooler with the CPU cooler next to it. I’d plan for that accordingly. You’ll want to use that for your boot drive because it’s the fastest M.2 slot on the board and doesn’t waste any PCI-E lanes like the others do.

I had to do a BIOS update and it was a little tricky; the MSI BIOS has no problem detecting USB thumb drives but the BIOS updater mode only supports specific USB thumb drives. So you will be able to see your USB drive easily in the MSI “Board Explorer” display, but still have the BIOS update tool be unable to detect it.

I happened to have a bunch of old random USB thumb drives from 512MB to 8GB and just tried different ones until it worked. So if you have issues updating the BIOS it isn’t you: it’s the thumb drive and you’ll just want to try a few. Not a big deal but this isn’t clearly explained in the motherboard manual.

The motherboard has HDMI and DisplayPort outputs but there is no onboard video; this only works if you have a CPU with integrated graphics. I didn’t, I used a Ryzen 5900X so you’ll need a PCI-E video card for most kinds of CPUs.

The built-in WiFi works great. I didn’t like the included antennas but it uses a standard WiFi antenna connector so you can put on other ones.

So overall this is a great motherboard. Everything works, there’s no hidden gotchas, and it is quite stable. Performance is exceptional. Since I had a lot of DDR4 RAM this was the newest motherboard I could get without having to dump the old RAM and buy a lot of DDR5 so I’m quite happy with it.

The MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk motherboard is a powerhouse that perfectly complements high-performance setups. Paired with the Ryzen 7 5800X processor, this motherboard delivers exceptional stability and performance for demanding tasks, including gaming, content creation, and multitasking.

Equipped with PCIe 4.0 support, the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk unleashes the full potential of compatible components, such as the RTX 3070 graphics card. Together, they provide an immersive gaming experience at 1440p ultra-wide resolution, achieving a buttery-smooth framerate of 130fps.

Featuring robust power delivery and advanced thermal solutions, this motherboard ensures optimal performance and reliability even under heavy load. The meticulously engineered layout and high-quality components contribute to efficient heat dissipation and overclocking capabilities, allowing enthusiasts to push their system to the limits with confidence.

Furthermore, the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk boasts a comprehensive set of connectivity options, including high-speed USB ports, Gigabit LAN, and support for high-bandwidth storage solutions. Its intuitive BIOS interface simplifies system tweaking and customization, empowering users to tailor their setup to their exact preferences.

In conclusion, the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk motherboard stands as a testament to MSI’s commitment to excellence in performance, reliability, and user experience. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer, content creator, or enthusiast, this motherboard delivers the performance and features needed to take your system to the next level.

Works just fine and very easy to install.