MSI MAG Z390 Tomahawk - Intel Z390 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Analyzed

MSI MAG Z390 Tomahawk

The MSI MAG or 'Arsenal' range is somewhat unchained and features the more militaristic sounding boards such as this one, the MAG Z390 Tomahawk. The Tomahawk has an overall black and silver theme throughout with a very solid looking silver grey for the heatsinks and rear panel cover. The board does utilize basic RGB LED lighting across the chipset heatsink and the underneath of the 24-pin motherboard power connector and can be customized with MSI's Mystic Light RGB software.

The board has a total of three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with the slots running at x16, x4 and x4; only the top slot gets MSI's Steel Slot reinforcement. In addition to this is a pair of PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The Z390 Tomahawk has four RAM slots with support for DDR4-4400 with a total capacity of up to 64 GB. Featured for storage are six SATA ports and two M.2 slots which both have support for PCIe and SATA drives; the bottom slot includes an M.2 heatshield.

On the rear panel is three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports and a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C, which also includes two USB 2.0 ports. Users looking to increase the number of USB ports can do so through the use of internal headers which opens up to an additional four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports. The MAG Z390 Tomahawk has dual NIC with a pairing if Intel Gigabit controllers (I219V and I211AT), with the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and single S/PDIF optical output taking its orders from a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec. Users looking to utilize the iGPU on the 8th and new 9th generation Intel processors can do so thanks to the inclusion of a DisplayPort and HDMI video output.

The MAG Z390 Tomahawk represents a more modest offering from MSI and while the inclusion of dual NIC is a clear intent that MSI is going all out with their low to mid-range boards at present, users looking to make use of two-way SLI configurations will have to opt for one of the more expensive MPG range boards. The MAG Z390 Tomahawk is priced at $160 which kind of defeats the purpose of an entry range of boards especially when pricing is above the model such as the MPG Z390 Gaming Plus.

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