Final Thoughts
MSI’s MAG Series (Arsenal Gaming) really comes through with the military theme, which will really appeal to gamers. While these boards are made to be mid-range, they really have a high-end look and feel. The first MAG Series motherboard is the MAG Z390 Tomahawk and MSI has done a great job loading it with necessary features as well as awesome looks.
Talking about those features you have two M.2 slots, one of which has a very sexy M.2 cooler on top of it. There is also a slot for Intel’s CNVi Wi-Fi module if you wanted to add WiFi to the board. MSI is also outfitting this board with dual Ethernet ports (Intel I219-V & I211-AT). You also of course have USB 3.1 gen 2 support on this board.
This board is really designed for single graphics card setups, which is not a bad thing I mean a RTX 2080 Ti will be able to handle everything that is out there currently. So the top slot is the only x16 slot that has MSI’s Steel Armor and the other two slots are only x4 electrical slots.
MSI really killed it with the design of this board. They have even extended one of the VRM heatsinks onto the I/O cover so it looks like a single piece. Another thing you really don’t see on mid-range boards is a pre-installed I/O shield, but you get that here. Of course you have RGB’s on the board too as well as three RGB headers.
MSI really has a great board in the MAG Z390 Tomahawk, it has all of the necessary features you want without many of the extras. Also MSI is pulling out all the stops for the mid-range by having dual LAN ports and a pre-installed I/O shield. Right now you can pick up this board at our favorite online retailer for $157.99. Overall ThinkComputers gives the MSI MAG Z390 Tomahawk Motherboard a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Looks like a high-end board
– Pre-installed I/O shield
– Dual LAN ports
– Dual M.2 slots
– Great overall performance
Cons:
– No SLI support
