Final Thoughts
As we come to the end of this review MSI has a pretty solid motherboard for the Z790 platform that has many of the features you would want. The big question many people have is, is there really a difference in performance between DDR4 and DDR5? The simple answer is yes and no. In most cases you really aren’t going to notice much of a difference, but in certain gaming scenarios the system with DDR5 will perform better. This really only equates to a few FPS in real-world gaming scenarios. The nice thing is that MSI is giving you the choice with this board as the DDR4 and DDR5 versions are essentially the same.
The board has pretty much everything you would expect to find on the Z790 platform, but I would have rather had a PCI-Express 5.0 M.2 slot over the PCI-Express 5.0 expansion slot. All of the M.2 slots on the board are PCI-Express 4.0, but being super-fast storage guy I would have liked to have got a Gen5 slot. One thing I really like about MSI is they are one of the few companies who put a USB 3.2 gen 2×2 port on the rear I/O of their boards. Typically most boards have a gen 2×2 header, but having the actual port is a lot more convenient. Also on the connectivity front you get WiFi 6E and 2.5G LAN.
As far as the design of the board goes it is pretty sleek, although some people may not like that it has absolutely no RGB lighting. Of course you have the headers, but is no actual RGB lighting on the board itself. The all-black color on the board will make it easy for you to match it up with other hardware out there.
One thing I did find odd about this board was that the front panel headers were not labeled. This meant that I had to look up where to connect my front panel headers and since there was no physical user’s guide I had to go online and find it. Just very odd these connections are not labeled.
Right now you can pick this motherboard up at our favorite online retailer for $269.99, which is a good price based on the feature-set that you are getting. And remember you can buy a larger capacity SSD or faster memory with the savings you’ll get from using DDR4 over DDR5. Overall ThinkComputers gives the MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Sleek design
– 90A power stages
– Four Gen4 M.2 slots
– Rear USB 3.2 gen 2×2 port
Cons:
– Front panel headers not labeled
– No physical users guide
