MSI introduced their Arsenal Gaming line not to long ago. The way it sits in their product stack is that you have Enthusiast Gaming, Performance Gaming, Arsenal Gaming, and then their Pro Series. Arsenal Gaming is positioned to give users many great gaming features, but at a good price as well. Today we are checking out the X99A Tomahawk, which offers a nice matte black PCB with black and grey accents. The board has three PCI-Express 3.0 x4 slots, an M.2 32 GB/s slot, a U.2 32 GB/s port, dual Intel LAN ports, USB 3.2 gen 2, and MSI’s Audio Boost 3. Does the X99A Tomahawk have what it takes to make it into your X99 build? Read on as we take a look…
Special thanks to MSI for providing us with the X99A Tomahawk Motherboard to review.
Features:
– Supports New Intel® Core™ i7 processors Extreme Edition in LGA 2011-3 socket
– Supports Quad Channel DDR4-3333+(OC) Memory
– DDR4 Boost: Give your DDR4 memory a performance boost
– Support lntel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.
– USB 3.1 Gen2 2X FASTER: USB 3.1 Gen2 offers performance twice as fast as a regular USB 3.0 connection
– Turbo M.2 32Gb/s + Turbo U.2 32Gb/s + USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A+C + SATA 6Gb/s
– TWIN GAMING LAN with LAN Protect, powered by Intel®: The best online gaming experience with lowest latency
– Audio Boost 3: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality
– GAMING Hotkey: Assign macros, launch your favorite games or do real-time overclocking using a single button
– XSplit Gamecaster v2.5: 1 year free premium license to show off your skills and achievements to the world
– SteelSeries Certified: Optimized for SteelSeries gaming gear
– Military Class 5: The latest evolution in high quality components featuring the brand new Titanium Chokes
– MULTI-GPU with Steel Armor: Steel Armor PCI-E slots. Supports 3-Way NVIDIA SLI™ & AMD Crossfire™
– Click BIOS 5: Award-winning brand new Click BIOS 5 with high resolution scalable font
– GAMING CERTIFIED: 24-hour on- and offline game testing by eSports players for the best gaming experience
– USB Speed Up: for up to 30% performance improvement on USB devices
Packaging
The X99A Tomahawk comes in a nice retail box that has a missile on the front and there is a little emblem letting us know this board is part of the Arsenal Gaming series.
Flipping the box over to the back we have a full overview of the motherboard including the rear I/O. This way you know what features and connections you have before you purchase the board.
Opening the box up inside you’ll find the motherboard as well as all of your accessories. These accessories include six SATA cables, an RGB header extension, I/O shield, SLI connector, SATA cable labels, users’s guide, and driver and software CD.