MSI MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI review

The MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi is an ATX board on Intel's Z890 chipset, for LGA 1851 and Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors. Z890 is Intel's top 800-series chipset. PC Gamer says this board provides the most PCIe lanes for expansion slots, storage and USB ports among the 800-series boards it covers. Owners describe the price as relatively affordable for the features, and call it a good mainstream price.

There are four M.2 slots. M.2_1 is PCIe 5.0 x4 from the CPU. M.2_2 is PCIe 4.0 x4, also from the CPU. M.2_3 is PCIe 4.0 x4 from the chipset. M.2_4 runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 or in SATA mode, also from the chipset. The Wi-Fi module has its own Key-E slot, so it does not use one of the four.

With one Gen 5 slot and three Gen 4 slots, it suits a single fast boot or scratch drive plus several slower drives. The main graphics slot, PCI_E1, is PCIe 5.0 x16 from the CPU. PCI_E2 and PCI_E3 are PCIe 4.0 x4 each from the chipset, which leaves two smaller slots for add-in cards.

This is the board's strongest area. The rear panel has three 10Gbps Type-A ports, four 5Gbps Type-A ports and one 10Gbps Type-C port. Two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports run at up to 40Gbps. On the front, the board has a 20Gbps Type-C header with USB PD at 27W, two 5Gbps Type-A connections and four USB 2.0 headers.

Networking is a Killer E5000B 5Gbps LAN port and a Killer BE1750x Wi-Fi 7 module with Bluetooth 5.4. Owners single out the 5G LAN, Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt ports as highlights.

Four DDR5 UDIMM slots take up to 256GB. MSI lists 6400 MT/s (OC) and 4800 MT/s (JEDEC) as the headline speeds. Speeds of 9200+ MT/s (OC) are listed for 1DPC 1R configurations. The board also supports CUDIMM and non-ECC unbuffered memory.

Owners praise the DDR5-9200 support. MSI says supported speeds and compatibility vary by CPU and memory configuration. Because the top figure is quoted for one single-rank module per channel, a fully populated four-slot build should not expect it.

PC Guide lists the VRM as 16+1+1+1 with 90A smart power stages. Tech4Gamers reports 16 x 90A phases for CPU VCore, fed by dual 8-pin EPS connectors. On paper, that phase count and current rating give the CPU a large power budget.

Owners raise one complaint here: the VRMs run hot, and there is no active cooling. If you plan a heavily loaded CPU, that report is a reason to think about case airflow around the socket area.

The board has Rear Flash BIOS and Clear CMOS buttons on the I/O panel. Both are useful for recovering from a bad setting or a failed update. The product is listed as supporting Windows 11 64-bit.

Owners flag two omissions. The board has no onboard power or reset buttons, which matters if you build or test on an open bench. It also has no RGB lighting, which suits a plain build but not one that relies on lighting.

The Tomahawk WiFi suits a Core Ultra (Series 2) build where fast networking and plenty of USB and Thunderbolt matter more than looks. The 5Gbps LAN, Wi-Fi 7, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and front 20Gbps USB-C header are the main draws. Owners also like the memory support and the price relative to the features. The trade-offs are hot-running VRMs reported by owners, no onboard power or reset buttons and no RGB. With only one PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, anyone planning several Gen 5 drives should check the storage layout first.