Summary
The limitations you can attribute to the trimmed B550 chipset is one thing, the rest of the really neat peripherals is another. One may assume that the B550 chipset is cheaper in purchase than the X570, but the rest of the board unfortunately also costs money and so it can happen quickly that a good B550 board quickly gets into price ranges of very cheaply designed X570 boards. This does not automatically make the board worse, but it does make it a bit more difficult to display the price.
MSI has actually managed the compromise of quality, features and price quite well with the B550 Tomahawk, even if the 160 euro still seems a bit too high. 130 to 150 euros would certainly be a further incentive for this board. Maybe you could have left out the second Ethernet port and opted for Wi-Fi instead. The USB ports on the back are also rather manageable and the ALC1200 would have been able to handle an upgrade to the 1220 quite well. Then the 160 euros would also be more than just plausible again.
Because you also have to certify that the motherboard itself is really rock solid. The voltage transformers may not have been made up with 12 or 14 phases for marketing purposes, but they do what they are supposed to do and even far above average. You don’t have to put up with the drivel of tens of phases, if the solution with 10 converters is not only equipped very expediently, but also the entire circuit layout is hardly inferior to the 14 phases of a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master in efficiency and losses, also because the circuit is operated with a high clock frequency. That in turn was the biggest positive surprise here.
The UEFI does not give up any puzzles and is, except for the doubled AMD Precision Boost Overdrive, also error-free in operation. The RGB does it, the fan connections are easily sufficient and the 20-pin header for the front USB-C is finally standard and comes with the unit ex works. Seen in this light, it is a board without big excitement and mistakes, which can be quite pleasing. So solid, I wrote that already.
Conclusion
The MSI MAG B550 is one of the products in the “can buy” category that you like to test and probably will continue to use. Compared to the quite popular B450 Tomahawk, however, one sees a considerable increase in some details. The power supply and the very cool operation under full load surprised me, you can really leave it that way. If there are limitations, they are due to the B550 chipset, not to MSI. And to come back to my introduction on page one: this product actually advertises itself best. 😉
msi-mag-b550-tomahawk-datasheetMSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (7C91-001R)
 | Zentrallager: 5 Stück lagernd, Lieferung 1-3 WerktageFiliale Wilhelmshaven: 5 Stück lagerndStand: 16.04.24 06:52 | 132,65 €*Stand: 16.04.24 06:53 |
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