AM5 boards

[testcy]

Anyone with experience with MSI AM5 boards such as MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI and MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI? Any reason against buying these?

[Hinjima]

5 minutes ago, testcy said:

Anyone with experience with MSI AM5 boards such as MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI and MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI? Any reason against buying these?

No, I have had a bit of experience with the Tomahawk X670 and B650's though, all good boards  

I dont see why these boards would be any different.  Definitely two MSI boards I would consider if I were buying a X870 and B850 board for myself right now.

 

[Poinkachu]

40 minutes ago, testcy said:

Anyone with experience with MSI AM5 boards such as MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI and MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI? Any reason against buying these?

I have B850 Tomahawk Wifi, what chu wanna know ?

Reason to buy / not buy varies from person to person afterall.

 

Pretty sure the x870 is basically just B850 with more usb port, a USB4 port, and additional toolless NVME heatsink.

At least that's how it seemed to me when I was researching which to buy.

[GuiltySpark_]

25 minutes ago, testcy said:

Any reason against buying these?

Nope

[testcy]

9 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

I have B850 Tomahawk Wifi, what chu wanna know ?

Reason to buy / not buy varies from person to person afterall.

 

Pretty sure the x870 is basically just B850 with more usb port, a USB4 port, and additional toolless NVME heatsink.

At least that's how it seemed to me when I was researching which to buy.

If you are asking what cpu probably 9600x. Will this matter?

[Poinkachu]

5 hours ago, testcy said:

If you are asking what cpu probably 9600x. Will this matter?

Doesn't matter, probably kinda overkill motherboard just for that CPU though, so it better have enough features that you actually want/need or you'll be paying premium for (kinda) nothing.

And no wasn't asking about CPU, basically just asking were there any particular thing about the motherboard you want to know that i (first hand user) can check for you.

[testcy]

32 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Doesn't matter, probably kinda overkill motherboard just for that CPU though, so it better have enough features that you actually want/need or you'll be paying premium for (kinda) nothing.

And no wasn't asking about CPU, basically just asking were there any particular thing about the motherboard you want to know that i (first hand user) can check for you.

I agree that is overkill motherboard, but I have not found anything cheaper with features such as Wi-Fi 7, 5G LAN and ALC4080. The reason to choose X870 over B850 is the (I think) two USB4 ports. And I have no recent experience with MSI.

[Poinkachu]

18 minutes ago, testcy said:

I agree that is overkill motherboard, but I have not found anything cheaper with features such as Wi-Fi 7, 5G LAN and ALC4080. The reason to choose X870 over B850 is USB4 ports for feature use. And I have no recent experience with MSI.

Just a heads up, if you are still using WIndows 10, you won't be able to use the Wifi at all, because there's no WIFI7 card driver for Win10.

 

If you have your own preferred Wifi Antenna, you won't be able to plug it as well, because it uses "proprietary" connector (most likely Fakra connector without the plastic housing). It looks like SMA/RP-SMA at a glance, but nope it's not.

 

If you actually need the 5G Lan, sure.
 

Dunno, there are some posts all over the internet about ALC4080 being sucky, though personally I don't experience any hiccup with it so far.
Though I have to say I am a pretty bog standard user with bog standard audio setup for my PC, so probably a YMMV thing.

 

There's slight reduction of NVME speed on 4th slot (the lowest one) if Wifi/BT is turned on in bios.

Heard this from a review. Pretty sure it's the same for the X870 version.

Probably can test for you if you really need the info.

 

Dunno about X870, but atleast for B850 if you use SignalRGB & connect ARGB to motherboard, there may be some problem.
I had to use Beta version of SRGB for it to be able to detect and control the motherboard ARGB headers, and even then, it's wonky.

Too unimportant for me to try and see if BIOS Update will fix the wonkyness.

[testcy]

5 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Just a heads up, if you are still using WIndows 10, you won't be able to use the Wifi at all, because there's no WIFI7 card driver for Win10.

 

If you have your own preferred Wifi Antenna, you won't be able to plug it as well, because it uses "proprietary" connector (most likely Fakra connector without the plastic housing). It looks like SMA/RP-SMA at a glance, but nope it's not.

 

If you actually need the 5G Lan, sure.
 

Dunno, there are some posts all over the internet about ALC4080 being sucky, though personally I don't experience any hiccup with it so far.
Though I have to say I am a pretty bog standard user with bog standard audio setup for my PC, so probably a YMMV thing.

 

There's slight reduction of NVME speed on 4th slot (the lowest one) if Wifi/BT is turned on in bios.

Heard this from a review. Pretty sure it's the same for the X870 version.

 

Dunno about X870, but atleast for B850 if you use SignalRGB & connect ARGB to motherboard, there may be some problem.
I had to use Beta version of SRGB for it to be able to detect and control the motherboard ARGB headers, and even then, it's wonky.

Too unimportant for me to try and see if BIOS Update will fix the wonkyness.

I don't use Wi-Fi, but if I am paying for it anyway, I want it to be the latest version. And I don't use 5G LAN (yet), but it's better to have it, instead of 2.5G LAN, for the future. I doubt I will need all M.2 slots and I won't use RGB headers.

[Poinkachu]

6 minutes ago, testcy said:

I don't use Wi-Fi, but if I am paying for it anyway, I want it to be the latest version. And I don't use 5G LAN (yet), but it's better to have it, instead of 2.5G LAN, for the future. I doubt I will need all M.2 slots and I won't use RGB headers.

Well, it's your money.

[testcy]

5 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Well, it's your money.

Just a concern, if the Wi-Fi antenna is broken, can't it be replaced? What DDR5, CPU and cooler are you using?

[Poinkachu]

8 hours ago, testcy said:

Just a concern, if the Wi-Fi antenna is broken, can't it be replaced?

As long as you can find a matching connector, it can.

 

8 hours ago, testcy said:

What DDR5, CPU and cooler are you using?

6000MT/s CL30

9800x3D

Liquid Freezer III 360

[testcy]

12 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

6000MT/s CL30

What brand?

[Poinkachu]

17 minutes ago, testcy said:

What brand?

ADATA

[testcy]

On 6/7/2025 at 8:53 AM, Poinkachu said:

ADATA

I read about audio problems with Realtek ALC4080/4082. Some people say problems are now fixed, but others suggest to avoid them. Is ALC4080 and not the latest ALC4082 used on this motherboard? Did you have any such problems?