The MSI B450 Tomahawk Motherboard Review: More Missile Than Axe

MSI B450 Tomahawk Conclusion

The MSI B450 Tomahawk had a launch pricing of $120 but can be more commonly found for $100 which not only increases the ever important value factor but means the extra money saved can be allocated to other areas of system improvement such as storage. The B450 Tomahawk is an ATX sized entry-level offering, but when compared to other B450 options it's actually more mid-range and offers a host of price conscientious controllers as a result.

Performance on the whole for the B450 Tomahawk is modestly average in most of the areas. Where it shines is in the power consumption, where it is essentially the best AM4 board we've tested. By comparison, the audio performance wasn't so good, with it coming last out of all the ALC892 boards we've tested. 

The MSI Arsenal range of motherboard are primarily targeted at budget gamers and the Tomahawk is positioned as the best from MSI of this particular range. While it's been mentioned throughout much of the review that this board is the successor to the B350 Tomahawk, it's important to highlight the improvements MSI has done to keep their product range as progressive as possible for the consumer. The biggest win in this regard is the power delivery, but not just the componentry (which includes the replacement of NIKOS MOSFETs with those from ON Semiconductor), but MSI has implemented a much cleaner and seemingly more effective 4+2 power delivery with two high side and two low side MOSFETs per phase. The power delivery heatsink also gets a noticeable upgrade in terms of surface area on the top due to a newer extended design, as well as making the heatsinks themselves larger in size, heavier in mass and the B450 Tomahawk heatsinks now actually have fins instead of looking like lazy lumps of metal.

Another plus is the inclusion of two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports on the rear panel which MSI did omit from the last AM4 Tomahawk branded board. The superfast 10 Gbps capabilities come through a Type-A and Type-C port while the rear panel also features a further two USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports.

With a current retail pricing of $100, it's hard to ignore the B450 Tomahawk and offers users looking to build a good value gaming themed system with a solid foundation to build upon. The gap between the more budget B450 chipset and higher end X470 chipset boards is bridging ever closer, and this board is a good example of that.