MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk MAX WiFi Gaming Motherboard (Supports 12th/13th/14th Gen Intel Processors, LGA 1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, M.2, SATA 6G, 2.5Gbps LAN, USB 3.2 Gen2, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, ATX)

The MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk MAX exceeded my expectations. Installation was straightforward and everything fit perfectly. It delivers solid and stable performance, making it ideal for getting the most out of the latest Intel processors. It features an excellent cooling system and strong power phases that ensure stability even during long, intensive gaming or workload sessions. Connectivity is top-notch as well, with multiple M.2 slots, high-speed USB ports, 2.5G LAN, and support for high-performance DDR5 memory. The design is another strong point – premium finishes with a sleek, minimalist look. You can tell it’s built to last and designed for enthusiasts who want both performance and quality. In short, this is a reliable, powerful motherboard with all the features needed to build a high-end PC. Highly recommended!

For the record, I am reviewing the: MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk MAX WiFi Gaming Motherboard (Supports 12th/13th/14th Gen Intel Processors, LGA 1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, M.2, SATA 6G, 2.5Gbps LAN, USB 3.2 Gen2, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, ATX) I purchased this motherboard because I like the MSI products, they are very sturdy, well made and high quality. This time I needed a board that could handle graphics rendering and give me enough expandability to provide me with everything I needed to put into it. My last motherboard was an MSI Z87 Xpower which was an XL-ATX board and had tons of expandability. This board has everything I needed and more. There are a few things you should know. First, MSI has excellent customer support. I had a problem with my install, called them and they worked the problem with me and we were able to get my board up and running quickly. I called MSI because as soon as I powered up, the board gave me a bunch of LED post error codes and then it powered off and them back on. I thought that meant that there was a serious problem. I was wrong and that was a normal part of the initializing of the board. Also, the only LED post error code light that matters, if there is one, is the one that stays lit. They all flash but that does not mean that there is a problem. I love the arrangement of the ports and connections on this board, they really took into consideration how the board fits into the cases that are available and cable management was a breeze. I have only installed 64 GB of ram on the board, and have two spots left for expansion to 128 if I ever need it. What I love about MSI is that they have a comparability section on their website that tells you what is compatible and that includes everything from CPUs, to memory, video cards, and more. That way you can look before you buy, and if you have something that may work, you can call them and they will check their newest information and will tell you if it will or not. I did that with my NVMe SSDs as they were not listed but they said they would work without any problems, and they do. I also love the BIOS on the MSI motherboards. They are easy to navigate, understand and use. Plus MSI gives you software designed to overclock their systems safely. I have not gone there yet, but as soon as I replace my CPU cooler I am going to push this board just a little bit. For the money, this board is an excellent choice. Installation was easy, with one exception. One of the "Frozers" has a screw that was stuck. I am not sure if they used some sort of lock-tight or other agent, but that one held and the standoff unscrewed from the board. It was not a problem as I was able to screw it back in, it was just an inconvenience. I did have to purchase and install the MSI TPM module at an additional cost in order to run Windows 11. I do think they should provide that with the board as part of it if you want that installed. I did have to buy an expansion card to expand my USB ports for front panel expansion bay, and connected it to the USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Connector. But that is only because I use a lot of thumb drives at the same time. They give you just enough stuff extra so that you can get started right away. I am really happy with this purchase and expect it will last at least another 12 years. I do HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOARD, especially because of their excellent customer service. But do yourself a favor always pay for the Amazon accidental damage coverage when buying a motherboard. For the $44 or whatever it was, it is worth it if you damage the board while installing it. It does happen, even to me, and I have installed many.

What I Love: My favorite aspect of the MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI is its robust feature set and exceptional performance. The powerful VRM ensures stable power delivery to my high-end processor, while the ample storage options and lightning-fast Wi-Fi 7 connectivity provide unparalleled expandability and connectivity. The board's sleek design and RGB lighting add a touch of style to my build. Why I Chose It: I chose this motherboard because I wanted a high-performance foundation for my dream gaming rig. The Z790 chipset offers excellent overclocking capabilities and compatibility with the latest Intel processors. MSI's reputation for quality and innovation solidified my decision. Does it Meet My Needs? Absolutely! The Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI has exceeded my expectations in every way. It provides the performance, features, and reliability I need for a powerful and future-proof gaming system. Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths: Powerful VRM for overclocking Ample storage options Ultra-fast Wi-Fi 7 connectivity Sleek design and RGB lighting Excellent build quality Weaknesses: The black and green color scheme may not appeal to everyone. Overall, I'm thrilled with the MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI. It's an exceptional motherboard with outstanding performance, versatility, and style. If you want to build a high-end gaming PC and like the aesthetic, I highly recommend this board.

The board all-around is nice. It arrived well-packaged and undamaged, and has many handy features like diagnostic LEDs, a flash bios button that makes bios setup very easy, many nvme slots, solid heatsinks and VRMS, etc. There are many things, however, that definitely could be improved. For some reason this board does not ship with pre-installed wifi or ethernet drivers, and so if you're doing a Windows 11 install where they don't allow you to skip the connecting to wifi step and use a local microsoft account, the installation can be rather annoying. The solution that I ended up using was running something in the command prompt to force the "skip this step" button to reappear on the connecting to wifi page, though I'd imagine you could also flash install drivers from the setup using command prompt as well. Still, it is a very odd decision that could be very easily avoided by just pre-loading the board with drivers. If you do not want to go through this fuss / don't know how to get around having no wifi during windows setup, maybe look at a different board instead. The motherboard also doesn't come with a manual and you have to use the online version if you want to know all the nuances of what ports to actually plug things into (which you do of course). This is another thing that I just don't understand. Why can't it come with a manual??!?!?! The IO shield is nice, and the motherboard's coloring theme is not too atrocious. I hated how there were only 2 internal usb connectors, but that seems to be a trend among every board nowadays for some reason so if you have more than 2 devices that require an internal usb connection like I did, make sure to grab a usb splitter / hub or a pcie to usb adapter and you should be good. Another thing to keep in mind though is that if you are NOT using a gen 5 nvme drive (which why would you anyways unless you are doing some INSANE file transfers???) do NOT put an nvme into the first onboard slot, as it is on a shared port with the first pcie lane and will degrade your gpu's pcie4 lane from x16 to x8 (not like this really matters for most things anyways as its usually like a 1% decrease in performance at most, but in certain environments this may be important). Also keep in mind that the first and second sata port are disabled if you have something in the third m.2 (M2_3) slot --- this is something that was VERY annoying to figure out when my hdd was not connecting, imo this should really be made more obvious. With that being said, after I got past the hassle of setting everything up I have had 0 issues with the board, so it is indeed able to hold up well from what I have seen thus far. Granted it's only been a couple weeks so I can't know for sure, but it seems due to the lack of many DOA comments that this board generally works well after installation. Overall, if you can get past all of the minor annoyances when building, this is a very solid board and more than enough for most normal use and overclocking needs. There are also plenty of USB ports to the point where I could not fathom why anyone would need more, at least not for the average person. Honestly this is already pretty overkill for most people, something in the <$200 range would probably do just fine, though if you do pay the premium it is certainly represented well (albeit in some ways better than others). Just please send a board with drivers next time MSI ;-;

I could not have designed a better motherboard. What do I love about this. 1) The ARGB headers are in intuative locations. Allows efficient connection of devices. 2) 6 separate PWM fan headers. The layout could have been numbered a little differnet (for example, I would have put fan #1 nearest to the CPU and Pump headers, but this is minor. 3) The M.2 slots are amazing. The screwless retaining are novel and work fairly well. The integrated heat sinks are a bonus. 4) Quality is first rate. 5) Flash BIOS able to be done without CPU installed. Ensuring most compatibility with latest processors and updates. 6) The back panel I/O has incredible options. Plenty of fast USB-3.0, and USB-C x 2 connectors. The flash BIOS functionality and CMOS clearing are thoughtfully added. No concerns at all with MB. Highest quality in build and design for a reasonable price makes this the go to MB for 14900K (or other LGA1700 CPUs).

I used MSI for years with minimal issues, but the three MSI motherboards I bought in the past 10 months (two MAG B760s and this one) all had massive issues that required repairs. The first was a MAG B760 board that was DOA. I got it replaced and that board stopped reading from the second M.2 slot. I RMAd it and then just put the repaired board on the shelf because I was sick of the issues and thought maybe it was just a quality control issue with that particular model. With that logic I bought the Tomahawk max wifi, hoping for better results. It was the most unstable motherboard I've ever owned. I should mention that I use these computers for work and never overclock because my priorities are stability and predictability. This board had frequent BSODs, caused programs to crash, would stop communicating with peripherals, had intermittently working WIFI 7, and my browsers would often go blank showing cryptic errors (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION and others) after a page had already been loaded. I tried upgrading the BIOS, double checking the drivers were all the versions approved by MSI, and checked all the BIOS settings. MSI support asked me to use a non-released BIOS version that they sent me a link to. It solved some of the peripheral comms issues, but ended up being generally more unstable than the previous versions. Finally, when I tried to go back to the official release BIOS, it bricked the GD thing. I bought an ASUS Proart Z790 and swapped all the same hardware (CPU, RAM, SSD, etc) over to it and it has been rock solid so I know the issues weren't caused by another component. Another way these crappy MSI boards cost me was that I couldn't get Windows to authenticate and the reseller I got the license from said I'd used it on too many boards. I tried to explain that I had to because they were faulty, but in the end I had to buy a new Windows license for $200 (this time directly from MS). I Don't know what's going on with the quality control at MSI, but this experience has convinced me not to buy any more of their products for the time being.

I've been a fan of MSI for more than a decade. Never have had any problems with their products. They do what they are designed to do. No difference in this MoBo. It is very good. It handles gen 14 Intel CPUs right out of the box. It has a good number of rear USB ports. Good ethernet at 2.5G. I won't be using the optional wireless. Layout is good. Connector locations are all good. Heat sinks are plentiful. Rear ports are good. RAM limits are good. I am overall quite happy with this board. My wishlist below is fairly trivial. I understand the trade-offs in engineering anything for a particular price point. The BIOS is very slick. I have DDR5 7200 RAM but it initially seems like 4800. The BIOS automatically recognizes that it could run at 7200 and with one click and a save, it is. I haven't played with voltages or clock speeds yet, but between the BIOS and other MSI tools available, it should be very easy. What I wished it had is: 1) a second front USB 3 header. My case has 2 of the blue 19pin connectors, for 2 type A ports each, but the MoBo only has one. I believe MSI only makes one board with 2 such connectors but it costs 3 times as much as this board. Not worth it just for that. 2) I also wish I could fill the M.2 slots without penalties. Only slots 2 and 4 don't have detrimental effects. Using slot 1 drops the main PCI-E slot from 16x down to 8x. And using slot 3 makes something else inoperable. I don't recall if it was a couple of SATA ports, or a USB2 connector. Something like that. It would be more desirable if everything could work all the time and you didn't have to read the manual to work around limitations. I think that one board I mentioned, that costs over $1100, is like that, but all the rest have trade-offs. That said, their competitors do the same things. So this is industry normal. And if I really want that additional pair of USB ports up front, I can add a PCI-E card for less than $30. Overall, this board is great and has competitive features.

To preface this, my original motherboard was an MSI Z690 -A Wi-Fi Pro. I replaced it with this current product. My build has the following: Z790 Tomahawk, MSI RTX 3080 Ventus OC 10G 3X, Kingston Fury 64GB DDR5 RAM (2x32), i7-14700KF, two W_D SN850X SSD, and the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 750W 80 Plus Gold for the PSU. Originally, I bought this motherboard as a gaming and performance upgrade. Needless to say, it was money well spent. I'll start off with the good, then the bad. The good: 1. The packaging was superb. When opening the box, I was greeted with the motherboard, a USB with drivers and BIOS updates, a Wi-Fi screw in, and the various cords and manuals. When registering for the warranty, the serial number was on the side of the box, saving me time from having to look for it. 2. Installation was a breeze. I put this mobo in the Lian Li Lancool 216 case with no issues whatsoever. Installation took roughly 45 minutes at most. 3. When first turned on, it took about a minute to initialize. Afterward, it recognized my drive, and I was up and running quite quickly. With that mentioned, the performance of the board is exceptionally well, when configured properly. Gaming is flawless, with no issues whatsoever. 4. While the WI-FI has issues (more on that in "The bad"), the speeds I typically find with Fiber go up to 1 gig+ with an Ethernet connection. With the current drivers, my speeds stay consistent. The bad: 1. As previously mentioned, I needed to configure certain settings in order for the board to run properly. Without XMP, the board had issues running certain performance heavy tasks. Aside from that, Resizable Bar needed to be turned on, alongside secure boot (not sure why that was off in the first place?). 2. As others have mentioned, there are some WI-FI stability issues. My solution for fast speeds and proper stability required me to uninstall the drivers, then install the newest via the MSI website. Also, an Ethernet connection will improve your speeds greatly, regardless of the board. While the box did come with a LAN setup, I used my old Z690 LAN screw-ins, which seemed to work better. 3. My only major nitpick, which was REALLY infuriating, was the M.2 shield addition installation when installing the drives. They only fit specific drives, it seems. I'm using two different W_D SN850X drives (One with a heat-sink, so obviously one doesn't have the included heat-sink, and one without.). The one without the included heat-sink, will not fit with the included screws, regardless of what I do. The only way to ensure it stays in the M.2 slot, is by utilizing the sticky part of the M.2 shield. While it isn't what I want, it works fine regardless. In conclusion, if you want a board that allows you to bend the very limits of what AAA gaming offers, this is your board. While it does take some configuration to work properly, it's worth it completely in the end. I plan on sticking with this board until the next DDR generation comes out, so, I'm extremely happy, even with some problems.