Question Looking to get a MSI Z790 board, and need some opinions on a few please!

[Anthony82093]

CPU - 13700k
GPU - GTX970 (Old, will update in a year or so, just wanted to get rid of the old rig with my 3570k and DDR3 stuff, and the GPU isn't to old) Want a 4070Ti or 4080
Case - Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact OR Fractal Design Torrent Compact
CPU Cooler - Corsair ICUE H150i Elite LCD OR Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black
Ram - Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5 6200 CAS/36 PC5/49600 (Might get something a bit faster like 7200 CAS/34 PC5/57600, depending on cost of entire build. Not really sure if that's much of an upgrade).

Trying to figure out if I want an Air cooled or AIO build. Hear so many pros and cons for both. Mainly just want a smaller case, and keep it quiet and cool). The AIOs look alot nicer to me, but also cost more, and im sure will need replaced sooner. But it just makes the case look so open, and I do enjoy that.

Mainly looking at the Edge, Tomahawk, and the Carbon DDR5 versions. But I'm struggling to really see, and understand all the differences. I see the Carbon has more Vram power for Overclocking, which I do plan to overclock, but kinda set it to a good stable speed, then leave it. Not really to play with overclocking. But with all 3 MB's being about $80 difference, and seeing little to no difference in the Tomahawk and the Edge, I'm unsure which to focus on?

Anything I'm overlooking or missing?

And mainly focusing on MSI and Corsair because I'm use to the brands a bit more. But open to suggestions! Thank you for any and all help!

 

[Lutfij]

According to the pricing;
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#sort=price&page=1
the order in which the boards will be ranked is Carbon>Tomahawk>Edge, whereby the > signifies greater than.

If you look at the rear I/.O panel, you loose out on display output functionality but gain more buttons that aid in troubleshooting the system and even failed overclocking attempts. The higher you work up the price stack, and their portfolio is when they start introducing bells and whistles. Underneath they are all the same but their differences are subtle and the componentry used underneath the heatsinks.

What sort of features are you looking in the board's purchase(aside from the color scheme ofc)? The Tomahawk looses out on 1x M.2 slot. advertised memory speeds when overclocked is 7600MHz on the Carbon as opposed to the other two at 7200MHz. Missing Display Port. 1x SATA port missing. 2 more USB ports.

They are pretty much identical.

 

[Anthony82093]

According to the pricing;
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#sort=price&page=1
the order in which the boards will be ranked is Carbon>Tomahawk>Edge, whereby the > signifies greater than.

If you look at the rear I/.O panel, you loose out on display output functionality but gain more buttons that aid in troubleshooting the system and even failed overclocking attempts. The higher you work up the price stack, and their portfolio is when they start introducing bells and whistles. Underneath they are all the same but their differences are subtle and the componentry used underneath the heatsinks.

What sort of features are you looking in the board's purchase(aside from the color scheme ofc)? The Tomahawk looses out on 1x M.2 slot. advertised memory speeds when overclocked is 7600MHz on the Carbon as opposed to the other two at 7200MHz. Missing Display Port. 1x SATA port missing. 2 more USB ports.

They are pretty much identical.

I just plan on playing some games really. Slight OCing, going to throw 1 m.2 in it, then hook up 2 SSDs, a GPU, and thats about it! I'm confused why they rate the Tomahawk greater than the edge when the edge costs more, unless they take cost into account. My whole system is 10+ years old, other than the SSDs, GPU, and PSU. So I really don't know what I'm looking for in a motherboard. They all look different, with different prices, but the specs seem so similar.

 

[Lutfij]

I'm confused why they rate the Tomahawk greater than the edge when the edge costs more, unless they take cost into account.
Sometimes product availability and other external factors can drive the price of a product up(or down).

They all look different, with different prices, but the specs seem so similar.
Like I said, the change is underneath the heatsinks, not to mention the aesthetics and slight introduction of bells and whistles.

 

[Zerk2012]

Beside the feature differences the carbon has a 19+1+1 power delivery with 105A mosfets the tomahawk 16+1+1. 90 A

The Tomahawk is good enough for most users since the 13xxx processor doesn't have much overclocking room since you need very good cooling for it already and is like 5.1 all cores (p cores)

 

[vacip]

Mainly looking at the Edge, Tomahawk, and the Carbon DDR5 versions. But I'm struggling to really see, and understand all the differences. I see the Carbon has more Vram power for Overclocking, which I do plan to overclock, but kinda set it to a good stable speed, then leave it. Not really to play with overclocking. But with all 3 MB's being about $80 difference, and seeing little to no difference in the Tomahawk and the Edge, I'm unsure which to focus on?

Just a heads-up, there is a known issue with Intel® Ethernet Controller I226-V, the one used on Z790 boards. Unfortunately MSI uses this LAN chip on the Tomahawk (actually all their boards, except the Godlike, which is ridiculous in price).

MSI Global English Forum

...

forum-en.msi.com

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/i...a-workaround-for-now#xenforo-comments-3799150

Seems like a hardware issue, which means there is no way to "patch it out", so compromises will have to be made. At this point, it very heavily affects online gaming based on what I read.

For this reason I ruled out MSI, and started looking at Asrock. They use a different controller, and build very reliable boards recently.