Question MSI z790 Tomahawk, right choice??

[vortex01]

I have a 13600k and a I wanted to get a good mobo for the z790 chipset. I bought the MSI Z790 Tomahawk Wifi Ddr5. I know the max variant had an issue with the pcie lanes from cpu going to nothing but is that the same for this board? I was told if my board has the common ethernet/doa issue I should change it for the Asrock z790 Riptide Wifi (ive never bought Asrock so im kinda worried). What do yall think? My budget was 220-230. If there is another board please recommend it, its still sealed and within return window so I can exchange.



Build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qVywvj

 

[Lutfij]

I bought the MSI Z790 Tomahawk Wifi Ddr5.
You ask first and then go buy though if you're still in the return window, test it out while breadboarded and see if you get any hiccups before assembling the system into your case.

ASRock are a sister concern of Asus and the board suggested as a replacement is on par with the MSI board you've purchased.

You could get this;
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/s3...lga1700-motherboard-tuf-gaming-z790-plus-wifi
and wrap up the build with an Asus board and GPU from the TUF series.

 

[35below0]

You shouldn't be affraid of the brand. AsRock, Gigabyte, MSi and ASUS are all trusted enough. The problem is that all of them have a few stinkers in their motherboard lineup.
It's not the brand, it's the price & quality.

...and sometimes a few issues that are hard to pin down. For example MSi has had problems with cracked chipsets on their z790 motherboards. Other series are unaffected and these things will sometimes happen, but even without wishing to punish MSi, i would avoid their z790 motherboards.
Then there's Asus, who have annoyed many customers with their Armory Crate bundled software. Some of the motherboards are very good, some are very average and a few stink, but the AC software is best avoided. I don't have personal experience with it, i just go by what people have been saying. I'm sure you can search this topic yourself.
Gigabyte has a bundled driver manager that for a long time mixed audio, GPU, network, etc. drivers with motherboard BIOS updates and a Norton antivirus trial. As if they are equally important and safe.
They have since split BIOS updates off the drivers because flashing BIOS is not without risk, and is not something that needs to be done when there are no problems.
All of them have been overclocking CPUs beyond intel recommendations on their high end overclocking motherboards, but also on mid tier motherboards. It can help make a difference in benchmarks, so they pushed CPUs beyond the limit.

Those are not themselves reasons to avoid a brand (though Armory Crate came close), but they can affect users and reliability.


As for AsRock and that Riptide WiFi board, it is the best choice among AsRock comparable z790 motherboards.
- PG Lightning is cheapest but perfectly acceptable. It has 4 M.2 drive slots, all gen 4.
- Steel Legend WiFi has one gen 5 M.2 slot, a tiny bit better VRM, and front panel USB-C 2x2 header
- Riptide keeps all the improvements and adds wifi 7, and adds a much improved audio codec

Steel Legend and Riptide are the same price so the Riptide is clearly superior.

 

[vortex01]

You shouldn't be affraid of the brand. AsRock, Gigabyte, MSi and ASUS are all trusted enough. The problem is that all of them have a few stinkers in their motherboard lineup.
It's not the brand, it's the price & quality.

...and sometimes a few issues that are hard to pin down. For example MSi has had problems with cracked chipsets on their z790 motherboards. Other series are unaffected and these things will sometimes happen, but even without wishing to punish MSi, i would avoid their z790 motherboards.
Then there's Asus, who have annoyed many customers with their Armory Crate bundled software. Some of the motherboards are very good, some are very average and a few stink, but the AC software is best avoided. I don't have personal experience with it, i just go by what people have been saying. I'm sure you can search this topic yourself.
Gigabyte has a bundled driver manager that for a long time mixed audio, GPU, network, etc. drivers with motherboard BIOS updates and a Norton antivirus trial. As if they are equally important and safe.
They have since split BIOS updates off the drivers because flashing BIOS is not without risk, and is not something that needs to be done when there are no problems.
All of them have been overclocking CPUs beyond intel recommendations on their high end overclocking motherboards, but also on mid tier motherboards. It can help make a difference in benchmarks, so they pushed CPUs beyond the limit.

Those are not themselves reasons to avoid a brand (though Armory Crate came close), but they can affect users and reliability.


As for AsRock and that Riptide WiFi board, it is the best choice among AsRock comparable z790 motherboards.
- PG Lightning is cheapest but perfectly acceptable. It has 4 M.2 drive slots, all gen 4.
- Steel Legend WiFi has one gen 5 M.2 slot, a tiny bit better VRM, and front panel USB-C 2x2 header
- Riptide keeps all the improvements and adds wifi 7, and adds a much improved audio codec

Steel Legend and Riptide are the same price so the Riptide is clearly superior.

Thank you for the info, i really hope the msi board is good because i realized i’m stuck to what best buy has due to budget and cc. So if it is wrong then the TUF is my next option. As for AC i never install that on my old asus boards, in fact, i disable that option in bios prior to windows install

 

[35below0]

Another possibility is the Gigabyte z790 Aorus Elite X Wifi 7

Same specs as the Riptide except all 4 M.2 slots are gen 4 (not a big deal), DDR5 memory up to 8266 Mhz, and bit better VRM.
It's price is $20 higher
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AORUS-ELITE-X-WIFI7/sp#sp

z790 Aorus Elite X
Same specs, wifi 6, slightly cheaper
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AORUS-ELITE-X-AX#kf

z790 Aorus Elite
For ten bucks less, the VRM is much weaker, audio codec not nearly as good, memory overclocking tops out at 7600Mhz. Other specs are the same.

If you want a Gigabyte, take the Elite X WiFi 7. Very good board.

Thank you for the info, i really hope the msi board is good because i realized i’m stuck to what best buy has due to budget and cc. So if it is wrong then the TUF is my next option. As for AC i never install that on my old asus boards, in fact, i disable that option in bios prior to windows install

It's a very good motherboard. Only concern is the cracked chipset issue that plagued their z790 lineuop.

 

[vortex01]

Another possibility is the Gigabyte z790 Aorus Elite X Wifi 7

Same specs as the Riptide except all 4 M.2 slots are gen 4 (not a big deal), DDR5 memory up to 8266 Mhz, and bit better VRM.
It's price is $20 higher
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AORUS-ELITE-X-WIFI7/sp#sp

z790 Aorus Elite X
Same specs, wifi 6, slightly cheaper
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AORUS-ELITE-X-AX#kf

z790 Aorus Elite
For ten bucks less, the VRM is much weaker, audio codec not nearly as good, memory overclocking tops out at 7600Mhz. Other specs are the same.

If you want a Gigabyte, take the Elite X WiFi 7. Very good board.


It's a very good motherboard. Only concern is the cracked chipset issue that plagued their z790 lineuop.

Do you think I should take off the heatsink and check it? I can re apply thermal grizzly when im done. Or are the cracks very small and hard to see

 

[35below0]

Do you think I should take off the heatsink and check it? I can re apply thermal grizzly when im done. Or are the cracks very small and hard to see

It's not a problem you'll be able to fix yourself: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...d-z790-chipsets-begins-replacing-faulty-units

But it's also not guaranteed your motherboard will be affected. Unless you have loyalty to MSi, you should just go with another z790 board to avoid having to worry about having a faulty motherboard. They have similar specs and prices.
The Riptide WiFi 7, or Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 or your TUF choice will all do equally well.