Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards

MSI B450 Tomahawk

The MSI B450M Tomahawk is a direct successor to the B350 Tomahawk we previously reviewed, but with a few visual tweaks and the introduction of RGB LED lighting to the mix to give it a more ‘popular’ reach to those looking to customize their system to fit their components and mood. The B450 Tomahawk sports the same Realtek ALC892 audio codec and the same Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN controller as the B350 model, and on paper, look very similar.

The main differences come through a new PCIe layout consisting of a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot featuring MSI Steel Armor, with a second full-length slot running at PCIe 2.0 x4 and a trio of PCIe 2.0 x1 ports; these replace the legacy PCI slots featured on the previous B350 Tomahawk. One of the advantages of the B450 chipset over B350 is the memory speeds supported, more specifically due to the refined firmware possessed by the B450 Tomahawk, which allows support for DDR4-3466 with a total of 64 GB of system memory supported over the four available slots. The use of both ECC and non-ECC memory is permitted, although the ECC memory will run in non-ECC mode. The main visual difference is the B450 comes with new but svelte looking heatsinks and the power delivery heatsink has the MSI Arsenal Gaming logo to signify the entry-level gaming range this board represents. MSI also seem to have kept the same 6-phase power delivery running in the same 4+2 configuration as the previous B350 Tomahawk.

Storage wise, the B450 Tomahawk has a total of six SATA ports with four featuring right-angled connectors and two having a straight angled design; RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays are supported. A Single M.2 slot capable of supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives up to a size of M.2 22110 (22 x 110 mm).

On the rear panel, the B450 Tomahawk includes a BIOS Flashback+ button with two USB 3.1 5 Gbps Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.1 10 Gbps Type-A and Type-C port. Also included is a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port, six 3.5mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek ALC892 audio codec, a single LAN port controlled by a Realtek 8111H Gigabit networking chip, and two video outputs consisting of an HDMI 1.4 port and a DVI-D port.

While the B450 Tomahawk offers improved memory speeds, classier heatsinks and a small customizable RGB LED strip in the top right corner of the board, the price is likely to reflect this with a touted price of $109.99 at launch; around $20 more than the B350 Tomahawk. Whether or not the new refreshed Tomahawk matches specification and visual aspirations of users, the extra integrated RGB lighting and new style MSI Arsenal Gaming heatsinks on the B450 chipset come at a more expensive premium.