The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTMSI MAG B560 Tomahawk Wi-Fi
One of MSI's most interesting series over the last few years has been the Tomahawk. Representing its more modest gaming-focused MAG (arsenal gaming) series, it's been proven to good effect with a mixture of decent features, usually at a very competitive price point. The MSI MAG B560 Tomahawk Wi-Fi looks to further solidify this for Intel's more budget-focused LGA1200 B560 series. It includes a black PCB, with gunmetal grey heatsinks, including militaristic themed lettering we've come to expect from a Tomahawk; its namesake is a popular missile in the US military's arsenal.
Looking towards the B560 Tomahawk Wi-Fi's feature set, it includes two full-length PCIe slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and the second slot electronically locked to PCIe 3.0 x4. MSI also includes one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. For storage, there's a trifecta of M.2 slots, with one supporting PCIe 4.0 x4 drives, and two with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA. There are six SATA ports, two with straight-angled and four with right-angled connectors, all including support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. In the top right-hand corner are four memory slots which include support for up to DDR4-5000 and a combined capacity of up to 128 GB.
On the rear panel is a single USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. MSI is using an unspecified Realtek HD audio codec that powers five 3.5 mm and S/PDIF optical output, while its networking capabilities come from an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, and a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller. Finishing off the rear panel are a pair of video outputs including one HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 output.
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Flunk - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Still limiting overclocking on mid-range boards even though the competition doesn't? Shame Intel, shame.shabby - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Do you really need to overclock though? Don't these cpus overclock themselves to 200w+ anyway?Linustechtips12#6900xt - Thursday, April 8, 2021 - link
just adjust the turbo limit time or enable MCE if you can, at least i think you can on b560 not sure and 2933/3000 mhz memory isnt the biggest deal eitherGreat_Scott - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
The most recent crop of Intel CPUs 1) overclock on their own, and 2) don't have any thermal headroom.Really, getting a Non-K with a B-series motherboard and saving the money for (any) GPU is the better idea...
Martin84a - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Not that the work isn't appreciated, but I think you should just hire raisonjohn and call it a day. His work on a massive comparison spreadsheet for the AMD A, B and X motherboard is amazing, and light years ahead of anything I've seen.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wmsTYK9Z3-...
Tomatotech - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Decent stack range, but the vast majority have too many SATA and not enough m.2 and not enough USB type C ports. In the next few years there will be more and more type C equipment to plug in.Apart from that, most of them are good for final DDR4 boards as a final home for DDR4 RAM as DDR 5 starts coming in next year (or the year after).
With AMD’s reduction in CPU power the way seems open for some low power desktops to run entirely off USB-C with its power supply of up to 100w (delivered via DC so equal to a wall supply of maybe 130w AC as the transformer losses are in the wall wart not in the desktop PSU). That could mean smaller and cheaper desktops, powered straight from the monitor (if it has a USBC power supply) through the USBC video cable. Apple already has this setup though a few hoops need to be jumped through.
DanNeely - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Limited m.2 is mostly down to being mATX and budget. The smaller board size combined with m.2 being attached to the board itself doesn't leave much room for a 2nd slot unless you go with some sort of riser setup. And using a riser crashes into being budget products.USB-C rollout has been strangled by the decision to implement reversibility by adding an extra chip between the physical port and controller whose job is to swap the IO around instead of offloading that to the controller. Adding an extra dollar or two to the BOM per port has resulted in all the board makers deciding that not having multiple C ports is a good way to cut costs.
Lastly, mATX is going to be the last place we see SATA numbers shrink as long as Intel keep offering them on their chipsets. The plugs are dirt cheap, and unless you're building a maxed out full ATX board the chipset has more IO lanes than you can use. If numbers ever start dropping below what's offered in the chipset it'll either be on mITX boards that are badly space constrained or full ATX ones where the designers decide a few more PCIe lanes or USB3 ports would be more valuable.
TheinsanegamerN - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Plenty of AMD micro ATX boards have 2 slots, you just need some intelligent board design. Hell they can fit 2 on mini ITX without riser boards.Tomatotech - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
Thanks Dan for the reply. I didn’t know that info about the USB-C extra chip causing issues. USB-IF strikes again!vailr - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Gigabyte also has the (full size ATX board) B460 HD3:https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B460-HD3-rev-...