MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II AMD AM4 ATX Motherboard

I ordered this motherboard on the 27th of July as a pre order and it has arrived today. I had been doing a lot of research prior to pulling the trigger and buying this motherboard. One of the reasons why I chose this motherboard was due to the original msi b450 tomahawk only having a 16mb bios chip which was causing issues when using the newer bios for the ryzen 3 series (I believe some people have it working and msi are addressing the issue). This motherboard comes equipped with a 32mb bios chip and is ready for the latest ryzen chips straight out of the box. Whilst researching which b450 board would be the best for my new ryzen chip the tomahawk came up time and time again. Whilst I'm no expert in the importance of good VRMs on a motherboards I trust the pros out ... MoreI ordered this motherboard on the 27th of July as a pre order and it has arrived today. I had been doing a lot of research prior to pulling the trigger and buying this motherboard. One of the reasons why I chose this motherboard was due to the original msi b450 tomahawk only having a 16mb bios chip which was causing issues when using the newer bios for the ryzen 3 series (I believe some people have it working and msi are addressing the issue). This motherboard comes equipped with a 32mb bios chip and is ready for the latest ryzen chips straight out of the box. Whilst researching which b450 board would be the best for my new ryzen chip the tomahawk came up time and time again. Whilst I'm no expert in the importance of good VRMs on a motherboards I trust the pros out there and they advise that this setup is good. There is also a large heatsink over the vrms which will provide good cooling. The layout of the fan headers, sata ports and rgb headers all seem to be positioned well so no complaints there. Connections on the back of the motherboard are more than adequate for my requirements and use 3.2 gen 2 is a nice addition. On to the aesthetics of the board itself. I love the black and grey design and the VRM heatsink as mentioned before is also very aesthically pleasing. The gold capacitors on the board also give it a more premium feel. The motherboard box itself doesn't look the nicest in my opinion, the print seems a bit faded (?) And there is no foam in the box to support the board in transit but it appears the packaging has done the job. The motherboard has plenty of different bios features for you to play with and customise to get the computer to run how you want it to. Only time will tell how good the board is but my initial impressions are good. If you are looking for other reviews I suggest you read reviews for the standard b450 tomahawk as it's the same board just latest gen ryzen ready with a bigger bios chip. Hope this helps!

A strong motherboard at a great price!

I bought this motherboard because I wanted to use an AMD Ryzen 5 4500. Because the socket was AM4, it worked perfectly with what I already had. (I had 32 go ddr4 ram, one NVME ssd, a 2.5inch ssd, and and a case with a usb 3 connector). The order shipped promptly and was tracked using Amazon Logistics. This was different than other eBay orders I have placed, but I was able to clearly see the package as it traveled to its destination. Two side notes: I had to flash the bios to be able to use the Ryzen 5 4500. You need find the bios update on AMDs website. There are videos you can find online that show the process. Also, there was no booklet with the motherboard. I has both a NVME ssd and a regular 2.5 inch ssd. If you do have a NVME ssd, you cannot use ssd ports 5 and ... MoreI bought this motherboard because I wanted to use an AMD Ryzen 5 4500. Because the socket was AM4, it worked perfectly with what I already had. (I had 32 go ddr4 ram, one NVME ssd, a 2.5inch ssd, and and a case with a usb 3 connector). The order shipped promptly and was tracked using Amazon Logistics. This was different than other eBay orders I have placed, but I was able to clearly see the package as it traveled to its destination. Two side notes: I had to flash the bios to be able to use the Ryzen 5 4500. You need find the bios update on AMDs website. There are videos you can find online that show the process. Also, there was no booklet with the motherboard. I has both a NVME ssd and a regular 2.5 inch ssd. If you do have a NVME ssd, you cannot use ssd ports 5 and 6. I had to find this information online.

Board stopped working

Board flat out stopped working. I had this board for about 3 months before I started to experience problems. I had the newest BIOS and drivers for it, and all was well. I used my gtx 1660 for a little while, but then i eventually swapped it out for an rtx 2070. Upon swapping out the graphics card, my computer would constantly crash. I deleted all GPU drivers and installed Geforce fresh for the new one. The only way to stop this was to refresh my PC entirely. This proceeded to work for about 3 weeks. Now I receive constant GPU crashes. Every game crashes with a "Graphics Card error" problem. I know this is not a graphics card problem because ive swapped it out for a gtx 1660, gtx 970, and rtx 2070, each time. Upon swapping the cards i update the bios and drivers for ... MoreBoard flat out stopped working. I had this board for about 3 months before I started to experience problems. I had the newest BIOS and drivers for it, and all was well. I used my gtx 1660 for a little while, but then i eventually swapped it out for an rtx 2070. Upon swapping out the graphics card, my computer would constantly crash. I deleted all GPU drivers and installed Geforce fresh for the new one. The only way to stop this was to refresh my PC entirely. This proceeded to work for about 3 weeks. Now I receive constant GPU crashes. Every game crashes with a "Graphics Card error" problem. I know this is not a graphics card problem because ive swapped it out for a gtx 1660, gtx 970, and rtx 2070, each time. Upon swapping the cards i update the bios and drivers for the entire system. I would personally say to save up for a better Motherboard, this one is not worth fhe hastle.

Excellent B450 Board

Choosing a motherboard can be tricky given you have to consider form factor, features, etc. The MSI Tomahawk MAX, however, is one of the most highly reviewed B450 boards, which is what made me interested in it.It is not hard to see why. It is very affordable (Around $105 for me, since I purchased a Ryzen CPU with it), and it also performs very well. It has a good VRM and good power delivery for a mid-tier build. It has a single M.2 slot in the center, and has plenty of fan and rgb headers that are easy to access. The BIOS is very easy to navigate, just click XMP to get your RAM up to its highest frequency (the board supports up to around 4000 mghz RAM). The top of the board, where it says 'Arsenal Gaming' even has a channel to hide your cpu fan cable.As far as ... MoreChoosing a motherboard can be tricky given you have to consider form factor, features, etc. The MSI Tomahawk MAX, however, is one of the most highly reviewed B450 boards, which is what made me interested in it.It is not hard to see why. It is very affordable (Around $105 for me, since I purchased a Ryzen CPU with it), and it also performs very well. It has a good VRM and good power delivery for a mid-tier build. It has a single M.2 slot in the center, and has plenty of fan and rgb headers that are easy to access. The BIOS is very easy to navigate, just click XMP to get your RAM up to its highest frequency (the board supports up to around 4000 mghz RAM). The top of the board, where it says 'Arsenal Gaming' even has a channel to hide your cpu fan cable.As far as looks go, it is an all black and grey board, so it will look good with just about everything. The only lights it has are a set of about 8 or so LED's on the back the board that light up red by default, but can be changed to different colors and settings through MSI Mystic Light! You can also turn off the rgb lighting completely through the app if you prefer. The io shield is not attached, but was not too hard to install on my case.Overall, this was the perfect B450 mobo for my first build, and I am very happy with it.

Great board, good VRMs, no addressable RGB

I have recently switched to AMD Ryzen 5 3600x, after some issues with my Intel CPU. The MSI( B450 Tomahawk Max came highly recommended on forums, with experts focusing on the strong VRM for a B450 board and good VRM cooling.Pros:+ Tomahawk "Max" version has a 32Mb BIOS. It will be able to support all the past and future CPUs (Ryzen 4000 is coming out in fall of 2020, some b450 board that have 16MB bios will have to "chose" which older CPUs they will support if switching to the new Ryzens BIOS. This one most probably will support all of them)+ BIOS-flashback function with a button on the IO shield area. This means unbrickable BIOS and possibly flashing back and forth between older and newer BIOSes. Thus Ryzen 4000 BIOS upgrade will be "unilateral" ... MoreI have recently switched to AMD Ryzen 5 3600x, after some issues with my Intel CPU. The MSI( B450 Tomahawk Max came highly recommended on forums, with experts focusing on the strong VRM for a B450 board and good VRM cooling.Pros:+ Tomahawk "Max" version has a 32Mb BIOS. It will be able to support all the past and future CPUs (Ryzen 4000 is coming out in fall of 2020, some b450 board that have 16MB bios will have to "chose" which older CPUs they will support if switching to the new Ryzens BIOS. This one most probably will support all of them)+ BIOS-flashback function with a button on the IO shield area. This means unbrickable BIOS and possibly flashing back and forth between older and newer BIOSes. Thus Ryzen 4000 BIOS upgrade will be "unilateral" (non-revertable) as AMD said - well, not on this board, I think. This one has the BIOS-flashback and in my experience that will allow flashing older BIOSes back, if interested. Since the BIOS on this particular board might support all Ryzen generations, that's just a precaution. Still = unbrickable bios.+ Good 4+2 phase VRM, capable of overclocking even a 3950x (with serious airflow over the VRM)+ Large and efficient VRM heatsink covering the IO area+ Very good performance with my RAM XPG 3600CL17 - I can easily drop the timings to 15-16. I have recently tested this memory with one of the latest Intel "K" CPUs on another board and it couldn't run even at XMP settings properly. This MSI b450 T Max board's BIOS was ironed out and has no issues with the memory at this point. In fact it outperformed that intel z490 board.Cons:- SATA ports 5 and 6 do not work even with the most current BIOS - a problem reported by a few users! I moved my two mirrored HDDs to ports 3 and 4 and solved the issue, but two practically dead ports is not ok in my book.- No Addressable RGB header! I had an AIO with a hub that connects only to an A-RGB header and was out of luck. I cannot control the RGTB via software, but the AIO has a separate remote, so there is that... Some people report using a 12v to 5v RGB converter (with some complaining of burnt cables) or another hub that can do the conversion.- Board layout could be better - the Front Panel connectors are located in the middle-lower part, a bit of a stretch for some cases.- RGB software control only available via Dragon Center, which installs other bloatware too. The Dragon Center recognized both the RGB strip on the motherboard (sort of "under" the RAM area) and my XPG RGB ram, but only if there is no XPG software already installed. It did not recognize my Power Color Red Devil rx5700 (flashed to XT). RGB integration is an issue for all vendors, it's not an MSI specific issue, but it's good to know, I think. I ended up with my AIO rgb being controlled by remote, as there is not ARGTB header and had to install another software for my GPU.- Audio amplification is not as good as one of the main competitors.Neutral:~ the BIOS takes getting used to.Conclusion: with all its minuses, this is a very solid board in terms of the quality and looks. I assume it will be able to drive Ryzen 4000 without a problem - the MSI b550 Bazooka has the exact same VRM, so that's your proof. For $20 discount when you bundle this motherboard with a CPU, I got it for $95. That's a killer price from Microcenter! I'd say it's a must buy.

One cool MB

Bought this on recommendation of store associate and after checking online for reviews. I explained to him that I was not into video gaming, lights, liquids etc.I am a middle road guy who builds my own computers but not with the highest priced, newest and bestest components. I prefer to go with last years or so greatest to get the best deal, but still come out with a very decent computer; for the money better than retail computers. Because I pick out components I can get what used to be a $300 video card or cpu for a fraction of what it cost a couple of years ago. I do however want a fast system with plenty of ports, decent AMD cpu, a good video card, and of course a solid Mb. This MB satisfied me completely. In fact I have never had such a smooth startup. Turned ... MoreBought this on recommendation of store associate and after checking online for reviews. I explained to him that I was not into video gaming, lights, liquids etc.I am a middle road guy who builds my own computers but not with the highest priced, newest and bestest components. I prefer to go with last years or so greatest to get the best deal, but still come out with a very decent computer; for the money better than retail computers. Because I pick out components I can get what used to be a $300 video card or cpu for a fraction of what it cost a couple of years ago. I do however want a fast system with plenty of ports, decent AMD cpu, a good video card, and of course a solid Mb. This MB satisfied me completely. In fact I have never had such a smooth startup. Turned this baby on and boom, she's ready for the OS. Plenty of fan plugins, usb's, sata ports, and the MB fit perfectly. BIOS was spot on and easy to understand and most things were set by default. Had to turn on memory OC (A-XMP) to get full memory function but that was easy. This is my second MSI MB and I am a happy camper. Been building these things a long time and this is a well built MB.

So far so good! All kinds of new features.

The good: Easy to use bios, fast boots, super fast m.2 speeds, supports fast memory, enabled with xmp profile 2. Over clocking is easy. The OK: dragon center is just OK, not great. Maybe it's just me but the smart fan profile tend to get confused so the fans constantly ramp up and down even after fine tuning. I've just started setting them manually when gaming. Over clocking in dragon center works, but its a little glitchy, sometimes you make a change and have to hit apply more than once to get it to take, and voltages don't always report correctly. The Bad: the mystic light software uses 7-10% cpu when I try to sync my G.Skill Trident RGB memory with the Mobo RGB. I had to unlink them and run the Mobo from mystic light and the memory from the G. Skill app. Overall ... MoreThe good: Easy to use bios, fast boots, super fast m.2 speeds, supports fast memory, enabled with xmp profile 2. Over clocking is easy. The OK: dragon center is just OK, not great. Maybe it's just me but the smart fan profile tend to get confused so the fans constantly ramp up and down even after fine tuning. I've just started setting them manually when gaming. Over clocking in dragon center works, but its a little glitchy, sometimes you make a change and have to hit apply more than once to get it to take, and voltages don't always report correctly. The Bad: the mystic light software uses 7-10% cpu when I try to sync my G.Skill Trident RGB memory with the Mobo RGB. I had to unlink them and run the Mobo from mystic light and the memory from the G. Skill app. Overall a great board with everything you would want and more. I wish they would work on their software a bit more, but MSI is a hardware company first, so I can't fault them. You would be hard pressed to get a better bang for your buck than this board.

Stopped Posting

I finally decided to build a new computer a few months ago, my first build in over 7 years, and so I decided to pair a team red Ryzen 3600 with this motherboard... Worked well up until a few days ago when my pc wouldnt wake up from sleep mode. I shut it down all the way and tried to reboot. My computer will turn on but not post anything. The debug light shows red on cpu for about 15 seconds and then goes off and after about 2 minutes the pc will shut down. I have cleared the CMOS, tried a different GPU and completely taken apart the rig and rebuilt it as a testbench outside the case using the same and a different PSU. Still nothing. The other attempt I saw from what looked like many people having this issue with this line of board was to flashy bios which doesnt ... MoreI finally decided to build a new computer a few months ago, my first build in over 7 years, and so I decided to pair a team red Ryzen 3600 with this motherboard... Worked well up until a few days ago when my pc wouldnt wake up from sleep mode. I shut it down all the way and tried to reboot. My computer will turn on but not post anything. The debug light shows red on cpu for about 15 seconds and then goes off and after about 2 minutes the pc will shut down. I have cleared the CMOS, tried a different GPU and completely taken apart the rig and rebuilt it as a testbench outside the case using the same and a different PSU. Still nothing. The other attempt I saw from what looked like many people having this issue with this line of board was to flashy bios which doesnt actually do anything when i press the flash button with my fat32 formatted usb in the flash usb port... Really upsetting when i have just bought a new mic, webcam lights etc to use this as a streamimg build. Really hoping I can somehow get this build back up and running...

Top End of 450 MB

The Tomahawk Max is probably the best board you can get in the B450 category. It pairs well with my AMD 3600x and G-Skill 3600 ram to make the best foundation for my $1000 game system.I hadn't done a PC build in 20+ years but the board layout made it fairly easy to connect the component quickly which includes my EVGA 2060 KO GPU and a few RGB fans.The BIOs are a smash to get to the monitoring tool. You can also download and use the MSI custom tool to monitor and control the one to many fans from your desktop.I also wanted to mention that the board has it's own RGB that can be sync'd with your RGB fans or setup independently.The board has 6 sata connections, numerous fan connections and a M.2 connections. It has 5 USB connections (2.0, 2 3.1 and 1 3.1 ... MoreThe Tomahawk Max is probably the best board you can get in the B450 category. It pairs well with my AMD 3600x and G-Skill 3600 ram to make the best foundation for my $1000 game system.I hadn't done a PC build in 20+ years but the board layout made it fairly easy to connect the component quickly which includes my EVGA 2060 KO GPU and a few RGB fans.The BIOs are a smash to get to the monitoring tool. You can also download and use the MSI custom tool to monitor and control the one to many fans from your desktop.I also wanted to mention that the board has it's own RGB that can be sync'd with your RGB fans or setup independently.The board has 6 sata connections, numerous fan connections and a M.2 connections. It has 5 USB connections (2.0, 2 3.1 and 1 3.1 gen2).I don't understand why they have an old PS/2 port but that's probably the one thing that stands out.I haven't tried to Overclock the CPU but I was able to maximize my 3600 DDR4 ram with ease. The BIOs had quite a few examples to choose when optimizing the memory.All in all this was a good board to jump back into the build game and AMD acknowledging that the next generation of chips will run on the 450 boards, I'm set for the next 3-5 years.

Works Great with Ryzen 5 3600

I bought this MSi motherboard to use with my very first PC build. I followed a how-to video on youtube and was able to install windows and update to the latest BIOS and network drivers via USB drive, just to avoid any compatibility headaches up front.Everything worked as expected -- got it to post on the first try; without any overclocking, and I'm getting pretty close to full 4.2GHz boost on several cores. Both RAM sticks were seen and XMP worked for full rated speeds, and I was able to overclock by 400 cycles with slightly looser timings. I was also able to run on a borrowed 5830 Radeon GPU to make sure everything works until I can save up for the one I want.With the no-hassle setup experience and great compatibility, I would definitely recommend this ... MoreI bought this MSi motherboard to use with my very first PC build. I followed a how-to video on youtube and was able to install windows and update to the latest BIOS and network drivers via USB drive, just to avoid any compatibility headaches up front.Everything worked as expected -- got it to post on the first try; without any overclocking, and I'm getting pretty close to full 4.2GHz boost on several cores. Both RAM sticks were seen and XMP worked for full rated speeds, and I was able to overclock by 400 cycles with slightly looser timings. I was also able to run on a borrowed 5830 Radeon GPU to make sure everything works until I can save up for the one I want.With the no-hassle setup experience and great compatibility, I would definitely recommend this motherboard for Ryzen R5 3600(x) users who don't necessarily need all the latest board features, but do prefer some overclocking headroom. This is not an entirely bare-bones board though, and some of the highlights include good connectivity, M.2 NVME support, reinforced top PCIe slot, and some of the best VRM heatsinks in a B450. With a decent cooling and case setup, it should do fine for R7 3700(x)/3800(x) users as well.TL;DR -- this motherboard allows very good performance, covering the very basics while saving you some money over premium AMD chipsets.