Msi z170a tomahawk review

MSI Z170A Tomahawk technical features

MSI Z170A Tomahawk unboxing and design

The MSI Z170A TomaHawk comes in a green box with a standard size. On the cover we see in large letters the model and logo of the MSI Gaming series. While in the back we have all the most important specifications.

Inside we find the following bundle:

MSI Z170A Tomahawk motherboard. Back plate. Instruction manual and quick guide. Installation kit for processor. CD disk with drivers. Set of SATA cables.

The MSI Z170A Tomahawk. It is an ATX format motherboard with dimensions of 30.4 cm x 22.4 cm for the LGA 1151 socket . The board has a very sober and very attractive design with the use of red, white and a matte black PCB.

Rear view.

The motherboard features two zones with cooling: power phases and Z170 chipset. It has 8 feeding phases supported by Military Class 4 technology. What do these improved components offer? protection against humidity, protection against high temperatures, circuit protection, anti-electrostatic (ESD) and anti-electromagnetic protection (EMI).

It has 4 available 64 GB compatible DDR4 RAM memory sockets with frequencies up to 3600 Mhz and XMP profile.

The MSI Z170A Tomahawk has a fairly normal layout. It has two PCIe 3.0 to x16 slots, three other x1-speed PCIe 3.0 connections, and two regular PCI slots.

It only has support for AMD CrossFire. If you were thinking of purchasing two Nvidia cards, we recommend that you look for another motherboard .

It incorporates a Realtek sound card but with the best of Audio Boost technology. That offers? Better sound quality through the use of premium quality audio components with 8 channels. Which will make us enjoy a more crystalline sound and with a high impedance headphone amplifier. A plus regarding more basic motherboards.

Regarding storage, it has six SATA III 6 GB / s connections with RAID 0.1, 5 and 10 support. SAS SSD with Turbo U.2.

Finally we detail the rear connections:

1 x PS / 2 for keyboard, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Clear CMOS button, 1 x LAN port (RJ45), 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1.1 ports x Sound output.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i5-6600k.
Base plate:	MSI Z170A Tomahawk
Memory:	2 × 8 16GB DDR4 @ 3000 MHZ Kingston Savage
Heatsink	Corsair H80i GT.
HDD	Samsung 840 EVO 250GB.
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 780.
Power supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2

To check the stability of the i5-6600k processor at 4500 MHZ and the motherboard we have stressed with Prime 95 Custom and air cooling. The graphics we have used is an Nvidia GTX780, without further delay, let's see the results obtained in our tests with a 1920 × 1080 monitor.

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BIOS

The BIOS is the same as its older sisters. It has all the options and we can get to have a performance of a high-end motherboard. We are very happy with the armored result.

Final words and conclusion

The MSI Z170A Tomahawk is an ideal motherboard for gamers who don't want to spend a lot of money and want a long-lasting component. It allows us to install unlocked high-end processors, overclock them, and connect up to two graphics cards.

In our tests it has shown to do a good overclock with 4500 MHz. In games we have been able to verify that with a GTX 780 it matches up to any game with 1080p resolution. So it covers the needs of any user.

We also liked the six SATA III connections and the M.2 connection. for high performance disks (NVMe).

Currently we can find the MSI Z170A Tomahawk for a price of 145 euros in online stores. It seems to us a fair price, since we save almost 40 euros from the MSI Z170A Gaming M5 model.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ AGGRESSIVE DESIGN.	- DOES NOT ALLOW TO CONNECT TWO NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARDS IN SLI.
+ MILITARY CLASS IV COMPONENTS.
+ AUDIO BOOST SOUND.
+ OFFER A GOOD OVERCLOCK.
+ FAIR PRICE.