Since AMD launched its Zen 4 CPU family last year, potential upgraders have been waiting for more affordable hardware to arrive. AMD launched with only the most expensive CPUs and motherboard chipsets first, knowing hardcore enthusiasts don’t have the patience to hold off for several months. Now that it’s been a minute, we’re starting to see more affordable gear arrive. Motherboards are a big ticket item in this equation. Upgraders are already paying a lot for a Zen 4 CPU and DDR5 memory. Tacking on another $500 for a motherboard is a bridge too far for some. Now MSI is readying a slightly more affordable X670E motherboard, which is the pinnacle of the series for features and performance.
The motherboard in question is the MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk Wi-Fi. MSI has three categories of boards, as Hot Hardware states: MEG, MPG, and MAG. If you remove the M and G and focus on the middle letter, you see what they offer; they’re separated into Enthusiast, Performance, and Attainable. So a MAG X670E is the most affordable version of the highest-end chipset for the AM5 platform. It’s a tantalizing combination and welcome news for would-be AMD PC builders. Photos and pricing of the board have leaked on Twitter, revealing it to offer high-end features for $339. That’s a competitive price for an X670E board, as its MPG Carbon X670E is almost $500. Some X670E boards are close to $1,000 and beyond, including MSI’s MEG Godlike, which costs almost $1,400. No, that’s not a typo.
(Image: @chi11eddog on Twitter)
As expected, this motherboard is fully loaded. For example, it has a surprising four PCIe slots and four M.2 NVME slots, including one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for the GPU (even though there’s no such thing as a PCIe Gen 5 GPU today). Then there are two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and a single x1 PCIe 3.0 for rudimentary expansion. For NVME storage, the top-most M.2 slot is PCIe Gen 5, so it’s ready for next-gen drives. The rest are all PCIe 4.0. and four SATA ports are available.
We love a big, fat row of USB-A ports. (Image: @chi11eddog)
Other notable features include 2.5Gb Ethernet, six USB Type-A ports (two with USB 4), and dual USB-C, including one that offers up to 20Mb/s. There’s also a BIOS Flash button on the I/O panel. This lets you upgrade the BIOS without a CPU installed in the socket via a USB key. The onboard Wi-Fi is the latest 6e standard, and there’s also Bluetooth 5.3.
This seems like it could be a popular motherboard for those looking to build a new system. People have complained nonstop about X670 prices since launch, as board prices suddenly jumped to around $400 and $500. More affordable B650 motherboards are now available, but they are lacking in a lot of features compared to X670 boards. Also, many B650 boards are either mATX or ITX instead of regular ATX.
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