Review on MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk WiFi by Wiktor Uhlig ᠌

Name: MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk WiFi
Item: MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk WiFi
Rating: 5

July 04, 2023

I really like the product, it fully meets my expectations.

I took it in January 2022 for almost 26 thousand. Yes, this is a lot, but now the prices are even higher. Under the i7-12700K + DDR5 5200MHz fit perfectly. An excellent margin for the future for a possible upgrade to faster and more capacious RAM. Convenient UEFI BIOS, which with each generation is becoming more and more like a desktop program, and not like a BIOS. However, it strangely displays a section with fan speed control: the speed is considered non-zero only above some certain threshold. From this, there was even a CPU FAN error, they say, the fan is not spinning, but this is not so. When spinning somewhere above 900 rpm, it starts to show the correct speed. It is convenient to adjust the rpm graph with the mouse, you can make a balance of silence / efficiency for yourself.
But in general, I recommend to buy.
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Updated 9 months ago

Rating has not been changed

I have attached some photos to my review to showcase the unique features of my experience.
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Pros

- High quality performance; - A large number of connectors, including the presence of an optical audio output; - Support for DDR5 with a frequency of up to 6400 MHz, which will come in handy for the future (similar strips have already begun to appear on sale); - Really cool audio codec ALC 4080, which is made on the USB bus, which reduces interference and improves its performance. The sound is really excellent, head and shoulders above that in the ALC 888. The case when you really don’t need and don’t want to turn the equalizer at all, because everything sounds right. The media library began to play in a new way, new details began to be heard even on . mp3, what can we say about lossless audio; - Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support available, antennas included. I checked, without antennas, it does not catch through the case. The presence of Wi-Fi support is fundamentally important for the future, since motherboard manufacturers are cunning and use an M.2 connector with a type E key for the wireless module, which is not on the same Torpedo model. And if you open a market with offers of Wi-Fi modules, then all modern modules come with M.2 type E. I accidentally found out about this in one of the reviews and personally checked the specifications of the boards, everything is true. That is, it will not be possible to save money now and take the same Torpedo in order to buy the same wireless module from Intel after a while: there will simply be nowhere to insert it. Or already take old and low-speed modules, which you don’t want to do; - Strict black design; - Cooling for M.2 SSD; - Metal-reinforced PCI Express 5.0 connector for a solid video card. - CPU cooling got up without problems, nothing interferes; - The external outputs are also of good quality, for example the audio to the front panel also has an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. A bunch of USB, including USB Type C on the front panel 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gb / s), on the back wall is already 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gb / s); - There is a cutout for a couple of SATA connectors to make elegant cable management. Cool solution; - All software is included on a flash drive, but Windows 11 itself will install all the same software anyway.

Cons

- Heatsink M.2 SSD D1 dangles a little, others sit tight; - The first time you turn on WIndows 11, it will install MSI Center. This software will install all the necessary drivers. Everything seems to be great, if not for the unstable operation of this application itself. Already on the second launch, this application began to work strangely, and then its sections stopped loading at all, I had to reinstall it. After reinstalling it works fine; - Perhaps the biggest problem is the Realtek Audio Console. It survived exactly one launch after its automatic installation. This application is necessary for the front jacks on the case to work correctly, not to mention the equalizer settings. Fortunately, the sound works well without it. But, I was strained by the inability to connect a microphone to the front jack (it worked on the back). I solved the error about "unable to connect to the RPC service" more than one evening, as a result, the complete removal of this application and the forced installation of the audio driver from the motherboard manufacturer's website helped. Moreover, on the flash drive and on the site there was a driver version in which this problem was still observed. Then, literally before our eyes, a more recent version of the driver was uploaded to the site and it all worked. The Audio Console was normally installed and working.