[PConline Review] 2017 DIY players are happy because there are too many DIY hardware available for the year. AMD has mainstream AM4 and high-end TR4 platforms. Intel also has mainstream 7th and 8th generation Core processors, and flagship Core i9 series processors and X299 motherboards. For the X299 platform, because of its high positioning, the X299 motherboard configuration that is commonly seen is very hot, and the RBG lights are also very dazzling, but it is easy to be stereotyped and lack personality. For players who are eager to pursue different personalities, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic board has taken a distinctive path with its “polar white†color scheme, which is different from those of the flamboyant X299 motherboards.
Appreciation of the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic Board
The high-end motherboards (not limited to the X299) on the market often use black PCBs, plus red heat sinks, red and black are particularly common in game boards, but this style of appearance is popular for many years, it will inevitably make people feel tired, so the motherboard manufacturers Also introduced a number of different color products. MSI explored the white PCB motherboards earlier. At least the white PCB was implemented on the 9-series motherboard in 2014. In the past few years, the white motherboard has become a series with names such as Arctic, B150, Z270, and B350. There are similar products in the motherboard. Now in the X299 series, MSI launches the X299 Tomahawk Arctic, which maintains the unique appearance of the white PCB and is also a high-end motherboard.
Since the main white appearance, even the packaging of the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic is polar white, see more other motherboard packaging, the first impression is still very good.
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard accessories are few, in addition to an SLI hard bridge, the other is the manual, driver CD, bezel, SATA cable and other conventional accessories.
In addition to the SATA interface, I / O interface and other locations, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard is all white, radiator and audio, I / O location of the shell is similar to milk milk white, with the previously seen pure White PCB motherboard or graphics card, MSI this polar white looked more pleasing to the eye, the motherboard and the radiator color more coordinated.
High-end motherboards are usually indispensable for LED lights. MSI this motherboard also supports RGB LED lights, but mainly around the motherboard, the heat sink and the main board no front LED lights. For high play like playing lights, this is not necessarily fun, but this elegant lighting effect can also prevent light pollution, and will not grab the limelight of the white PCB.
Although there are not many LED lights, the MSI motherboard supports a lot of equivalence. After the player downloads and installs MSI's Mystic Lght software, they can control the LED light effects and support the breathing light, blinking, double flash, and constant light modes. It depends on the player's own preferences.
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic Motherboard Expansion
Intel's Core X processor supports up to 44 PCI-E 3.0 channels. The MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard provides four PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, but one is provided by the x4 lane of the X299 south bridge, so up to x16 is supported. +x16+x8+x4 mode supports 3-way SLI and CF modes. It is worth noting that two of the slots are metal-reinforced for better durability and are preferred for single- or dual-card slots.
In addition to the graphics card expansion, the MSI motherboard also supports two PCI-E x1 slots to facilitate the expansion of PCI-E devices.
In terms of storage, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard supports eight SATA 6Gbps interfaces, including two vertical rows, six regular horizontal rows, next to the U.2 interface, and the right side is a USB 3.0 expansion interface.
The MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard also supports two M.2 (Key M) slots, one of which is obvious, but the other M.2 slot is hidden. You need to remove the south bridge heat sink to see Location, as shown below:
Although the installation is a bit cumbersome (need to remove a screw), but this M.2 slot is actually MSI Shield FROZR technology blessing, that is to say M.2 hard disk is covered with a layer of heat sink, this heat sink is covered A lot of thermal paste, it is transformed or metal materials, not only can heat the M.2 hard drive, but also a part of the South Bridge heat sink, kill two birds with one stone.
In terms of memory, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard supports four-channel DDR4 memory, a total of eight memory slots, a maximum capacity of 128GB, a frequency support of DDR4-4266MHz, Intel's XMP memory specification, and XPM LED lights. In addition, MSI's mid- to high-end motherboards mostly support DDR4 Boost, which means that the memory PCB traces have been individually optimized to isolate the interference, which in theory can improve the compatibility and stability of the memory.
For the I/O interface, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard supports one PS/2 mouse and keyboard interface, four USB 3.1 Gen1 (red) and two USB 3.1 Gen2, including one standard Type-A and one universal. Type-C, there are three USB 2.0 (black) interfaces, and erected this USB 2.0 interface is mainly used with Flash Back +, you can not boot, no CPU, memory and other extreme cases brush the BIOS.
Other interfaces include 7.1-channel audio, RJ-45 network, CMOS clear, and Flash Back+ buttons. The latter two function keys are convenient, while the RJ-45 network interface and the USB 3.1 Gen 2 A/C interface below can be illuminated. .
It should be noted that there is another M.2 slot at the I/O interface, but this is the Key E specification, which is mainly used to extend wireless network cards, Bluetooth and the like.
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard power supply and chip
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard is not aimed at overclocking players, so the power supply design is not luxury, in addition to a separate 2-phase memory power supply, the processor is 8-phase power supply, PWM master is IR35201, supports dual 8-phase power management, The MOSFETs are four groups of PK632BA and PK616BA, and are composed of an 8-channel power supply through the IR3598 phase.
PWM master chip IR35201
In terms of audio, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic board uses Audio Boost 4 and the ALC1220 is an integrated sound card. The sound card chip is used on many game boards and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 120dB. In addition, there are professional Nyquicon audio capacitors, independent power amplifier chip, can support 600 ohm impedance headphone output, audio PCB circuit is also isolated, the left and right channels are isolated design, can reduce signal interference.
In terms of software, the MSI motherboard uses the Naima 2 sound effect. This is already standard on MSI's high-end motherboards. Interested players can adjust the sound effects according to their own needs.
Although this MSI motherboard is not the main overclocking, but still provides some convenient overclocking design, including the switch button, debug lights, as well as the aforementioned CMOS clear keys, Flash Back + and so on.
Onboard debug lights
Here is mainly the ASM3142, AMS1074 two chips, the former is the USB 3.1 master chip, the motherboard USB 3.1 Gen2 interface from it, while the ASM1074 is the USB 3.0 master chip, providing more USB 3.0 expansion interface.
This is another ASM3142 chip.
MSI X299 Tomhawk Arctic Motherboard BIOS
MSI X29 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard BIOS style is also very familiar with, with MSI's Gaming series style is similar, are Click BIOS 5, the default is to enter the simple interface, commonly used settings are here.
In advanced mode, the MSI X29 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard provides a lot more settings.
Set interface
system status
Advanced project settings
Startup settings
Security Settings
The OC option is related to CPU, memory adjustment, and overclocking. The MSI setup project is still very rich. After all, the X299 is the most advanced platform, and the supporting processors are all overclockable.
Hardware monitoring
Motherboard browser
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard overclocked 4.6GHz test and summary
The configuration of the test platform is shown above.
The test heatsink is an overclocked, wind-chilled, black gold version that supports all-platform processors. We have done this evaluation of the heatsink before, and suppressing four-core processors is quite awesome, but here we tested eight-core processors. The pressure on the radiator is still quite large.
MSI Gaming APP overclocking test
For players who do not want to toss their overclocking, MSI's Gaming APP software can achieve one-key overclocking. In addition to the silent mode, games and overclocking modes can be overclocked to 4.1 and 4.3GHz respectively, which is relatively simple.
Game mode overclocking results
Overclocking mode overclocking results
The official own overclocking is still relatively conservative, players who are not satisfied can manually overclock, and the new generation of Core i9 processor overclocking ability is still very good. We pressurize to 1.2V (BIOS settings, 1.36V after the system offset adjustment), Core i9-7820X processor can easily exceed 4.6GHz, memory frequency is a little over 3000MHz, this time the system performance has Obviously improved.
Overclocked to 4.6GHz
Overclocking 4.6GHz performance test and summary
Simple test, after overclocking to 4.6GHz, Core i7-7820X multi-threaded performance increase is obvious, after all, the initial state of the 8-core frequency of 3.6GHz, after overclocking increased by a full 1GHz. As for the single-threaded performance, after overclocking there is also a certain increase, but the processor's single-core, dual-core acceleration frequency has 4.5GHz, so the increase will not be so multi-threaded so obvious.
to sum up:
From the positioning point of view, X299 is the flagship motherboard, so we can see a lot of fever configuration X299 game or overclocking motherboard, and MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard is a bit different, it wins is the appearance, the unique polar white color is very attractive to those The fatigue of ordinary motherboard motherboard players, if the player with a white appearance of the graphics card, memory and chassis, power supply, can be completely matched with a unique PC host.
Of course, in addition to relying on color value to win, the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard does not fall in the technical specifications, 4-channel DDR4-4266 memory, 3 graphics card CF/SLI, Turbo U.2, with radiator M.2 Slots, HiFi audio 4 generations, Gaming Lan network (unfortunately no dual network card), USB 3.1 Gen2 and other technical specifications are also flagship, and the actual test overclocking capability is also very good.
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard price 3599 yuan, this price is not high in a public X299 motherboard, only higher than the "entry" level of 2999 yuan, although can not be used to describe the flagship product with high performance-price ratio, but players need to A distinctive X299 motherboard, and the specifications can not be low, then the MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic motherboard is your food.
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