Test – MSI Z270 Tomhawk |Specs | Price

Hi all!

We are returning to MSI today with once again a small motherboard equipped with the Z270 chipset from Intel, particularly suited to the latest Kaby Lake “K” processors, I named the Z270 Tomahawk! Under this name hides an entry-level model with the little “gamer” touch that goes well. Offered at a price of around 150 € the Z270 Tomahawk should be a card that has everything Mr. Toutlemonde will need for its configuration, if the tests are conclusive, which we will see immediately! 🙂

The MSI Z270 tomahawk is therefore a motherboard in the classic ATX format of 30.4 cm by 24.3 cm sides, no worries in perspective to fit it into a box. It is equipped with the latest Z270 chipset from Intel, compatible with the latest “Kaby Lake” processors (but also Skylake) ranging from the small Celeron to the larger Core i7 from Intel. Note that as usual the Z270 chipset can support the overclocking functions of “K” processors (i3 7350K, i5 6600K / 7600K and i7 6700K / 7700K), which other chipsets (H270 and B250) can not do.
The memory is managed by 4 slots provided for DDR4 “Dual Channel” with a frequency of 2133 MHz (speed of the memory controller for Skylake, 2400 MHz for Kaby Lake). The memory overclocking can go up to 3800 MHz for 7th generation Intel Core processors (Kaby Lake therefore) and 3600 MHz for 6th generation Intel Core processors (Skylake). A total of 64 GB can be managed, enough to see coming, unless you really have specific needs.
The Z270 Tomahawk has 3 PCIe 16x ports, however only one of them is cabled in 16x (and will therefore have to accommodate the possible graphics card), the others being in 4x and 1x. The card is only compatible with the multi-GPU from AMD, namely the Crossfire, point of SLI from NVIDIA here, cost reduction requires. It will therefore be necessary to take into account that if a Crossfire is envisaged the second card may be somewhat constrained by the speed of the second PCIe 16x port, 4x cable.
Storage side here we are in the classic, 6 Sata 6Gb / s ports all managed by the Intel Z270 chipset, compatible with RAID 0/1/5/10 according to your needs. There is also the presence of 2 M.2 ports, compatible with Sata or PCie SSDs (up to 4x) with the possibility of making a RAID 0 or 1.
The network is entrusted to an Intel I219-V controller, a good thing because it is more upscale than the perennial Realteks that we find on all entry-level motherboards (although they already work very well). A Realtek ALC892 chip is present to manage the audio part, accompanied like what is done now (and this is clearly not a bad thing) by high-end capacitors.
Offered at a price of around 150 € the MSI Z270 Tomahawk on paper has everything you need to make a configuration ready to be overclocked, as long as you do not want to leave on a machine armored with graphics cards , let’s see it all more closely.

The front of the box is rather sober, there is the logo of the brand, the model as well as some logos of use (therefore a small VR Ready which does not mean much) and of course as usual at MSI a star rating of the “performance” of the beast in games 😉

At the back is a photo of the beast in operation, in addition to a listing of its strengths, such as the presence of a reinforced PCIe port, M.2 ports etc. On the other hand, the emphasis was put here on the LEDs, in addition to being compatible with the RGB LED strips that are plugged directly into the motherboard there is an LED on the radiator and LEDs everywhere to be “ready for battle” , in short..
Ah yes, useful technical information is still present at the bottom, which is still the minimum 😀

Inside we fall directly on the motherboard in its antistatic bag, the bundle is as usual just below!

Bundle level there as much to say that it is reduced to the minimum union, a manual, a quick installation guide, a DVD of drivers, the I / O plate as well as 2 Sata 6GB / s cables, and that’s it! Although I clearly have nothing against this type of bundle, because we are talking about a motherboard here, but more Sata cables would not have been a bad thing.