MSI MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi Features
The MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX Wifi is a full-sized ATX motherboard. It very closely resembles the MAG B850 GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi that we just reviewed. The new design and color scheme are a very nice change from the usual mustard yellow accent of the MAG line-up. The board is primarily white with silver accents. The heatsinks are quite thick and heavy and broadcast “MAX” and “MSI Arsenal GAMING”.
The board has a clean look to it, simple and well laid out. There is some heft when held, but no flex or bend is noticed. The PCB is 8 layered-server grade with 2 oz inlaid copper. There are no RGBs on this board, but several headers are available for your lighting pleasure. You also won’t find any DeBug digital outputs or power buttons. There is a set of DeBug LEDs to give you a hand if you have an issue.
The MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi has three M.2 slots. The primary is Gen5 x 4, and the secondaries are Gen4 x 4. All three slots have heavy native heatsinks. M.2_1 has an EZ Release; the other two will require a Phillips screwdriver. Installation of the drives is tool-less, either EZ Clips or rotaries. The rotaries are changeable to EZ Clips if you like those. A tool is included. There are four PCIe slots on this board. The primary is Gen5 x 16 with a reinforced EZ PCIe Release slot. PCIe_2 is a half-slot at Gen3 x 1, PCIe_3 is full-size Gen4 x 4, and PCIe_4 is a full-sized Gen3 x 1. The position of PCIe_2 brings its usefulness into question, however.
The rear I/O panel of the MSI MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi has 10 total USB ports. Four are USB-A 2.0, one USB-C 40Gb/s, one USB-C 20Gb/s, and two each USB-A 10Gb/s and 5Gb/s. WiFi is a MediaTek with Bluetooth 5.4, RJ-45 is 5GB via RealTek 8126, and audio is 7.1 capable via RealTek ALC 897; the three jacks are analog.
Power Delivery
MSI lists the MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi as having 14+2+1 power phase support. This is noted to be a duet setup with SPS supplying 60Amps. This should be more than adequate for PBO and EXPO/XAMP overclocking. Power is delivered by two 8-pin CPU Connectors at the top left. As we mentioned, the VRM heatsinks are quite heavy, powder-coated aluminum. We did not see any heatpipes. Thermal pads are upgraded. PCB is an 8-layer server-grade.
CPU Socket, Memory and Storage
The MSI MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi supports socket AM5 CPUs in the Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series. There is ample space surrounding the socket to place most, if not all, CPU coolers. Our MSI AIO MAG Core 360I gave us no mounting issues. Memory supported includes DDR5 DIMMs up to 256 GB in total. Frequencies are advertised up to 8200MT/s (OC). XMP and Expo profiles are supported for 1-click overclocking. The memory slots are dual-latch. The spacing seems adequate for large CPU coolers. The only issue here may be tall DIMM heatsinks in slot A1 and low cooling fins on an air-cooled heatsink.
We mentioned in the section above that there are three M.2 slots. The primary M.2 is derived from the CPU and is Gen5 x 4 (128Gb/s). M.2_2 is Gen4 x 4 (64Gb/s), and M.2_3 is Gen4 x 4 with lanes derived from the chipsets. The position of M.2_2 is just below the primary PCIe slot. It “may” be fully usable if the native heatsink is not too tall. Even then, you would have to forego the motherboard heatsink. There simply is not enough space. However, heat from a large GPU may be a problem. Slot M.2_3 is well out of the way, just adjacent to the chipset heatsink. It would be fully usable in conjunction with a large GPU. There are also 4 SATA 6Gb/s ports on the lower right side.
Expansion
Expansion on the board consists of one PCIe Gen5 x 16, two PCIe Gen3 x 1(one full-size and one half-size), and one PCIe Gen4 x 4. The primary PCIe slot is reinforced, which is nice to see. MSI uses what they call “EZ PCIe Release” for the primary GPU release. This is one of our favourite new push-button GPU releases. The insertion is crisp, and the release is undeniable.
The button is well away from interference from the video card. This release allows you to easily remove a large GPU one-handed. The utility of the small PCIe slot, PCIe_,2 comes into question. The slot sits beside M.2_2 and directly beneath the battery. For our testing, we used an XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Gaming Edition video card, which is 2.5 slots. You simply cannot access this little PCIe slot with a dedicated GPU in place. Quite frankly, who would buy a “GAMING PLUS MAX” motherboard and not use a dedicated GPU?
I/O
The rear I/O panel on the MSI MAG X870E GAMING PLUS MAX WiFi is quite complete. First of all, the case bracket is preinstalled, which seems to be customary these days. Working from left to right: recessed Flash BIOS and Clear CMOS, HDMI Port, USB-A 5Gb/s, which also serves as the Flash BIOS port, USB-C 40Gb/s, dual USB-A 10GB/s, four USB-A 2.0, 5GB RJ-45, USB-A 5Gb/s, and USB-C 20Gb/s, finally, WiFi antenna ports and analog 3.5mm audio.
On the main board, there are a total of eight 4-pin fan headers, three top-board labelled SYS_Pump, CPU_Fan and SYSFAN1, three on the right side, one on the bottom row and one on the left near the primary PCIe slot. All fan headers can be controlled by either Smart Fan in the BIOS or Cooling Wizard on the MSI Center desktop software. The right side of the board houses the aforementioned fan headers, one ARGB header, 24-pin power, USB 2.0 header, USB-C 5Gb/s front panel port, 4 SATA ports, a front panel USB-A 5Gb header and another fan header. The bottom row has the front panel header, ARGB Header, fan header, USB-A 5Gb/2 front panel port, two USB 2.0 headers, EZ-Conn port, PCIe 8-pin power connector, another ARGB header, one 12V LED header, and the audio header. RGB can be controlled by Mystic Lighting in the MSI Center software.
