The MSI MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI is a premium AMD B850 motherboard that is targeted at end-users looking to build a higher-end AMD Ryzen 9000 series gaming PC in white.

AMD launched its “Zen 5” Ryzen 9000 series of processors back in August 2024, followed by the high-end X870E and X870 chipsets for the AM5 platform back in end-September 2024 - this left the older B650E, B650 and A620 chipsets to be the flagbearers for mainstream AM5 chipset offerings. Fast forward to January 2025, we now finally have AMD’s mid-range and entry-level 800-series chipsets arriving on the scene, in the form of the B850 and the B840. 

To get in on the launch excitement, ALKtech takes a look at a premium B850 motherboard that is targeted at consumers looking to build a higher-end AMD Ryzen 9000 or Ryzen 7000 gaming PC in white - the MSI MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI. Sporting a white-and-silver aesthetic, as well as premium features such as a decent VRM setup, PCIe 5.0 support for a graphics card and two M.2 drives, 5 Gigabit Ethernet and WIFI 7 support, a premium audio codec...the list goes on. Read on to learn more about this motherboard!

Summary of Specifications

Processor Support: AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 series processors
Chipset: AMD B850
Memory: 4x DDR5 slots, max 256GB, up to DDR5 8400+ support (as of January 2025)
Audio: Realtek ALC4080 audio codec
LAN: Realtek RTL8126 5 Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI: Qualcomm QCNCM865 WIFI 7 module with built-in Bluetooth 5.4
Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (operates at x1 mode), 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (operates at x4 mode)
Storage: 4x SATA III, 2x PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2, 1x PCIe 4.0 x2 M.2, 1x PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 (M.2 slots support NVMe drives only)
Form Factor: ATX
Official Product Page: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-B850-EDGE-TI-WIFI/Overview 

Do note that PCIe 5.0 is supported only when a Ryzen 9000 or Ryzen 7000 series CPU is installed on this motherboard - Ryzen 8000 APUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

Packaging & Contents

As can be seen, the MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI comes in a rather colourful box with an image of the motherboard splashed across the front, and the usual summary of specs for the board over on the rear.

The board comes with the following accessories:

• MSI WIFI EZ Antenna
• 1x SATA III cable
• 1x EZ Front Panel cable
• 1x addressable RGB extension cable
• 1x 1-to-3 EZ Conn-Cable V2
• 3x spare EZ M.2 Clip II attachments
• 1x EZ M.2 Clip II remover tool
• Quick installation guide
• Regulatory information leaflet
• Sheet of MSI decorative stickers

Visuals on the above accessories can be found in the review video for this motherboard, which is embedded at the top of this article. That said, the 1-to-3 EZ-Conn cable forms part of a new MSI specific-feature called EZ Conn, which allows end-users to connect an addressable RGB device, a fan and a USB device to a single proprietary EZ Conn header on the motherboard - MSI's intention here is to simplify the hardware setup process, and I'll give a more in-depth lowdown on EZ Conn later in this article.

Board Aesthetics

In terms of aesthetics, we see that MSI has gone for a silver-and-white colour scheme, with a white PCB, silver coloured heatsinks and black hardware connectors.

Over on the rear of the motherboard, we get some markings that serve as a warning not to install unneeded motherboard standoffs within your PC case, lest one ends up shorting the motherboard. MSI has also taken the liberty to include protective paint around the motherboard’s screw holes to protect the PCB against scratches during installation, which is a nice touch.

RGB junkies will be pleased to note that the MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI comes with built-in Mystic Light RGB LEDs that can be found on the cover of the integrated I/O shield.

The B850 chipset sports a single-chip design, and the said chip sit beneath the large passive heatsink pictured above.

For M.2 drive cooling, MSI has provided full heatsink coverage for all four M.2 drive slots that this board comes with.

VRM & Memory Support

The VRM heatsinks for this board are decently-sized, and MSI has included 14+2+1 power stages with 80A power phases.

The board also comes with four DDR5 slots that sport a dual-tab design - as of the time of writing this article, the MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI supports a maximum of 256GBs of RAM and the DDR5 8400+ standard.

Front Panel USB Headers

For front panel USB connectivity, MSI has included a USB 20Gbps Type-C front panel header along the long edge of the board; this is accompanied by two USB 5Gbps Type-A front panel headers, with each header providing support for up to two USB 5Gbps Type-A ports, for a total of four ports.

We do also get two USB 2.0 front panel headers along the bottom edge of the board, with each of these headers providing support for two front panel USB 2.0 Type-A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

In terms of expansion slots, the MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI comes with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card – the said slot sports MSI’s Steel Armour II design to reinforce the slot for use with heavy graphics cards.

As can be seen, the primary PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card comes with the EZ PCIe Release feature, which helps make removing a graphics card from the slot a cinch. To undo the latch, simply press down on the button pictured above, which will undo the latch for the installation or removal of a graphics card. There's even a little window with a lock status motif that indicates whether the latch is locked in place or not. Pretty nifty!

To round things off in the expansion slots department, we see that the board also comes with a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that operates at x1 mode, as well as a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates at x4 mode. Do note that the full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (PCI_E3) shares bandwidth with the third M.2 slot (M.2_3); the said PCIe 4.0 x16 slot will drop down to operate at x2 mode when you’ve got a M.2 drive installed in slot M.2_3.

In addition, for those who are unaware, PCIe 5.0 is only supported when one has a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor installed – the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

In the storage department, MSI has included four SATA III ports, with all ports in a right-angled configuration so as to aid with cable management.

The board also comes with two PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots, a PCIe 4.0 x2 M.2 slot, as well as a PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot. Do note that these slots support M.2 NVMe drives only - M.2 SATA drives will not work with any of these slots. In addition, PCIe 5.0 is only supported when one has a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor installed – the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

A gentle reminder again that the full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (PCI_E3) shares bandwidth with the third M.2 slot (M.2_3); the said PCIe 4.0 x16 slot will drop down to operate at x2 mode when you’ve got a M.2 drive installed in slot M.2_3.

The heatsink for the first PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot features a tool-less design called EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II, which makes removing and installing the said heatsink really easy. All one's got to do is to press down on a button located at the side of the heatsink, and lift the heatsink away from the board. Reinstalling the heatsink is a breeze too, which involves simply sliding it back into place and pressing down on it, until the latch mechanism catches in place.

A quality-of-life feature that the board's M.2 slots have is EZ M.2 Clip II, which is a spring-loaded standoff device that makes installing and removing a M.2 drive a tool-less affair. Simply insert the M.2 drive into the slot and push the drive into place - the EZ M.2 Clip II will snap into place and secure the said M.2 drive.

Do note though, that only the primary PCIe 5.0 x4 slot comes with the EZ M.2 Clip II preinstalled - the rest of the board's M.2 slots utilise the traditional EZ M.2 Clip design for the standard 2280 M.2 form factor, but can still accommodate the EZ M.2 Clip II for shorter M.2 drive form factors - the EZ M.2 Clip II devices for these three slots are included as part of the accessories that the MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI comes with.

On the above note, the included EZ M.2 Clip II remover tool comes in handy to install and remove the EZ M.2 Clip II device - this is so as to accommodate M.2 drives of different lengths apart from the standard 2280 form factor.

Audio & Internet Connectivity

In a nod to the board's premium positioning, MSI has included a high-end Realtek ALC4080 audio codec.

Yet another indication of the fact that we're looking at a high-end motherboard offering, is the inclusion of 5 Gigabit Ethernet powered by Realtek's RTL8126 chip, and wireless internet connectivity courtesy of Qualcomm's QCNCM865 module, which supports the WIFI7 standard and the 320 MHz channel width. The said module also provides support for Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity.

Fan & RGB Headers

The MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI comes with a whopping eight fan headers:

• 1x CPU_FAN1
  
• 1x PUMP_SYS1
  
• 6x SYS_FAN

RGB headers are in no short supply too, where MSI has included three Gen2 addressable RGB headers and a single 12V RGB header.

Other Features

Kicking off this section are a set of EZ Debug LEDs and an EZ DIGI-Debug LED near the board's RAM slots, which can help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues.

As mentioned earlier, EZ Conn (JAF_2) is a new MSI-specific connector, and it allows end-users to easily connect MSI’s next-generation AIO CPU coolers or cooling fans to the motherboard with just one on-board connector.

For end-users who do not have such a MSI AIO CPU cooler or fan, the EZ-Conn header can still be used with non-MSI devices via the included 1-to-3 EZ-Conn cable that comes included with the motherboard - as can be seen from the photo above, the EZ-Conn Cable (V2) comes with an addressable RGB connector, a USB 2.0 connector and a 4-pin fan header.

Moving on, near the primary PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot is a TPM header for an optional TPM module...

...and moving over to the bottom edge of the motherboard, we see that MSI's included a chassis intrusion header.

We also get an 8-pin supplemental PCIe power connector that provides for an additional source of juice for the power-hungry flagship GPUs of tomorrow – according to MSI, the said connector can provide up to 252W of supplemental power.

Also included is a Clear CMOS header, as well as a Safe Boot jumper that when enabled, forces the system to boot with default BIOS settings and a lower PCIe link speed from the CPU.

Rear I/O

The MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI comes with an integrated I/O shield design, where the board comes with the following rear I/O ports:

• Flash BIOS button
• Clear CMOS button
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port (supports up to 8K resolution at 60 Hz)
• 2x USB 10Gbps Type-A ports
• 3x USB 10Gbps Type-C ports
• 1x USB 5Gbps Type-A port
• 4x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• 5 Gigabit Ethernet port
• MSI WIFI EZ Antenna connectors
• Audio jack connectors

The Flash BIOS feature allows end-users to update the motherboard's BIOS without needing to install a processor, RAM and graphics card.

Conclusion

To sum up, the MSI MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI is a premium motherboard offering targeted at PC hardware enthusiasts looking to build a higher-end AMD AM5 PC, and it definitely looks and feels the part. The board sports a VRM setup that should handle high-end Ryzen 9000 series processors with ease, PCIe 5.0 support for both a graphics card and two M.2 drives, a high-end audio codec, 5 Gigabit Ethernet with built-in WIFI 7, a nice array of USB Type-C and Type-A connectivity options, along with a whole bunch of quality-of-life features such as EZ-PCIe Release, EZ M.2 Clip II and so on. It's a pity though, that the board doesn't sport a full-white aesthetic with white-coloured hardware connectors - this probably would have made the board even better-looking, at least in my opinion.

Nonetheless, given the specs of this board, I’d say that it definitely gives AM5 motherboards with the high-end X870E and X870 chipsets a serious run for their money, where with the B850 chipset, at least we don’t get any PCIe lane bifurcation shenanigans that end up affecting your PCIe 5.0 x16 slot’s bandwidth, which is a phenomenon commonly seen with X870E and X870 motherboards in general.

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The motherboard featured in this article was a review unit provided on loan from MSI.