The MSI MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI is a premium motherboard offering targeted at consumers looking to build a high-end AMD AM5 PC in white, with a plus point being that the board's M.2 slots do not share bandwidth with the primary PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card, a common scenario with other AMD X870E and X870 motherboards.

AMD launched its “Zen 5” Ryzen 9000 series of processors back in August 2024, and the high-end X870E and X870 chipsets for the AM5 platform back in end-September 2024. 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. Alongside MSI’s new motherboards featuring the B850 and B840 chipsets, MSI has also taken the opportunity to introduce a new X870E motherboard designed for high-end AMD AM5 PC builds in white: the MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI.

The said board sits within the MPG series of performance-oriented motherboard offerings at the higher-end, where it places below MSI’s flagship MEG series, and above the MAG series that is targeted at the mainstream demographic.

Featuring 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 X870E
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, 2x 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-X870E-EDGE-TI-WIFI/ 

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

The MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI comes in a colourful box with an image of the motherboard splashed across the front, and we do get the usual summary of specs for this motherboard over on the rear of box.

The board comes with the following accessories:

• 1x MSI EZ WIFI Antenna
• 2x SATA III cables
• 1x EZ Front Panel cable
• 1x 1-to-3 EZ Conn-Cable V2
• 1x EZ M.2 Clip II remover tool
• 1x M.2 drive slot backplate screw
• 1x flash drive with motherboard drivers and utilities
• Quick installation guide
• Regulatory information leaflet
• Sheet of MSI decorative stickers
• MSI survey leaflet

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

With the MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI, we see that MSI has gone for a silver-and-white colour scheme, with a white PCB, silver coloured heatsinks and black hardware connectors.

If you’ve read the earlier article where I covered the MSI MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that you’re seeing double, as both boards are near exact copies of each other in terms of aesthetics!

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 damaging the motherboard. It's great to see that MSI has also taken the liberty to include protective paint around the motherboard’s screw holes, which can help to protect the PCB against scratches during installation.

Fans of RGB lighting effects for their PC builds will be pleased to note that the MPG X870E 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 X870E chipset comes in a dual-chip design, and the said chips sit beneath the large passive heatsink as 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 MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI comes with 14+2+1 power stages with 80A power phases, which are cooled by decently-sized heatsinks.

For memory support, the board comes with 4 DDR5 slots with a dual-tab design that as of the time of publishing this article, comes with support for up to 256GBs of RAM and the DDR5 8400 standard when overclocked.

Front Panel USB Headers

Kicking off this section on front panel USB connectivity is a USB 20Gbps Type-C front panel header that can be found along the long edge of the motherboard, where the said header also supports 27W of Power Delivery for fast charging purposes. We do also get two USB 5Gbps Type-A front panel headers, with each header providing 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 header providing support for two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

For expansion slots, the MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI comes with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card, where the said slot features MSI’s Steel Armour II design to reinforce the slot for use with heavy graphics cards. It's absolutely worth highlighting that the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot does not share bandwidth at all with any of the board's M.2 slots - a marked improvement over earlier X870E and X870 board designs that for the most part, have some form of PCIe lane sharing between the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and the various PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots that such boards might have.

A quality-of-life feature that the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot comes with is EZ PCIe Release, which helps make removing a graphics card from the slot a breeze. 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!

Concluding this section on expansion slots is a full length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that operates at x1 mode, and a full length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates at x4 mode.

On a side note, it's worth noting that 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.

Moving on to storage connectivity, MSI's included four SATA III ports in a right-angled configuration.

The board also comes with two PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots and two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. 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.

While this board’s Gen 5 M.2 slots do not share bandwidth with the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a graphics card, we’re still unable to escape the fact that the USB4 controller (which is mandated by AMD for the X870E and X870 chipsets) still requires PCIe lanes from somewhere for functionality; with the X870E EDGE TI WIFI, what MSI has done is to have the USB4 controller share PCIe lanes with the second PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot, where slot M2_2 (as highlighted above) will run at PCIe 5.0 x2 speeds instead when the USB4 ports are in use. Should you have no use for the board's USB4 ports, you can disable them via the BIOS, and the second PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot will then operate at its full x4 link speed instead.

That said, the heatsinks of the board's M.2 slots all feature a tool-less design called EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II, which makes removing and installing the said heatsinks 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 cinch too, which involves simply sliding it back into place and pressing down on it, until the latch mechanism catches in place.

Another quality-of-life feature that all of 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.

If you’re intending to install a M.2 drive in a length other than the standard 2280 form factor, you can use the included EZ M.2 Clip II remover tool to reposition the relevant M,.2 slot's EZ M.2 Clip II device accordingly.

Audio & Internet Connectivity

For audio, MSI's included a high-end Realtek ALC4080 audio codec, while for wired internet connectivity, we get a Realtek RTL8126 chip that provides support for 5 Gigabit Ethernet. WIFI support on the other hand, is courtesy of a Qualcomm QCNCM865 WIFI 7 part that supports the 320 MHz channel width, and also serves up Bluetooth 5.4 support.

Fan & RGB Headers

The MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI comes with no shortage of fan headers, eight of them, to be precise:

• 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

Near the board's RAM slots are a set of EZ Debug LEDs and an EZ DIGI-Debug LED that can help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues.

We do also get an EZ Conn (JAF_2) header near the 24-pin ATX power connector - EZ Conn 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 comes with an addressable RGB connector, a USB 2.0 connector and a 4-pin fan header.

Moving on, we get a TPM header that is situated near the primary PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot - the said header is to be used for an optional TPM module.

Along the bottom edge of the motherboard is a chassis intrusion header, and near it, 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.

Rounding off this section is an EZ LED Control switch that allows you to disable all of the board’s onboard LEDs, 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 X870E EDGE TI WIFI comes with an integrated I/O shield design, where the board comes with the following rear I/O buttons and ports:

• Flash BIOS button
• Clear CMOS button
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port (with display output support for up to 8K resolution at 60 Hz)
• 5x USB 10Gbps Type-A ports
• 2x USB4 Type-C ports (with display output support for up to 4K resolution at 60 Hz)
• 4x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• 5 Gigabit Ethernet port
• 1x USB 10Gbps Type-C 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 X870E EDGE TI WIFI is premium motherboard offering targeted at PC hardware enthusiasts looking to build a high-end AMD AM5 PC in white, and it definitely looks and feels the part. It’s also great to note that unlike the earlier X870E boards that launched late last year – this X870E board actually does not have any of the lane sharing shenanigans that would result in the halving of the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot’s bandwidth when you have a certain configuration of M.2 drives installed. In addition, the board sports a VRM setup that should handle high-end Ryzen 9000 processors with ease, PCIe 5.0 support for both a graphics card and two M.2 drives, 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 worth noting though, that this board is very similar in terms of specs and aesthetics as compared to the MPG B850 EDGE TI WIFI that I covered previously. In addition, we’re still unable to escape some form of PCIe lane sharing due to the presence of the USB4 controller, where the said controller now shares lanes with the second PCIe 5.0 x4 slot instead of affecting the GPU, which I suppose is the lesser of two evils.

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