MSI X99A Tomahawk Motherboard Overview + Software & UEFI Tour | Tek Syndicate

Level1Techs
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Logan checks out the MSI X99A Tomahawk motherboard.

Amazon Price Check: http://amzn.to/2e1GH5X
Specs, at a glance:

Supports New Intel® Core™ i7 processors Extreme Edition in LGA 2011-3 socket
Supports Quad Channel DDR4-3333+(OC) Memory
DDR4 Boost: Give your DDR4 memory a performance boost
Support lntel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.
USB 3.1 Gen2 2X FASTER: USB 3.1 Gen2 offers performance twice as fast as a regular USB 3.0 connection
Turbo M.2 32Gb/s + Turbo U.2 32Gb/s + USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A+C + SATA 6Gb/s
TWIN GAMING LAN with LAN Protect, powered by Intel®: The best online gaming experience with lowest latency
Audio Boost 3: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality
GAMING Hotkey: Assign macros, launch your favorite games or do real-time overclocking using a single button
XSplit Gamecaster v2.5: 1 year free premium license to show off your skills and achievements to the world
SteelSeries Certified: Optimized for SteelSeries gaming gear
Military Class 5: The latest evolution in high quality components featuring the brand new Titanium Chokes
MULTI-GPU with Steel Armor: Steel Armor PCI-E slots. Supports 4-Way NVIDIA SLI™ & AMD Crossfire™
Click BIOS 5: Award-winning brand new Click BIOS 5 with high resolution scalable font
GAMING CERTIFIED: 24-hour on- and offline game testing by eSports players for the best gaming experience
USB Speed Up: for up to 30% performance improvement on USB devices
Product page: https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/X99A-TOMAHAWK.html


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://teksyndicate.com/videos/msi-x99a-tomahawk-motherboard-overview-software-uefi-tour
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Hello.
The review is meh.
That is all.

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Thus my whining about casuals.........

5

bullshit!

Does it do VT-D?

Does it have No_MSI_Features mode / Linux friendly?

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First question is the linux support for their added stuff.

Second is does this mean the tek is just dead? I was expecting to see it when I saw a video was posted.

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It does have a VT-D option, like any other MSI X99 board I know of.

As for Linux friendly, I don't notice any issues running Mint on my own X99A Gaming 7. Everything just works.

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All X99 boards have support for vt-d.
And as far as linux support is concerned, that highly depends on the kernel.

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As far as the vrm is concerned on this board.
Its not an 8 true phase design, but rather 4 true phases doubled to 8 with ISL6617 phase doublers.
THe PWM controller used on this board is the ISL6388 which is a 6+1 true phase hybrid controller.
So to get 8 phases they simply took 4 phases and doubled those to 8 pwm phases.

I could eventualy post a vrm detailed spec some day if anyone is interested.

I´m personaly not a huge fan of Msi X99 boards.
Especialy not the ones with 4 true phases doubled to 8 pwm phases.
Like Msi X99 Sli plus, Msi X99 pro gaming carbon, Msi X99 Gaming7,
Msi X99 Gaming 9 AMK, and Msi X99 Raider.

For the rest cool review.

1 Like
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Okay review of an okay board.

I sorta understand for some of the UEFI stuff, but did we forget how to use screen capture software for the Windows utilities? Or are we just afraid of using OBS after that little misfortune involving the Tek? I sorta thought we were beyond filming the screen...

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On the linux question they could simply had added a rough and stairght "Yes" or rough "No" and all fine. But wtf. I was at least expecting that as I can't live without linux :sademoji: