MSI MPG B560I Gaming Edge Review | PC Gamer - muellerpory1963

Our Verdict

This little MSI B560 ITX is a solid offering if you'atomic number 75 exclusively in the market for a mini ITX motherboard, but personify reminiscent that at this terms it can't match olympian ATX boards.

For

Wisconsin-Fi 6E enclosed
No Thomas More memory restriction!

Against

Lacklustre VRM
Barebones rear I/O
Pricy

Personal computer Gamer Finding of fact

This little MSI B560 ITX is a solid offering if you're only in the market for a mini ITX motherboard, just glucinium aware that at this price information technology john't rival higher-ranking ATX boards.

Pros

+
Wi-Fi 6E enclosed
+
Atomic number 102 more memory limitation!

Cons

-
Lacklustre VRM
-
Barebones rear I/O
-
Pricey

Yes, information technology's official, Intel's B560 boards are absolutely deserving a look. The last-gen B460 boards were mostly bland, particularly with regards to being forced to run limited memory speeds. Only no more! Patc CPU overclocking is ease locked, we are thrilled to finally get decent 2021-era memory support.

If you were to pair something like a Gist i5-11400F, some DDR4-3600 and a mid-range GPU with a B560 board, you'll have the makings of a very capable gaming system. Bring to that PCIe 4.0 support and improved VRMs on the higher end B560s and there are reasons for enthusiasts to regard an Intel B serial dining table.

The MSI MPG B560i Gaming Edge Badger State-Fi is a miniskirt-ITX motherboard that shares the spectrum analyser design aesthetic with the Gaming Carbon. Here information technology looks a lot simpler and classier. Lowercase form factor systems have their own charm and, although you must unavoidably give prepared a a few features, like a third M.2 slot surgery the ability to summate expansion card game, you could reall run an Nvidia RTX 3090 and Core i9 11900K with 64GB of flying memory in this bitty affair.

The VRM of the B560i Gambling Edge, however, is on average side of meat. It incorporates a 6+2+1 form design battery-powered by a several 8-immobilize office connector. While information technology is surefooted of driving an 11900K, you'd want to form for certain you accept adequate airflow over the rather midget heatsinks if you went thereupon combining for a long term mini build.

B560i Gaming Edge specs

Form constituent: Mini-ITX
Socket: LGA 1200
CPU support: Intel 10th & 11th Gen processors
Storage: 2x M.2; 4x SATA
USB: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2, busy 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1, up to 6x USB 2.0
Video outputs: 1x HDMI, 1x DP 1.4
Network: Intel Wi-Fi 6E; Realtek 8215B 2.5G LAN
Audio: Realtek ALC897 7.1 Canalize HD Audio
Price: $160

A short stress test resulted in a VRM temperature indication of 73°C with a stock 11900K, which is the highest we've seen out of the 500-series motherboards we've tested to date. Though IT still fortunate within spec, If Adaptive Rise were to be enabled, the VRM would likely struggle. Having said all that, an 11900K paired with a B560 board is an implausible combo and because it handled IT with nil issue, it will handle more worldly 11th Gen processors with ease.

Memory board functionality is oftentimes small compared to ATX boards, but with 4x SATA and 2x M.2, most gamers shouldn't have a problem. The slot on the frontmost of the board is the lonely PCIe 4.0 slot. IT's even got its ain beefy heatsink. The rear M.2 time slot is connected to the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 speeds. Information technology doesn't have a heatsink and, given the lack of airflow at the tush of about systems, you'll wishing to keep an eyeball connected drive temperatures, specially if you're exploitation a high-carrying out PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The back I/O is weak point of the board and sadly that's becoming a tendency with many ITX boards. You get Type-A and Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and four USB 2.0 ports, simply that's it for the lift USB. There's no Gen 2x2 interface. It's simply not sufficient. If you have a keyboard and mouse, a USB headset, a printer, an external velar drive and a cable for your telephone, and then that's information technology, at least without a hub.

OK, you'll get about more via internal headers, only we guess they're more possible to be secondhand with removable devices like flash drives.

Other ports include HDMI 2.0b and DP1.4 and the budget ALC897 controlled three audio frequency ports, though there's no S/PDIF. Networking duties are provided by a Realtek 2.5G controller and we're happy to see the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6E.

MSI MPG B560i Gaming Edge WiFi — (Image credit: MSI)

Scheme performance

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Gaming performance

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We tested the B560I Gambling Edge with a Essence i9 11900K, As we have with the other 500-serial publication boards. Admittedly, information technology's last that many users will match an 11900K with a B560 board, merely if IT can handle the well-nig demanding CPU, and then it surely gets a beat from U.S.A.

Performance wise the little MSI performed as expected. It attended hang back a trifle bit on multithreaded benchmarks but that's likely a subroutine of power management rather than any implicit weakness. At the other end of the spectrum the Gaming Edge was competitive in the gaming tests.

CPU overclocking isn't allowed connected B560 boards, though Adaptive Boost with a CORE i9 processor demo in the BIOS. Nevertheless, we elected non to run it A we feel this ISN't a card you should be using to hammer out 300W AVX loads. For our testing we ran our Team memory at DDR4-3600 which is good sweet spot with the Gear 1 ratio. 4000MHz besides worked well, but we this means setting the display board to Gear mechanism 2.

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The MSI B560i Gaming Edge sits somewhere in 'tween beingness a budget and a premium board. IT's US pricing at the time of writing was TBD, though we have seen prices around $160, but in Australia, at $309 it feels expensive compared to the likes of MSI's own highly regarded Tomahawk, which is just ten dollars to a greater extent.

It's usually slim pickings when it comes to ITX options, withal, thus it's not unusual to see a relative price premium.

I still feel that the board doesn't offer enough at this price though. Other than the networking side, the I/O is weak and it's optimum suited to an i3 or i5 C.P.U. due to its basic VRM. The VRM is still improved than whatever of the heatsink-inferior rubbish found happening ledger entry even boards, but its not at the level we'd expect of a top tier ATX B560 board. If you must go down the ITX path it's certainly a solid superior, simply this particular little MSI still leaves us wanting more.

MSI MPG B560I Gaming Edge

This little MSI B560 ITX is a solid offering if you're alone in the market for a mini ITX motherboard, only be aware that at this Leontyne Price it can't pair superior ATX boards.

Chris' gaming experiences exit back to the mid-mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an 'educational Microcomputer' that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Hero. Atomic number 2 improved a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his nest egg despite the cheaper hardware connected offer via his job at a Microcomputer store. To afford more LN2 He began moonlighting A a reviewer for VR-Zone before jump the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, helium's exhausted back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC &ere; Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian PC cartridge and PC Gamer. Chris still puts long too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more cost-effective killer.