The new MSI MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI is a premium micro ATX AM5 motherboard offering that's designed for white-coloured PC builds, where it packs an extensive feature list that allows it to stand out from the competition.

AMD AM5 motherboard refresh season is well and truly underway, where motherboard manufacturers are hard at work launching new AM5 motherboard offerings - this is to ensure that these boards come equipped with the latest features to go alongside AMD's "Zen 6" processors when they finally launch perhaps sometime later this year, on the very same AM5 socket. Unsurprising really, seeing as the first wave of AMD X870E and X870 motherboards first hit the market way back in September 2024, and boards powered by the B850 and B840 chipsets arriving some months later in January 2025.

In this regard, we'll be taking a look at a premium AM5 motherboard from MSI that could possibly be THE motherboard to get for those of you looking to build a high-end micro ATX AM5 PC in white: the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI. Featuring support for AMD's "Zen 5" Ryzen 9000 series of processors, the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs and CPUs, as well as the older Ryzen 7000 series of CPUs, this motherboard features a properly all-white aesthetic with white hardware connectors, finally giving Gigabyte's "ICE" line-up of white-coloured motherboards a run for their money

We've got no shortage of features too - the board comes with a whopping four M.2 slots, which is quite rare for a micro ATX motherboard offering. Throw in the fact that the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI also features a high-end VRM setup, PCIe 5.0 support for a graphics card and two concurrent M.2 drives with no PCIe lane-sharing, 5 Gigabit Ethernet, full-fledged WIFI7 with support for the 320MHz channel width, alongside a whole host of quality-of-life features, it appears that MSI's got a winner of an AM5 motherboard on hand. Read on to learn more!

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 February 2026)
Audio: Realtek ALC4080 audio codec
LAN: Realtek RTL8126 5 Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI: MediaTek MT7927 WIFI 7 module with built-in Bluetooth 5.4
Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 (runs at x16 mode),
Storage: 2x 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: Micro ATX
Official Product Page: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-B850M-EDGE-TI-MAX-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 - the Ryzen 8000 series of APUs and CPUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

Packaging & Contents

The MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI ships in an eye-catching box with an image of the motherboard emblazoned on the front, and over on the rear, we get the usual summary of specs for this board.

The board comes with the following accessories:

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

Visuals on the above accessories can be found in the walkthrough video for this motherboard, which is embedded at the top of this article. That said, the 1-to-3 EZ-Conn V2 cable forms part of a 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 lowdown on EZ Conn later in this article.

Board Aesthetics

In terms of motherboard aesthetics, we see that MSI's gone for a silver-and-white colour scheme, with a white PCB, silver-coloured heatsinks and at long last, white hardware connectors - major motherboard brands are finally challenging Gigabyte’s "ICE" line-up of proper all-white motherboards that also come with white connectors and headers!

The board has an integrated I/O shield design, and fans of RGB lighting effects will be pleased to know that the motherboard comes with an illuminated MSI dragon motif on the integrated I/O shield cover, as pictured above.

The B850 chipset has a single-chip design, and the said chip is cooled by a passive heatsink.

For M.2 drive cooling, MSI has provided heatsink coverage for the three M.2 drive slots that are found on the front of the board. The rear of this board has a M.2 slot too, and that slot doesn’t come with a heatsink due to obvious space constraints.

The rear of the motherboard is unremarkable, though we do get some markings that serve as a warning not to install unneeded motherboard standoffs within your PC case, which could otherwise damage the board. MSI has also taken the liberty to include protective paint around the motherboard’s screw holes to protect the PCB against scratches, which is a nice touch.

VRM & Memory Support

As expected, the VRM heatsinks for this board are decently-sized, and MSI's included 14+2+1 power phases with 80A power stages. In case you’re wondering, MSI's utilised a premium eight-layer PCB design for the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI.

For memory support, the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI comes with four DDR5 slots with a single-tab design that as of the time of publishing this article, comes with support for up to 256GBs of RAM, and up to the DDR5 8400 standard (with two single-rank DDR5 memory modules).

Front Panel USB Headers

In terms of front panel USB connectivity, we get a USB 20Gbps Type-C front panel header located right next to the RAM slots.

Moving over to the bottom edge of the board, we get a single USB 5Gbps Type-A front panel header, where this very header provides for up to two USB 5Gbps Type-A ports, as well as two USB 2.0 Type-A front panel headers. Each of these headers provide support for two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

In terms of expansion slots, this board comes with just a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot that you should be using for your graphics card – the said slot sports MSI’s Steel Armour II design to reinforce the slot for use with heavy graphics cards.

Do note that PCIe 5.0 is only supported when you have a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor installed – the Ryzen 8000 series of APU and CPUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

As can be seen, the slot also comes with the EZ PCIe Release feature that helps make removing a graphics card from the motherboard pretty straightforward – pressing down on the round button pictured above will undo the latch for the installation or removal of a graphics card, and we even get a little window with a graphic that shows whether the latch is locked in place or not. Pretty nifty!

In the storage department, MSI's included two SATA III ports, with both ports in a right-angled configuration to aid with cable management.

For M.2. slots, the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI comes with two PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots and one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot on the front, and over on the rear of the board, a PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, making this a rare micro ATX motherboard offering that has support for that many M.2 drives, and without any PCIe lane sharing to boot. Do note that all of these slots support NVMe SSDs only, M.2 SATA drives will not work in any of these slots.

Once again, do bear in mind that PCIe 5.0 is supported only with a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor installed – the Ryzen 8000 series of processors only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

The included M.2 heatsink features a tool-less design called EZ M.2 Shield Frozr II, which makes removing and installing the heatsink really easy. All you’ve got to do is 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, simply slide it back into place, and press down till you hear a click.

Another quality-of-life feature that the 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. As can be seen above, it only comes preinstalled for the PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot on the front to support M.2 drives in the 2280 form factor. If you’d like to use a M.2 drive in the 2260 form factor, you’ll have to reposition the M.2 Clip II device by using the EZ M.2 Clip II Remover tool that comes included with the board. 

The EZ M.2 Clip II can also be used on the PCIe 5.0 x4 slots if you decide to install a M.2 drive in the 2260 form factor, and it can be installed once you’ve removed the Philips head screw that secures the slot's backplate to the motherboard's PCB.

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 MediaTek MT7927 WIFI 7 module that supports the full-fat 320 MHz channel width, where this said module also serves up Bluetooth 5.4 support.

Fan & RGB Headers

The MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI comes with six fan headers in total:

• 1x CPU_FAN1
• 1x PUMP_SYS1
• 4x SYS_FAN

Also included are three Gen 2 addressable RGB headers in the locations highlighted above.

Other Features

Near the top of the motherboard, we get an EZ Debug LED that can help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues, and an EZ Digi-Debug LED that can further help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues. As can be seen from the BIOS screenshot above, the EZ DIGI-DEBUG LED can be configured from within the BIOS to serve as a temperature monitor for the various components on your motherboard, which is a cool feature to have for sure!

We also get an EZ Memory Detection LED that lights up when the board detects faulty memory modules installed in the slots. This feature can help eliminate guesswork when troubleshooting PC issues.

Along the bottom edge of the motherboard, we get an EZ LED Control switch that allows you to physically switch off all the ARGB LEDs of the motherboard, specifically, the ARGB lighting on the I/O shield and whatever devices you might have hooked up to the board’s ARGB headers. We do also get a chassis intrusion header right next to the EZ LED Control switch.

For you folks looking to extract as much performance out of your AM5 processors, you'll be pleased to know that MSI's included two BCLK frequency jumpers that allow end-users to fine-tune the CPU base clock (BCLK) on-the-fly while the system is in operation.

Moving on, we get a safe boot jumper that when enabled, forces the system to boot with default BIOS settings and lower PCIe link speeds from the CPU, alongside a Clear CMOS header.

We do also get an EZ Conn (JAF_2) header next to the chipset heatsink - EZ Conn is a MSI-specific connector that 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 four-pin PWM fan header.

Rear I/O

The MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX 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)
• 4x USB 10Gbps Type-A ports
• 3x USB 10Gbps Type-C ports
• 4x USB 5Gbps 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, I do think that the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI has lots going for it – if you’re intending to build a high-end AMD AM5 PC in white and in the micro ATX form factor, this board in my opinion is pretty much it!

The unique feature that sets this board apart from the competition is the fact that it comes with four M.2 slots in total, which is pretty much unheard of for a micro ATX motherboard offering. To add to that, you’ve got a whole slew of nice quality-of-life features, a solid VRM setup that should support even the highest-end AMD AM5 processors, 5 Gigabit Ethernet, full-fledged WIFI 7 support, alongside a good array of USB Type-A and USB Type-C connectivity options.

Add in the fact that this board doesn’t have any PCIe lane-sharing shenanigans unlike X870E and X870 boards, and the added bonus that the motherboard looks really good with its use of white onboard hardware connectors and headers, I’d say that MSI’s really knocked the ball out of the park with the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI.

As of the time of publishing this article, pricing information is not yet available - here's hoping that the MPG B850M EDGE TI MAX WIFI will have a palatable price tag.

Get this motherboard from Amazon: https://amzn.to/4kh9O6r

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