MSI MPG B650I Edge WiFi review

Devotees of the Mini-ITX form factor have lots of options to choose from, from the entry level to the high end, with multiple platforms and chipset options. ITX has displaced Micro ATX as the preeminent small form factor.

ITX has displaced Micro ATX as the preeminent small form factor.

I'm very much a Mini-ITX fan, and I've had the pleasure of testing multiple mini motherboards recently; first there was the ASRock Z790I Lightning and now the MSI MPG B650I Edge WiFi. As the name suggests, it's an AMD B650 board that aims to strike a balance between affordability and a decent feature set.

I like the look of the board. It'll blend in with black or white themed builds. It supports Ryzen 7000 and 8000-series processors, and will surely receive BIOS updates allowing it to run upcoming Zen 5 CPUs too. Its two memory slots support up to 128GB of memory at speeds of DDR5-7200, although DDR5-6000 or a touch above remains the sweet spot for the AM5 platform, because you'll be sticking to the optimal 1:1 RAM and memory controller ratio.

The board includes an 8+2+1 phase VRM with 80a stages. That's not extreme compared to some of the VRM systems you'll see on boards built for Intel 14th Gen processors, but It's easily sufficient to run a Ryzen 9 7950X, which means any other AM5 CPU, including X3D models will run on the Edge without a hitch. The VRM heatsink is quite chunky, meaning potential buyers will need to make sure your choice of cooler will fit, though that's an issue common to all ITX boards.

Socket: AMD AM5
CPU compatibility: AMD Ryzen 7000 / 8000-series processors
Form factor: Mini-ITX
Memory support: DDR5-7200+(OC), up to 128GB
Storage: 2x M.2, 4x SATA
USB: Up to 1x USB 20Gbps, 4x USB 10Gbps, 4x USB 5Gbps, 2x USB 2.0
Display: 1x HDMI 2.1
Networking: Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5G LAN, AMD WiFi 6E
Audio: Realtek ALC4080
Price: $259 / £199 / AU$349

The board comes with a PCIe Gen 4 x16 slot and a pair of Gen 4 M.2 slots, one of which is on the rear of the board. If you want Gen 5 SSD