MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti WiFi Motherboard Review

TweakTown Rating: 88%

Our Verdict

This little MSI motherboard is a capable mid-tier Mini-ITX contender, particularly if you are looking for a board with a strong networking complement.

Pros

• Strong networking
• Fast memory support
• Refined UEFI

Cons

• No USB 4
• M.2 fan can be noisy without tweaks
• VRM temperatures are on the high side

Should you buy it?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

Buy at PC Case Gear for $409 AUD

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Over the past few years, Mini-ITX has surpassed Micro-ATX as the preferred form factor for mini-PCs, and all manufacturers now offer a range of Mini-ITX options for both AMD and Intel platforms.

The MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti WiFi is a part of MSI's Performance Gaming series. MPG boards are in the middle of the gaming stack, between the high-end MSI Enthusiast Gaming (MEG) and the entry-level MSI Arsenal Gaming (MAG) motherboards. That indicates the B850I Edge Ti should offer a good blend of features and affordability.

Like most Mini-ITX boards, you can't expect it to include the more comprehensive feature sets of an ATX board. That's down to limited PCB space. You get just the one PCIe 5.0 expansion slot, two M.2 slots, and two memory slots, but you still get the core features you'd expect from an 800-series board, including WiFi 7 and PCIe 5.0 support. 5G LAN is a welcome inclusion, too.

One of the more interesting inclusions is an actively cooled M.2 heatsink. That's likely due to its dual function, which also cools the chipset. The confines of an SFF case can be cramped, so its inclusion is not a surprise.

What is more surprising is MSI's claim of support for speeds of up to DDR5-10000 with a Ryzen 8000 series APU. Even the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Apex doesn't boast that, although it certainly can with the right combination of a capable CPU, memory, and cooling.

Aesthetically, the board looks the part. White or silver-themed boards have a clean look about them. The black M.2 cooling fan stands out a bit, but the board certainly looks like it's a premium one.

Further Socket AM5 Reading – Our Latest Reviews

• ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Apex Motherboard Review
• ASRock X870 LiveMixer WiFi Review - Connect all your devices and more with up to 25 USB ports
• ASUS TUF Gaming B850-Plus WiFi Motherboard Review - A board with lots of expansion potential

At the time of writing, the MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti WiFi is available for $289.

Best Deals: MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti WiFi Motherboard

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	-	$219.99 USD	$189.99 USD	Buy
	-	$334.99 CAD	$334.99 CAD	Buy
	-	£472.34	-	Buy
	-	$219.99 USD	$189.99 USD	Buy
	$409 AUD	$409 AUD	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned 11/6/2025 at 11:05 pm CST - prices may be inaccurate. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We earn affiliate commission from any Newegg or PCCG sales.

Packaging, Accessories, and Overview

30

Just in case you're ever tempted to eat a part of a motherboard, a very conspicuous warning advises you not to. Seriously, if you have kids around, it's a good idea to be aware of the damage that button batteries can cause.

30

The rear of the box showcases the board's key features, along with a comprehensive specification rundown and a view of the rear I/O.

30

The B850I Edge Ti WiFi's accessories include everything you'd expect. The bundle includes a WiFi 7 antenna, a pair of SATA cables, RGB cables, quick installation instructions, and some stickers.

Several recent MSI boards feature a header that combines USB 2.0 ports, an ARGB header, and a fan header into a single cable. MSI calls it EZ-Conn, and it's a nice little way to avoid some of the cable spaghetti that's usually inevitable when assembling a system.

Motherboard Overview

30

The board features an attractive silvery-grey color scheme. Perhaps a white design would be easier to integrate into a broader range of builds, but it's still a lovely-looking motherboard.

The CPU socket area is quite spacious, featuring a low-profile heatsink section. The board lacks built-in RGB, but it does feature a single ARGB header, as well as a second one via the EZ-Conn cable. Using the same cable, the board provides up to four fan headers (three on the PCB and one extra) and four USB 2.0 ports (two via a header on the PCB and two extra).

The board also includes headers for a pair of USB 5Gbps ports and a single 10Gbps Type-C port. In terms of internal I/O, the B850I Edge Ti is well equipped, though a front 20Gbps port would be a welcome addition.

30

The rear of the board features a darker grey color, and the second M.2 slot is located here.

30

As is the case with nearly every Mini-ITX motherboard, you get just the two RAM slots supporting up to 128GB. Boards with two RAM slots generally feature superior memory overclocking capabilities thanks to their shorter trace lengths. As mentioned, MSI suggests that the board will handle speeds of up to DDR5-10000 with a Ryzen 8000 series processor, with speeds of up to 8200 supported with a Ryzen 9000 processor. Assuming AMD updates the I/O die of future Zen 6 CPUs, this board might be a memory overclocking gem, especially if CUDIMM support is added.

30

Storage-wise, the B850I Edge Ti includes two M.2 slots. The primary slot supports PCIe 5.0. The one on the rear supports PCIe 4.0. The rear slot doesn't include a heatsink, so you'll want to keep an eye on the temperatures of a drive inserted there, as it might not get much airflow - if any - depending on your case. A drive with an integrated heatsink would be better, but again, only if you have the space for it. Two SATA ports join the two M.2 slots.

30

The primary heatsink features an embedded fan. It serves a dual purpose, cooling both the SSD itself and the underlying B850 chipset. Given the usually tight confines of a Mini-ITX case, I believe the inclusion of such a fan is a necessary evil. These little blighters can get very noisy when they ramp up, but thankfully, the fan curve can be adjusted in the BIOS. The fan connects to the board via a dedicated mini 4-pin header.

The single reinforced PCIe slot supports PCIe 5.0 x16 cards. With just one PCIe slot and two M.2 slots, there are no compromises on lane sharing, unlike with a fully populated ATX B850 motherboard.

30

A Mini-ITX board simply doesn't have the PCB space for a high-end VRM subsystem, but an 8+2+1 design with 90A stages is easily enough to power the likes of a Ryzen 9 9950X. You wouldn't want to push it too hard, as the VRM lacks the surface area of dual heatsink designs, and as a result, the VRM can get a bit warm. A small secondary heatsink on the rear of the board assists with cooling.

If you choose a more common chip, such as a Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7, the lower demands of those chips will not present any issues as long as there is sufficient case airflow, which is particularly important in a cramped Mini-ITX case.

30

The rear I/O can be best described as adequate, with both strengths and weaknesses. The USB complement consists of just six ports. USB4 is a notable omission, though you do get a single 20Gbps Type-C port. It's joined by three 10Gbps ports and two 5Gbps ports.

The networking controllers are more praiseworthy. A Realtek RTL8126 controller controls the single 5G LAN port, while a Qualcomm QCNCM86510G WiFi 7 controller supports 320MHz connections, delivering up to 5.8Gbps of bandwidth.

Next are the audio ports, which consist of 3.5mm line-in and line-out ports, as well as S/PDIF. A Realtek ALC4080 codec drives these.

Finally, we have an HDMI 2.1 port, a CMOS clear button, and a BIOS flashback button.

UEFI, Software and Test System

UEFI

With its 800 series motherboards, MSI introduced a new UEFI design. Considering MSI's UEFI design remained essentially unchanged since the Intel Z68 days, it is a welcome upgrade.

It combines the simplicity of old-school BIOS layouts with a fresh design that's easy on the eye, with attractive fonts and contrast. The hardware monitoring page, in particular, is well-designed.

You'll want to visit the hardware monitoring page to tweak the settings of the M.2 embedded fan. It can become quite loud when spinning above the 40 to 50 percent range, but setting it below that range will provide a good balance of noise and temperature moderation.

MSI refers to its motherboard software as the MSI Center. It allows you to download various modules depending on your requirements. The Mystic Light RGB control and hardware monitoring apps are two likely downloads, but there are also several AI-assisted modules for tasks such as diagnostics, performance, audio, and networking.

Test System

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X - Buy from Amazon
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• OS Storage: Teamgroup T-Force Z540 2TB - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Titanium 850W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro - Buy from Amazon

Benchmarks - Rendering and Encoding

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024 is a reliable and frequently used benchmark that measures both single- and multi-threaded CPU performance. Note that all our benchmark testing utilizes the latest available Windows updates.

30

The B850I Edge Ti performed well, achieving 2,301 in the nT test and 138 in the 1T test. The nT result is a good one for a Ryzen 9 9950X with our test settings.

Blender

A rendering application like Blender is just one of many reasons a user might consider a high-core-count CPU, such as the Ryzen 9 9950X. We use the Whitelands demo file and record how long it takes to render the image.

30

A result of 436 seconds is a tad behind, judging by the graph, but a second or two over a seven-minute test is minuscule.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a simple-to-use video encoding and transcoding application. Here, we convert a 4K movie trailer to 1080p. The results below show the average FPS, where a higher result means the task will take less time to complete.

30

A result of 159.2 FPS is right on par with what a 9950X should achieve in this test.

Benchmarks - File Compression and Memory Latency

7Zip

7Zip is a commonly used free file compression and decompression app. It's very sensitive to changes in memory speed and latency, and scales with the number of CPU threads.

30

A result of 230.45 BIPS is a strong result for the B850I Edge Ti.

AIDA64 Memory Latency

Memory latency has been an area where Intel has traditionally held an advantage. Chiplet architectures inevitably add some latency compared to monolithic chips. The real-world benefits aren't that important, though.

30

71.0 nanoseconds outs the B850I Edge Ti mid-pack in this test.

Benchmarks - PCMark and 3DMark

PCMark 10 Productivity

We'd love to use our PCs solely for leisure, but some of us have to work too! The PCMark 10 productivity test performs a series of tests using office productivity applications.

30

Ultimately, all the tested boards are within a fraction of each other.

3DMark Storage

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. It is superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs of the actual game.

30

The B850I Edge Ti performs well in this test, topping the chart.

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

Time Spy Extreme is losing favor as a graphics benchmark in favor of Speed Way and Steel Nomad, but its CPU test is still a good measure of multi-core performance.

30

The differences between the boards are minor, with only a few hundred points separating the boards when measured by the CPU score.

Benchmarks - Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is brutal on graphics cards, but when features like ray tracing are disabled, it becomes more sensitive to CPU and memory performance differences.

30

It's no big surprise to say the motherboard makes little difference in graphically limited scenarios.

Horizon Zero Dawn

When using the 'favor performance' preset, Horizon Zero Dawn can achieve high frame rates with powerful graphics cards.

30

The differences here are negligible in percentage terms. If you're lucky enough to own an RTX 5090, the margins would be a little larger.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

Metro Exodus received an update that added improved DLSS support, enhanced ray tracing features, and variable rate shading, among other things. Still, with a powerful graphics card, it is affected by CPU and memory performance at 1080p, though less so with a card like the RTX 4070 Ti Super.

30

All the tested motherboards perform essentially identically.

VRM and SSD Temperatures

These tests are performed to show off the differences between each motherboard's cooling assemblies. In the case of VRM testing, each board is subjected to a 20-minute Cinebench loop, while the SSD test records the peak temperature recorded during the lengthy 3DMark Storage test.

30

One of the tradeoffs of the Mini-ITX form factor is that there is less space for a traditional heatsink assembly. Here, we have only one 'bank', which means the VRM temperatures will be higher than those of a typical ATX board. Still, a result of 66 degrees is well within design specifications. As long as your case has sufficient airflow, it will not be a problem, particularly for a less demanding six- or eight-core CPU.

30

The advantage of having a heatsink with an embedded fan is that it allows for lower temperatures. However, it's worth tweaking the fan curve as it gets a little bit noisy under default settings. Note that the primary M.2 heatsink is also responsible for chipset cooling, which undoubtedly adds a few degrees to the SSD temperatures.

Final Thoughts

As a longtime fan of small-form-factor computers, I'm always pleased to see Mini-ITX options come across my desk. The MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti WiFi is a compelling option for those seeking to build a mini-PC with a solid feature set that ticks most of the essential boxes.

At $289. The MSI is reasonably priced compared to the GIGABYTE B850I AORUS Pro and ASUS ROG Strix B850-I Gaming, but it is significantly higher than the ASRock B850I Lightning, which can be found for around $210. The ASRock lacks the 5G LAN and WiFi 7 of the MSI, however.

The MSI's networking complement is arguably the board's biggest strength. 5G LAN and 320MHz WiFi 7 are as good as you'll find on any board, whether Mini-ITX or otherwise, unless you step up to a flagship-tier board with 10G LAN or dual LAN if you require it.

A notable omission is USB4. For now, I don't consider that a must-have feature, but as more devices come with USB4 support in the years to come, it will become increasingly valuable. It can also be used for hubs. The B850I Edge TI is lacking in the USB area. Although you do get a front USB 20Gbps port, the rear I/O features only six ports, which can be quickly taken up once you factor in a keyboard, mouse, headset, or external HDD, etc.

The VRM is sufficient to power a 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X, but given its small heatsink area relative to ATX boards, a CPU with a lower core count would be a more recommended pairing. A Ryzen 7 9700X or 9800X3D would be a good base for a powerful little gaming system.

The embedded 40mm SSD heatsink fan is necessary, but it's well worth tweaking the fan curve to avoid unnecessary noise. If you have a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 drive, you can lower the volume even further, ensuring it is never audible above the noise of other system components.

MSI includes a useful software bundle, and the updated UEFI layout is visually appealing, offering simple navigation.

The MSI MPG B850I Edge Ti WiFi is a strong contender in the mid-tier Mini-ITX market. It's simply a matter of weighing different features. The networking complement is excellent, but if you can live without that, the ASRock B850I Lightning is a very strong competitor. If you do choose the MSI, it's a solid offering that will happily sit at the heart of your Mini-ITX build.