I'm in the process of building my new PC and I'm trying to decide between the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI and the MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk WIFI. The B850 is ranked higher but costs an extra £25—the B650 is available for £155 and the B850 for £180 on Amazon. It feels like spending a little more for the B850 makes sense, but is there something I'm potentially overlooking? Should I just go ahead with the B850?
3 Answers
The B850 is basically a refreshed version of the B650. If you're okay with slightly older tech, the B650 should work just fine for most use cases. But if you want the latest standards, maybe consider it a worthwhile upgrade.
To add on, the B850 offers an extra PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot, which the B650 lacks, plus it has more ARGB ports (three instead of two) and a CMOS reset button on the back. It's designed to be more future-proof, which is a solid reason to spend more.
The B850 has some notable upgrades like PCIe 5 lanes for the main x16 slot, which is great for future-proofing. It also features faster ethernet at 5gb/s compared to the B650's 2.5gb/s and upgrades from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7. I personally think the extra £25 is worth it for those benefits.

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