MSI MAG B760M MORTAR WIFI II LGA 1700 Intel B760 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX DDR5 PCI-E x16 slot 2.5Gbps LAN 3x M.2 Wi-Fi 6E Motherboard

Pros: I don't use a lot of the features on the board, but what I do use works as advertised. I haven't built a computer in a while and when I did mess something up, resetting the CMOS got me back on track. Updating the BIOS with the MSI control center was a no-go. They need to remove this software. Shame on me for using it, but shame on MSI for providing it. Updating the BIOS via USB worked as expected.

- Stable board
- Nearly all black

Cons: - MSI bloatware being pushed on you.
- Could be cheaper. It is on the premium side of B-Series, but given what Intel did to the chipset, I'd only buy a B series board at a steep discount.
- Some of the screws were too tight and required an electric screwdriver to undo.

If you are running a 13th gen processor, it is worth considering avoiding a B-series board in general. There are many threads and blog articles explaining this better than I can, but long story short, you cannot Undervolt on these boards without also experiencing a serious drop in performance on certain processors. It will absolutely demolish your benchmarks and performance.

I'm not knocking MSI's rating for this because it's an intel decision to do this with undervolting. It is worth noting in the review however, since I know some people turn to the B-series as a budget option.

Overall Review: It's a beautiful board that is worth the purchase for the right purposes. It fits my purposes despite the shortcomings of the B-series that I do not believe is within the control of MSI.

What is in control of MSI if that terrible software they try to bundle with the motherboard. I knocked my rating for this bloatware. Make it better or do not include it.

The screws also shouldn't be so tight from the factory that I need to use an electric screwdrive to undo them, but maybe I was the only one with this issue.

Otherwise, it is a good buy.

Pros: - Enough clearance for 5070, large CPU cooler fan and heatsink while having room for cables etc but was cutting it close at the bottom, under GPU.
- Looks pretty, although that's extremely unimportant unless your case is sitting on your desk. With how bad the wifi on this is, you're going to have to put the case on the desk no matter what just to download the drivers in under an hour.

Cons: -Download speed rarely if ever goes above 30 mbps consistently. I downloaded multiple copies of the same program on my machine w this mobo and a random cheap hp laptop from 2014. The same program? THREE HOURS to 40 mins on this mobo, literally A MINUTE AND A HALF on the less than 200$ laptop on the exact same wifi connection. Full drivers, fully functional CPU, it's 100% the fifty-cent wifi chip they put on this thing. Absolutely and insanely unbelievably awful, despicable performance on the wifi chip. The antennas will bring it up from 2 mpbs to 30 mbps but if you want to do like, quite literally any multiplayer game, please please PLEASE do not get this board. I have a feeling this is intended for people who just need wifi to download single player games and they're relying on scummy marketing to make it seem like it's actually capable of any sort of serviceable connection for any other kind of gaming or even just.. regular downloads, really.

- Customer support is nonexistent. If you have a problem, and you probably will, forget about receiving any meaningful support to solve it sans just getting a refund and getting a better board....

- The heatsink on the first M2 slot is functionally useless because you cannot remove it to put an SSD in there, unless you take it to a shop to get the torqued (yes, really, I have no idea why they thought this was an okay thing to do) screws out. There is a second M2 slot but it has no heatsink and is pretty slow. An electric screwdriver was not even able to get the screws out. Absolute insanity.

Overall Review: I've bought a lot of much cheaper budget boards than this and somehow this is soooo much worse than every single one of them. It wasn't dead on arrival, but hoo boy the wifi is BAD bad, like you're getting scammed bad, and the process of installing an SSD seems... optional, since you are going to need to take it into a shop to do it.

I recommend that unless you are okay with every single download taking 20-30x longer than it should, which is nobody, that you stay faaaaar away from this horrible, horrible scam of a product.