Modern PC gaming is, at its heart, about pushing the limits of technology and having reliable upgrade paths. The modern PlayStation and Xbox consoles are good enough for most people, especially since most major titles are cross-platform these days, but hardcore PC gamers are not most people. They want to extract the highest possible display resolution and frame rates out of every game they play while also getting the most responsive possible gameplay experience. This can get very expensive, and it can be pretty daunting if you're new to it.

MSI has emerged as one of the leading brands of PC components and PC hardware in general, particularly among gamers. Its product slate includes prebuilt PCs, handheld gaming PCs, graphics cards, motherboards, and more, as well as the MSI Afterburner GPU overclocking tool, the company's custom user interface for the popular RivaTuner app, a free download that works with all graphics cards.

MSI is a respected full-service source for quality PC hardware products across various price points. Its motherboards, in particular, tend to get a lot of attention, especially for PC gamers, so let's take a look at some of the best SKUs that MSI has on the market that you can build your next system around.

One mid-range MSI motherboard that's done quite well in professional reviews is the MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi, which retails for $219.99 but is usually available for less at Amazon. The board has an AM5 socket for AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 series CPUs, which is AMD's current/most recent socket type. Its basic specs are pretty up to date, with support for DDR5 RAM, M.2 SSDs, Wi-Fi 6E, and 2.5Gbps wired networking, but it lags behind the latest and greatest by having USB ports running at USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds and PCI Express lanes at PCIe 4.0 speeds instead of the newer USB 4.0 and PCIe 5.0. MSI's official website for the board, meanwhile, boasts that it has features for optimized cooling in terms of both fan control and running liquid-based cooling systems.