MSI intros cheaper ‘back connect’ Project Zero Intel motherboards for super-clean PC builds you might actually be able to afford

Want a super-clean desktop build? Get a motherboard with all the connectors on the rear. The only problem is price. It’s gonna cost you. But perhaps not as much as it once did, thanks to some new “Project Zero” Intel motherboards announced by MSI for CES.

Project Zero is of course MSI’s branding for motherboards with all the connectors on the rear, an approach other motherboard makers including Gigabyte and its own project Stealth boards and Asus and its BTF line are also running with.

Like most of the competition, MSI Project Zero motherboards have generally been pricey premium products up to now. But that changes with the new MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk WIFI PZ and MAG Z890 Tomahawk WIFI PZ White.

Tomahawk is MSI’s mainstream family of motherboards and it’s the first time Project Zero and that more affordable series of mobos have been married. As MSI itself puts it, Tomahawk products are aimed at PC builders who want a “no-frills, reliable platform for their PC.”

Like all Project Zero motherboards, these mobos move the connectors for everything bar the CPU, DRAM, and SSD on the rear, allowing for an ultra-clean look. As the Z890 moniker indicates, the boards are designed for Intel’s new Arrow Lake CPUs up to and including the range-topping Core Ultra 9 285K and sport a decent sport 16+1+1+1 setup of VRMs for 19 power stages.

You also get DDR5 memory overclocking support up to 9200 MT/s, a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for GPUs, a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot for NVMe SSDs, plus a pair of PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. Oh, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an Intel Wi-Fi 7 card, and 5 gigabit Ethernet.

Slightly frustratingly given value for money could be the central appeal of these boards compared to the “back connect” competition, MSI hasn’t actually released pricing for these boards.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that you’ll typically need a compatible case to use one of these super-clean mobos. In practice, that probably means more money on a new case, although as Nick explained, some of these rear-connect boards are more compatible with legacy cases than others.

Still, as we found last year, these back connect boards aren’t just about looks, they have cooling advantages, too. Anyway, hopefully, MSI’s new Tomahawk boards are part of a broader move to making cleaner PC builds more mainstream and affordable. Once you’ve built a PC with all the connectors neatly hidden away, it’s tough to go back to that old rat’s nest of cables.