Best X570 motherboard for high-end AMD gaming PC
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REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Darl Hero is one of the most high-end motherboards on the market. It has all the features you need and more. The motherboard has an excellent, strong design with a lot of covering shields and heat sinks.
The motherboard features PCIe 4.0 for GPU and SSD. It would help if you bought a PCIe 4.0 SSD to experience incredible NVMe 5GB/second transfer speeds. PCIe 4.0 SSDs are pretty hot when running, but the motherboard already has heat sinks, which help cool down the M.2 SSD.
The X570 Crosshair VIII Hero has a lot of overclocking potential. If you are into this, buy a good PSU, cooling system, and a high-end Ryzen 5000 CPU. You will see how great those additional overclocking features are. You can overclock the CPU, GPU, and RAM.
Another excellent feature of the motherboard is flashing the bios via USB without a processor or memory. Along with the debug led, it can be handy when you need to diagnose and fix your system.
The motherboard also comes with reinforced PCIe slots, excellent audio output. The board's RGB lighting is enough for basic needs.
Best Z590 motherboard for high-end Intel gaming PC
SPECIFICATIONS
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
If you are looking for a motherboard for your 11th high-end PC, this is the motherboard for you. You can also use the motherboard for 10th CPUs. However, you might not be able to use all features of the motherboard.
The ROG Maximus XIII Hero has everything you need for regular gaming or more. You can see the whole motherboard is shielded with a pre-mount IO cover and heat sinks. You can use maximum juice of the components, even push more with overclockable components like CPU, GPU, and RAM.
The motherboard allows you to use multi GPUs, many M.2 slots, SATA connectors, three gigabit-ethernet ports, tri-band wifi. It also has a lot of USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Thunderbolt 4 ports (x2)! Read the manual before using more than one of any components (GPU, M.2 SSD, SATA drive) to make sure everything works.
Best AMD motherboard for mid-range gaming PC
SPECIFICATIONS
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
Although this is a B550 motherboard, it is not like other B550 ones. You can misread the ROG B550-F as a high-end X motherboard by the look. Just compare it with the motherboards above.
The motherboard has the high-end features of an X570 motherboard. It works with up to Ryzen 3000 CPUs out of the box. If you want to use more recent CPUs, you might want to upgrade to the newest bios.
The motherboard has PCIe 4.0 lanes for new GPUs and SSDs. You can run the latest GPUs and SSDs, which need PCIe 4.0 lanes for maximum performance. The Strix B550-F is still compatible with older PCIe 3.0 models.
Best Intel motherboard for mid-range LGA 1200 gaming PC
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REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
If you want an excellent motherboard for your PC, but you don’t plan to do any overclocking, then the ASUS ROG Strix B560-A Gaming WiFi is the best choice for you. This one costs the same as a cheap Z590 motherboard but lacks some overclocking features and better-built quality.
Compared to other B560 motherboards, the Strix B560-A has 3 case fan headers, many I/O options, a high-speed USB C header, a better sound processor, a pre-mounted I/O shield cool heat sinks for VRMs, chipset, and M.2 SSDs.
The motherboard also has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, and 2,5G Ethernet, ready for all kinds of devices and networks.
Best Z390 motherboard for LGA 1151 builds
SPECIFICATIONS
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
The GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO Wi-Fi is a hot pick in its time. There are LGA 1200 mobos and CPUs, but LGA 1151 builds are still good for value.
When holding the motherboard, the first thing you can feel is it has a thick, solid PCB that can easily support heavy CPU air coolers.
The second thing you can see is its reliable power phase. With 12+1 Phases Digital VRM Solution, you can use the motherboard to overclock any unlocked 1151 CPU. Remember to use a good CPU cooler; a custom cooling system is the best.
The motherboard features the Realtek ALCS1220 audio onboard codec, using quality capacitors. It is good enough for gaming, music, and movies.
You can also see two M.2 NVMe slots for SSDs with heat sinks, Intel AC wifi, and an Intel gigabit NIC which are pretty enough for fast storage and connectivity.
In addition, as many high-end motherboards, the Aorus Z390 Pro Wi-Fi also supports SLI and CrossfireX multi GPUs. The PCIe slots are reinforced with metal to prevent the motherboard and the graphics cards from bending or breaking.
Best budget am4 motherboard
SPECIFICATIONS
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
There is not much to discuss the Asrock B450M Pro4. The motherboard is a budget choice for AM4 builds. You can experience many features from basic to advanced, even overclocking the RAM, CPU, and GPU.
Remember not to push your system too hard. The motherboard is not built for overclocking high-end CPUs.
Most brands have their own products for gaming. You can choose one of the following series:
The short answer is no. As long as your system works properly at default loads, the motherboard has no impact on gaming performance.
However, when you want to overclock your system (CPU, GPU, RAM), the motherboard impacts gaming performance. Many cheap Z Intel motherboards and cheap AMD motherboards can do overclocking. But if you want your overclocked system to work properly for a long time, a reliable motherboard is a must-have.
It depends.
If you upgrade from a budget CPU to a high-end CPU and/or GPU, you should upgrade your motherboard, maybe a new power supply, too. But if you make a small upgrade for your PC, like add one more RAM stick, a little more powerful CPU, or GPU, you might not have to upgrade your motherboard.
You better pay attention to your power supply. When people often have problems with the power supplies more than with the motherboard.
