Best gaming motherboard 2019 (February)

Picking the perfect gaming motherboard is a crucial a part of piecing collectively your gaming PC, so we’ve examined the perfect Intel Z390, Z370, and mainstream chipsets to be sure to discover the appropriate board for you.

It won’t have the identical efficiency affect as your selection of graphics card or CPU, however your motherboard will dictate which of both you may jam in your gaming construct. And it doesn’t cease there, your motherboard will determine what kind of storage drives you may plug in and what reminiscence you should use too. We’ve examined the perfect boards from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock that can assist you select the appropriate one to construct your rig round.

There are myriad choices to contemplate while you’re choosing the perfect motherboard for gaming. The most vital selection, nonetheless, is whether or not you’re choosing an Intel or AMD processor because the beating coronary heart of your rig. Last 12 months crew purple launched the AMD Ryzen CPU platform, together with an entire new line of AM4 motherboards, making the selection so much harder.

We’ve coated the perfect AMD gaming motherboards in one other information to cater for the AMD Ryzen 2 CPUs and upcoming 3rd Gen Ryzen chips, however, as a result of Intel can nonetheless nearly declare the very best gaming efficiency from its platform, we’re specializing in the completely different Intel choices right here.

Red crew followers: Here are the best AMD gaming motherboards

And it’s been a busy ol’ time for the chip large, with the Z390 chipset for the Intel ninth Gen CPUs launching final October.  These new CPUs are backwards suitable, which implies us players have a variety of motherboards, from funds chipsets to the highest Z390 boards, to select from.

The greatest gaming motherboards are:

Check out the perfect gaming motherboard costs at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

WINNER: BEST GAMING MOTHERBOARD

ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING

Approx. $247 | £228

Pros
 Z390 chipset
 Easy overclocking
 Great connectivity

Cons
 Expensive

The Asus ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming marks the entry-level into the high-end ROG vary. Despite that high-end heritage, it’s fairly well-suited to avid players and average overclockers alike. While most of its high-end siblings favour liquid nitrogen and record-breaking performance in lieu of affordability, the Z390-E blends simply sufficient of that ROG method with out overstepping into the intense.

The Z390 chipset doesn’t provide all that a lot in the best way of native performance over its predecessor: Z370. However, AI overclocking and some iterative updates to the tried and examined method make the Z390 a worthwhile enchancment. So lengthy as you don’t end up paying a premium for the Z390 board over its Z370 equal, there’s nothing to lose with the Asus Strix Z390-E Gaming.

Read our full Asus Z390-E Strix Gaming review.

Runner-up

MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

Approx. $207 | £155

Pros
 Z370 chipset
 M.2 warmth sink included
 Great connectivity

Cons
 Won’t mechanically apply all-core enhance

It’s a close-run factor between this mighty MSI Z370 and the standard STRIX board above. The Asus solely actually will get the win as a result of it doesn’t want any consumer enter to get your CPU operating at its greatest, simply you setting the XMP change within the BIOS. But the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC remains to be greater than able to matching the CPU and gaming efficiency of not less than the Asus Z370 board with solely just a little gentle tweaking of the clockspeeds, simply hitting the identical 5.2GHz overclock with the i7 8700Ok. And should you’re choosing a Ok-series CPU then what the hell are you doing not overclocking?

This ‘AC’ model comes with a discrete 802.11ac WiFi card, bolstered PCIe slots and a twin M.2 sockets. One of these has the M.2 thermal shielding to assist cool your NVMe drive, however isn’t as inflexible because the one on their X299 or the Asus Z370. It additionally has extra available USB connections on the rear of the board and extra RGB lovin’ than you may shake a sizzling LED strip at. And it’s typically a mite cheaper too.

Read our full MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC review.

Runner-up

Asus TUF Z370-Pro Gaming

Approx. $191 | £179

Pros
 Affordable
 All-core enhancement suitable
 Great efficiency

Cons
 Flimsy PCB

The lower-priced Asus TUF board delivers Coffee Lake efficiency for lots lower than both of the ~$200 MSI or Asus STRIX boards. The characteristic set is just a little lighter – there’s solely safety on a single PCIe slot, and the PCB feels a contact extra flimsy than the others – but it surely nonetheless has the overclocking efficiency in addition to Asus’ all-core enhancement characteristic which implies it ignores the Intel Turbo limitations.

That makes it a speedy little board straight off the bat with any Ok-series CPU you care to toss its method. That additionally means it’s obtained the gaming efficiency with out you having to do any tweaking past making certain your RAM’s operating at its XMP settings.

Read our full Asus TUF Z370-Pro Gaming review.

Winner: Best low-cost gaming motherboard

MSI B360M Mortar

Approx. $90 | £96

Pros
 Affordable
 Micro ATX type issue
 Great different to Z370

Cons
 Unable to overclock

The Intel H370 motherboards had been a very long time coming and, for essentially the most half, don’t actually provide any vital financial savings over the funds finish of the Z370 vary. As they’re newer boards they’re typically extra costly. The B360 nonetheless, exemplified right here by MSI’s wonderful B360M Mortar, does signify a good-value different to the Z370 possibility, with out sacrificing an excessive amount of in the best way of efficiency.

You will miss out on any overclocking potential of the Ok-series Intel processors, however with the mighty Core i5 8400 and its non-Ok ilk nonetheless providing critical gaming efficiency at inventory speeds, that’s not too large a difficulty. The B360M Mortar can also be a properly proportioned Micro ATX board too, permitting you to drop it into extra svelte chassis than the bigger ATX board commonplace.

Read our full MSI B360M Mortar review.

Runner-up

Gigabyte B360 Aorus Gaming Three WiFi

Approx. $114 | £110

Pros
 Good collection of ports
 Wireless connectivity
Great worth

Cons
 Unable to overclock

The B360 boards are your greatest wager for an inexpensive gaming motherboard now that the mainstream chipsets have been launched. The H370 choices are typically too costly compared with the funds Z370 boards, which additionally provide greater efficiency.

The MSI B360M Mortar has the higher general efficiency, is cheaper, and has the smaller type issue for additional versatility, however the Gigabyte has the added bonus of wi-fi connectivity. Realistically the MSI is the higher possibility, however the Aorus is an honest backup.

Runner-up

Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming K3

Approx. £138

Pros
Great worth
 Z370 chipset

Cons
 Gaming efficiency missing
 Not out there within the US

Gigabyte’s Aorus breed of motherboards is a little bit of an odd beast. While this impressively low-priced Z370 is freely out there within the UK, it’s not listed in any respect within the US, with solely a few different Aoruses (Aori?) out there for America. Which is a disgrace as a result of this isn’t a nasty funds Coffee Lake board, particularly provided that the lower-spec H370 boards arrived with greater value tags and weaker efficiency.

Like the MSI Z370 it’s caught to Intel’s Turbo tips, however there’s Gigabyte’s personal multi-core enhancement characteristic within the BIOS which you do need to activate intentionally. Then it matches the Asus design and ramps your Ok-series chip as much as its peak Turbo clockspeed. Unfortunately a few of the gaming efficiency remains to be just a little off the mark and, attempt as we would, we couldn’t get the Aorus to match the 5.2GHz overclock the Asus and MSI boards provide, having to make do with 5.1GHz. Which remains to be none too unhealthy for a funds board.

Runner-up

ASRock Z370 Killer SLI

Approx. $162 | £125

Pros
 Affordable
 Nvidia multi-GPU assist
 Solid VRM

Cons
 Gaming efficiency not nice

This ASRock Z370 is one other well-priced Z370 seeking to nook the funds Coffee Lake chipset market within the face of the sadly expensive H370 boards. Unfortunately each Gigabyte and Asus have launched equally priced boards with the identical kind of characteristic set and usually higher efficiency.

The Killer SLI doesn’t do badly, nonetheless, and might provide the Nvidia multi-GPU assist the Aorus can’t. It’s additionally obtained a wholesome 10-phase energy system which should make it an honest overclocker too. Sadly that’s all a bit unusual. The out-of-the-box efficiency seems good initially as our i7 8700Ok hit 4.7GHz immediately, just like the STRIX board, however then throttled single-core efficiency to 4.3GHz, which makes the gaming efficiency just a little weak. It was additionally rather less dependable when attempting to hit 5.2GHz too.

Winner: BEST COMPACT GAMING MOTHERBOARD

Asus ROG Strix Z390-I gaming

Approx. $199 | £217

Pros
 Great options
 Compact Mini-ITX
 Impressive connectivity

Cons
 Expensive

Mini-ITX motherboards are lovely. If cute issue alone isn’t sufficient to persuade you, nonetheless, the Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming additionally packs an ungodly quantity of performance onto a compact motherboard of its minuscule measurement. You can get eight cores and 16 threads operating contempt on this board, turning even the smallest gaming construct into the PC equal of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s quads.

This mini-ITX board packs in some critical performance inside its tiny body. While the chipset has little to supply over its predecessor, Z370, Asus have put loads of additional goodies on the board to make the next-gen worthwhile. For miniature eight-core monster builds, the Z390-I can’t be beat.

Read our full Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming review.

Runner up

MSI B360M MORTAR

Approx. $90 | £96

Pros
 Great options
 Micro ATX type issue
 Affordable

Cons
 Unable to overclock

The Intel H370 motherboards had been a very long time coming and, for essentially the most half, don’t actually provide any vital financial savings over the funds finish of the Z370 vary. As they’re newer boards they’re typically extra costly. The B360 nonetheless, exemplified right here by MSI’s wonderful B360M Mortar, does signify a good-value different to the Z370 possibility, with out sacrificing an excessive amount of in the best way of efficiency.

You will miss out on any overclocking potential of the Ok-series Intel processors, however with the mighty Core i5 8400 and its non-Ok ilk nonetheless providing critical gaming efficiency at inventory speeds, that’s not too large a difficulty. The B360M Mortar can also be a properly proportioned Micro ATX board too, permitting you to drop it into extra svelte chassis than the bigger ATX board commonplace.

Read our full MSI B360M Mortar review.

Picking the right motherboard in your rig can really feel like strolling a tightrope with all of the I/O you need on one aspect and value on the opposite. However, with just a little essential pondering, and planning out your construct round your board, the method will be fairly painless.

More cores: Need the best CPU for gaming to go along with that?

After all, except you’re a tremendous hardcore 1337 overclocking professional, it actually all comes right down to good high quality, a type issue that works in your case or desire, and a wholesome handful of ports. Performance between motherboards is completely negligible at this level, every thing that used to make a distinction to PC efficiency has lengthy since been shifted aboard the CPU itself.

After all, the motherboard is the vessel for all of your different, frankly, extra fascinating elements that basically make your gaming PC tick. It’s an vital a part of the puzzle, however one which needn’t hold you up at evening both.