Best Intel Motherboard 2023 for 14th / 13th / 12th Gen CPUs (14600K, 13600K, 12400 & More)

hi welcome back to PC Builder I'm Jason now whether you're building a budget gaming PC with an i5 12400 or a 4K Ultra gaming PC with an i54 600k getting the best Intel motherboard it can be very confusing So today we're going to cover everything that you need to know to get the best motherboard for 14 gen Intel CPUs as well as 12th and 13 gen Intel CPUs and will give specific product recommendations for every budget level remember if you get value out of this video give it a like as it makes a huge to the channel and of course subscribe click that Bell icon that way you get notified when we release cool content with that let's jump into it before that this video is sponsored by vipd key say goodbye to crazy expensive Windows 10 licenses and that terrible activate Windows 10 Watermark right now use the links in the video description head over to vipd key and get a Windows 10 home or Pro OEM license for a great price pick your product license then use the PC Builder discount code pc25 for an additional 25% off go to the activation settings on your PC put in the code and boom you have a fully licensed Windows 10 for a crazy low price which can be upgraded for free to Windows 11 use the links in the video description below let's talk about motherboard chipsets because oh my goodness can they be confusing from b660 to b760 to z690 to z790 to h610 and Beyond now the first thing to focus on is the very first number that comes after the letter so for instance focus on the six in z b690 as that tells you the generation of the motherboard often called the series chipsets in the 600 and 700 series so the b660 and b760 motherboards for instance are all on the LGA 1700 socket which supports Intel 14th 13th and 12 gen CPUs the 600 series chipset motherboards were released for the 12th gen Intel launch and the 700 series motherboards were released for the 13 gen Intel launch note that no new chipset is launching for 14 gen but several of the mother motherboard manufacturers are releasing newer z790 versions like this z790 aorus Pro X ax sent over to us by gigabyte so a big thank you there now let's talk about the letter in the chipset name the Z series motherboards so z690 and z790 are all designed to allow overclocking on the K series unlock CPUs and they also have about double the pcie lanes which means generally they have a lot more USB and other rear panel connections they also generally cost at least a little bit more I typically recommend using a Z series motherboard for 13th and 14th gen unlock CPUs like the IFI 14 600k to get the most out of them note that in addition many z790 motherboards have better ddr5 memory traces which help compatibility and stability when using Ultra fast ddr5 Ram particularly with higher-end gaming builds more about ddr4 and ddr5 on Intel motherboards coming up then we have the B series motherboards b660 and b760 which are great for the locked Intel CPUs and even the older unlocked 1210 CPUs particularly the I5 12 600k the main difference is that the B series motherboards they can't overclock K series unlock CPUs like the i54 600k but they will work in the boards note that the B series motherboards have a power limit based on the CPU though many but not seemingly all of them will allow you to raise that power limit to get the maximum level of performance we cover how to do this in our after you build PC setup guide B series motherboards they do allow for full Ram overclocking including use of XMP Auto overclocking profiles in terms of pcie lanes they have about half as many as the z-series boards and the most important part is they generally cost a bit less though there are some cheap z690 boards finally we have the H chipsets which are a little confusing h610 mother boards they are Ultra budget boards that don't cost much less than the b660 and they include a number of constraints like lock ddr4 memory speed to a maximum of 3200 and we just don't recommend them for some reason they still make a handful of 8660 and 8760 boards and they're essentially the same as a b660 or b760 so if you do find one on a good sale just pretend it's a B series motherboard ddr4 versus ddr5 on Intel 14th 13th and 12th generation CPUs it's decided when you buy the motherboard many Intel LGA 1700 motherboards have two versions a ddr4 Ram version and a ddr5 ram version that's because ddr4 and ddr5 they're different Technologies and they're even different physical sockets we go into more detail on this in our best RAM for gaming 2023 video so check that out for more the most important thing for you to understand is that your RAM choice is locked in when you buy the motherboard so make sure the motherboard Choice aligns with your RAM Choice Motherboard BIOS and bios flashback are really important for Intel motherboard selection the BIOS is the operating system for the motherboard and older boards that came out before 13th or 14th gen Intel launch may not have an updated bios and they won't boot out of the box luckily many boards have bios flashback on them gigabyte calls this Q flash plus where you can Flash the BIOS without a compatible CPU to the latest version that you download from the motherboard manufacturer website we cover this step by- step in our how to build a PC 2023 video so I'll leave it linked down in the video description now unfortunately a number of motherboards lack this feature particularly Aus 600 series boards so it's safe to get any 600 or 700 series board with a 12 gen CPU for 13 gen you'll either need a 700 series board or a 600 series board that has bios flashback and for 14 gen you'll either need one of these new 700 series boards specifically launched for 14 gen like the z790 ARs Pro X or a 600 or 700 series motherboard with bios flashback motherboard size there are four mainstream motherboard sizes what we call form factors the fulls size ATX form factor like these a 2/3 size motherboard called a microatx or matx for short and a miniature siiz motherboard with only one pcie slot called an ITX motherboard intended for small form factor build not there's also an Extended ATX or eatx size motherboards that's slightly larger than these will fit into most ATX siiz cases but of course check your specs and compatibility now most of you will likely want either a fullsize HX or micro HX motherboard who we also go through some ITX motherboards in our recommendations not that ITX boards they tend to be much more expensive also the PC case that you buy it needs to fit the motherboard and while small motherboards will fit into larger cases ATX motherboards obviously you will not fit in the cases designed exclusively for smaller boards so check size and compatibility before you buy a case so what motherboard feature should you be looking for let's lead off with the motherboard vrm which is the little half square that delivers power to your CPU While most boards advertise that they're compatible with any Intel CPU up to an 9 the reality is the cheap cut down motherboards they often lack the proper vrms for higher core count CPUs now what ends up happening is that the vrm can overheat and throttle the CPU performance this is one reason why I typically recommend investing in a good quality Z series motherboard for the higher core count and higher power draw CPUs like the unlocked i54 14 600k and 13600 K and higher CPUs we take this into account in all of our specific product recommendations let's also briefly discuss pcie Gen 5 device motherboard compatibility because I see so many people overspending on this totally worthless feature now pcie Gen 5 internal motherboard lanes are great they allow you to connect more gen 3 and Gen 4 devices to your motherboard but when it comes to SSD and GPU slots rated to run at Gen 5 speed you should not spend extra money to get them Gen 5 gpus they don't even exist yet and pcie Gen 4 will be fine for years to come for GPU bandwidth for ssds most users barely take advantage of SATA SSD speeds especially in gaming let alone mvme pcie gen 3 or Gen 4 speeds it's very likely that pcie Gen 5 gpus and ssds won't offer any tangible benefits during the relevant lifespan of your PC build so my advice don't spend any extra money chasing this feature Let's Talk About Storage connections starting with m.2 connectors motherboards range from one m.2 drive connector to up to five and even more depending on the board itself there are two primary types of m.2 connectors one intended for storage devices and the other one intended for m.2 Wi-Fi adapters these m.2 connectors can run at different maximum speeds from pcie gen 3 to Gen4 to the newest and ludicrous Gen 5 many motherboards now come with built-in heat sinks for m.2 Drive so consider that before you buy an SSD with a pre-installed heat shield in addition most motherboards come with at least four sat Drive connectors motherboard audio now the audio section of the motherboard it's in the bottom leand corner of the board and it's made up by capacitors and a real Tech audio codec chip you use this audio anytime you plug in an analog device with a connector that looks like this if instead you're plugging in a sound device with a digital connection like HDMI or USB then you're bypassing onboard motherboard audio processing and instead you're using the secondary device for digital to analog conversion budget audio codecs can sound fine and they're typically in the 800 series such as ALC 897 more premium audio codecs have better overall signal noise ratios and additional audio signal boost for front panel headphones like the alc 1200 the best audio codecs are the alc1220 or the newer but very similar ALC 480 both of which offer additional encoding coding and decoding support as well support for high impedance headphones when using the front panel PC audio plugs let's talk about usb connectivity starting with the rear panel now these can come in a couple different speeds and connection types most boards they offer a range of USB a connections ranging in speed from USB 2.0 for like your mice and keyboard those are usually the black USB connections to the USB 3.2 gen 1 typically colored blue to USB 3.2 Gen 2 connections often colored red there are also USB type-c connectors which are smaller but faster motherboards also have headers to plug in the front PC case USB connections both USB 3.2 and the slower 2.0 ports and some come with a USB type-c header in addition to USB connections your motherboard will come with wired ethernet Wi-Fi can also be built in and if it is it's going to include Bluetooth connectivity though you can buy an adapter either as a USB Wi-Fi adapter or a pcie Wi-Fi adding card to add these features later let's jump into product recommendations which are all linked down in the video description and which you can use to check out pricing and availability in your region we're going to continue to keep this list updated including if new motherboard models release or if a board is discontinued which does happen from time to time let's jump into the best motherboard for 14 gen Intel CPU so this is the i54 600k the i71 14700 K and the i 94900 k and obviously the KF variant if you have a 13 gen unlock CPU like the 13600 K these are also going to be good recommendations for them let's start off with the best motherboard for I5 14600 K because this is an interesting one we want to go ddr5 because ddr5 prices have come way down check out our best RAM for gaming for our recommendations there and at the same time we don't want to overspend on the motherboard otherwise we could have gotten I74 700k instead so we're looking for something kind of mid-ranges and we're probably going to spend anywhere around 180 to about2 $220 $230 on the motherboard if you're in the US if you're outside the US in a tougher Market you'll probably end up spending a little bit more we want to go probably with a z690 motherboard some of the z790 more budget tier motherboards could also be considered I like z690 ddr5 boards for a couple reasons they tend to have like the upgraded audio features on them they tend to have a lot of rear panel connectivity to them they don't overspend on a lot of high-speed Gen 5 device kind of stuff because it wasn't really available when they came out so they tend to be pretty good price to Performance and my favorite one in this category is the ASRock z690 PG velocity I can only find this one right now in the US at newe so check those links down in the video description I'll have everything linked there especially if I find it on Amazon or something like that couple things I love about this motherboard first of all comes with Wi-Fi it's $158 and it's been at this price for weeks and weeks and weeks $158 it's got upgraded audio on it really nice looking audio section really nice rear panel connectivity in addition to that it's just a really nice looking motherboard it's got a great vrm on it you could really put an I94 900k on this if you wanted to although if you're going to spend that much on the CPU I would go up a little bit on the motherboard obviously front panel USB type-c just really all the features you kind need on a motherboard like this all tons and tons of M do2s on it if you can find this board this is my Top Choice going up in price and I'm not sure how much longer these great z690 deals are going to last they will sell out at some point but like we've got the Asus Rock z690 DF gaming Wi-Fi it's 6 Wi-Fi 6E on it it's got tons of rear panel connectivity to it it's got upgraded audio on it tons of m.2 and it has bios flashback which is super important because all the Asus boards below the Rocks ones don't have it so don't make a mistake and buy the wrong one this is a great one to pick up for $1.99 if you're looking for something more white themed a look at the MSI Force Wi-Fi ddr5 version all white got great rear panel connectivity very very similar in terms of its overall feature set to the other boards that we've just looked at right now going for $229 over at newg but often goes on sale and then on the gigabyte side I like the gigabyte z690 AOG some of the other boards that I had been recommending last year have completely sold through even on the ddr5 side so look for this one this is a more Creator focused board but it's basically an aorus Pro with the white skin on it instead upgraded audio upgraded rear panel connectivity like this board 219 again often goes on sale if you're looking for upgraded features on the z790 but don't want to spend a lot I do like the MSI Pro z790 a because this one does include upgraded audio it's got the alc 4080 audio upgrade on it it's got Good Rear panel connectivity comes with WiFi a number of M do2s on it not as many as some of those z690 boards but it does have that better memory trace on there so you can clock up some of that ddr5 to higher speeds on this board 219 right now over at New EG what if you're looking for the best motherboard board for I74 700k or the I 914 900k any of the boards we've already talked about would be fine for traditional memory speeds that I would recommend for these boards on ddr5 but if you're somebody who wants to push super fast ddr5 speeds or you looking to do kind of more overclocking let's talk about a couple of boards that z790 is that just came out from the various motherboard manufacturers specifically aimed at 14 gem let's start off with gigabytes z790 aorus Elite X ax not the oror elite the EOS Elite X $289 there's also a Wi-Fi 7 version that's identical to this board for $279 I don't know why it's $10 cheaper for the better board that's the one I would get gigabyte is advertising overclock memory speeds up to 8266 check the specs check the qvl list if you want to overclock memory like that please know what you're doing and it's got kind of everything else you'd expect out of these higher end motherboards upgraded audio tons of rear panel connectivity on the mson we got the mag z790 Tomahawk for about $299 now this is the z7 tomahawk Max Wi-Fi not the z790 tomahawk those are going to be different boards this is advertising memory speeds up to 7,800 still very fast not quite as fast as the gigabyte advertises but quite fast and it's got all those other upgraded features including it does have Wi-Fi 7 $299 right now from Asus the one I would focus on is the Asus tough gaming z790 Pro not the plus but the pro slightly less Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 6E maybe that's a big deal to you maybe it's not got a couple less m.2 slots slightly cut down audio section not in terms of the audio codec itself but in the number of capacitors here but it does look like a very nice motherboard $299 a little bit more expensive than the other ones and again pushing about 7,800 on the OC is what they're advertising the one I would recommend that you probably get if you were absolutely half to have an Asus Fanboy kind of board I do like the assus rock stck z790 F now this board has been out it's already been out but it's still a great motherboard still going to push those slightly faster memory speeds out there it's got the really slick looking RGB Lighting on it it's got a fantastic looking audio section and $340 not terrible in terms of pricing for those of you looking for both a super fast board and you want that white PCB let's talk about the gigabyte z790 aorus Pro X this is the board that you saw on the table next to me yeah it looks phenomenal it's got amazing RGB and it's white PCB so it's basically all those great features and that it is a little bit steeper in price so it's $389 but honestly especially given that NZ XTS N7 z790 boards which I typically recommend for like all white or all black builds don't have bios flashback on them what were you thinking in zxt I can't recommend them so I might take a look at a board like this in terms of the best Creator motherboard for 14 gen Intel let's take a look at boards that have Thunderbolt for support so this is z690 z790 ddr5 five motherboards that have that Thunderbolt 4 port on them I really like the assus roog Maximus z690 hero it's got Wi-Fi 6C on it it's got tons of features it's got a really cool LCD screen $249 right now over at New EG I don't know if that sale price is going to hold this has been one of the more expensive motherboards out there the other ones I would take a look at are various versions of asrock's z690 and z790 taichi I like the taichi razor Edition or you can just get the regular z690 taichi they both have Thunderbolt on them or of course we've got the newer taichi light z790 another really really good board you can also look at the older MSI mag z690 a tons of m.2 connectivity including that Thunderbolt 4 Port right now it's going for pretty insane $319 after rebate let's put the best budget motherboard for Intel 12 and 13 gen locked CPUs even the I5 12600 K or i7 12700 k out there and if you're looking for 12 gen I do like the MSI Pro b660 m- a wifi now this is 12 gen only because it doesn't have bios flashback on it so it won't probably have a bios for 13 gen on it but it's got a good rear panel connectivity it was tested to run with even an i7 12700 f on it so two thumbs up there $129 I do like this board moving on to boards that would be appropriate even for 13 gen locked Parts like the 13400 I like the gigabyte b760 M gaming X there's also the b660 aors elite board they're relatively similar the aors elite has a couple more rear panel connectivity features to it but both have bios flashback on it so two thumbs up there come with Wi-Fi on them these are great motherboards for about $140 often though will you can find these as low as about $100 on flash sales another good board out there is the ASRock b760 Pro RS these are all ddr4 motherboards because ddr4 is what you're doing if you're building a budget gaming PC this is a great one especially if you're looking for an ATX size motherboard pretty good rear panel on it as well my top pick right now if you're looking for upgraded features and you want to spend just a little bit more Seuss Rog stricks b760 a gaming Wi-Fi this is a ddr4 board but it's got upgraded ALC 1220 audio on it it's got a number of m.2 connectivity to it it's got pretty good rear panel connectivity overall I like this motherboard quite a bit this motherboard when it was originally introduced cost2 $30 which was stupid at the time but now that it's come down to a safe insane $159 I absolutely love it particularly given all the upgraded features and honestly it's only like 30 bucks more than those other kind of more budget entry boards if you are looking for a z- series motherboard you have an i5 12 600k the good news is you can find a lot of the cheaper z690 Boards out there that are ddr4 because right now everyone wants overclockable boards that have ddr5 on them because the memory prices have changed you can find a lot of these boards out there that would make a great system with like an i52 600k even an I13 600k if you find that on a good sale as well stuff like the azrock z690 PG Riptide it also has bios flashback on it which is really nice if if you're going to go 13 gen instead of 12th gen and it's got pretty good rear panel connectivity to it pretty decent vrm on it not a bad board for $124 let's jump in the best Ultra budget motherboard so these are for the I3 CPUs you don't need much to run those I3 CPUs but we are looking for something with a RM heat sink note if you're looking for one for the 13100 F you'll either need a b760 mother theboard or a b660 with bios flashback on it here's a board that's really only appropriate for the I3 1200f but has been a great value right now $116 typically though sells for about $95 it completely sold out during Prime day I'm sure it'll come back in stock at that price the ASRock b660 M Pro RS great rear panel connectivity has great heat sinks on it and they fixed some of the initial problems of this board had running higher core count CPUs I would put an i52400 on this no problem here's a great board gigabyte b760 M or if you can find the b660 same thing because these boards have bios flashback gigabyte has bios flashback on all of their B series motherboards two thumbs up there unlike MSI Asus and a lot of the ASRock boards so this is a really good board pretty good vrm heat SN on it you really don't want to go up to anything like a 12 600k I5 12400 would probably be fine but really really good value at $19 there's Wi-Fi versions of this board and there's also a version called the b760 MC with a little different looking heat sink they all sell for about anywhere from1 to about $120 ASRock b760 MPG lightning there's a number of these ASRock boards that are kind of weirdly named they're absolutely fine especially if they're the 700 series motherboard like the b760 M $109 right now this has a great heat sinks on it I really like it decent is vrm on it you could probably put a 12 600k on it I would probably link up to a 12400 or 13400 on it really does the job and it doesn't cost much at $19 remember if you got value out of the video give it a like CU it makes a huge difference Channel especially this guy right here and of course subscribe click that Bell icon that way you get notified when we release cool content remember to check out those links down in the video description everything is there check out pricing and availability in your region and we'll catch you on the next one

Channel: PC Builder

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Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 20 2023