Best Intel Motherboards For 2020 – Complete Guide

When it comes to motherboards, you have a ton of choices to make. If you’re here, though, you’ve likely already made at least one of them: you’ve chosen Intel over AMD. If you want to save yourself extra choices and research, stick around. We’ve already rounded up the best Intel motherboards available this year.

Depending on your needs, any one of these motherboards could be perfect for your PC build…so let’s hop right into it!

Best Intel Motherboards For 2020

MSI B360M PRO-VH – Best Budget Intel Motherboard

First up is our pick for best budget Intel motherboard, the MSI B360M PRO-VH. The B360M PRO-VH is one of the cheapest Intel motherboards on the market, but fortunately, that doesn’t come at the cost of build quality and reliability.

As far as extras go, there isn’t much worth mentioning here but unlike some entry-level motherboards, this motherboard ships with a Turbo M.2 SSD slot. This means that it’ll utilize PCI Express bandwidth when used, allowing it to achieve higher speeds than possible with a SATA SSD as long as you’re using an NVMe SSD, of course.

Aside from the high-speed SSD support, what you have left is a somewhat barebones experience. Fortunately, MSI’s quality control means that this experience should still be more than enough for a basic desktop PC or entry-level gaming PC.

Pros:

• Low price
• High-speed M.2 support
• Good build quality

Cons:

• No extra features to speak of

ASUS TUF Z390-Plus Gaming – Best Gaming Intel Motherboard

Next up is the ASUS TUF Z390-Plus Gaming, our pick for best gaming Intel motherboard. We’ll just be calling it “ASUS TUF” from here on out, and now we’re going to explain how it earned this title.

What makes the ASUS TUF an ideal gaming motherboard is the fact that it’s built expressly for that purpose. This board isn’t built around RGB lighting or a small size: all it’s focused is performance, which means a Z390 chipset, multiple high-speed M.2 slots, and even Wi-Fi for a gamer on the go.

In addition to the overclocking support and the other features we’ve mentioned, this board is also fairly sturdy and well-built in general. The “TUF” moniker (pronounced “tough”) is well-earned here, which means this motherboard should have a long life ahead.

Pros:

• Great build quality
• Overclocking support
• Great M.2 support
• Built-in Wi-Fi

Cons:

• High price

ASRock Z370M-ITX/AC – Best Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Our selection for best Mini ITX Intel motherboard is the ASRock Z370M-ITX/AC. Despite its very dull name, this is a fairly full-fledged offering.

First and foremost, you have a full 6 SATA ports available despite this being an ITX board. Additionally, you also have a single M.2 slot, which is set to run with full PCI Express support, allowing the use of NVMe SSDs.

Other features on offer include dual Intel Ethernet ports, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with included antennas, and a surprisingly builder-friendly layout. ITX motherboards are usually much more difficult to build with, but M.2 and GPU clearance are both fairly clearly-defined, and the extra SATA ports don’t get in the way of anything.

If you want an SFF PC build, this board is perfect to start with. Plus, it usually retails for around $130…which isn’t bad for an ITX board, especially one with a Z370 chipset that will support CPU overclocking.

Pros:

• Great build quality
• Overclocking support
• M.2 support
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• Smallest size

Cons:

• Fewer RAM slots, other ITX downsides

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC – Best RGB Intel Motherboard

Our choice for best RGB Intel motherboard is also a strong contender for best overall Intel motherboard. Meet the MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC (try saying that three times fast), which we’ll be calling the MSI MPG from now on.

First and foremost, let’s talk about the RGB. Emanating from the back of this motherboard is an RGB backlight that’ll illuminate the inside of your case. This backlight can be synchronized with other RGB peripherals and components in your system via MSI Mystic Light, which has the most wide-reaching support for RGB components on the market.

In addition to the onboard RGB lighting and software, you also have an abundance of onboard RGB headers.

Outside of RGB, this board is also pretty well-packed in general, from a features perspective. You have a ton of expansion slots, overclocking support, built-in Wi-Fi, USB 3.1 Gen2, and 2 turbo M.2 slots.

Try as we might, we really can’t find anything that’s missing here.

Pros:

• Great build quality
• Overclocking support
• Good M.2 support
• Built-in Wi-fi
• Incredible RGB support and lighting

Cons:

• High price

MSI X299 Gaming PRO Carbon AC – Best Intel X299 Motherboard

Last but not least is the MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC, which we’ll just call the MSI Carbon from here on out. This is our pick for best Intel X299 motherboard, and even a passing glance will probably reveal why.

Look at this monster!

It has four PCI Express x16 slots, all of which are rated to run at full bandwidth simultaneously. It has two shielded M.2 mounts, which also support for PCI E bandwidth. And has 8 RAM slots, which is a dream for Quad Channel RAM configurations.

The MSI Carbon even comes with an antenna for built-in Wi-Fi and onboard RGB lighting!

As far as X299 motherboards go, we’re legitimately hard-pressed to find a board more fully-featured than this one.

Pros:

• Stellar build quality
• Overclocking support
• Great M.2 support
• Great RGB lighting and support
• A ton of PCI Express slots

Cons:

• Very high price

What makes Intel motherboards different from AMD motherboards

Intel motherboards are much more strict about overclocking support. If you want to overclock on an Intel motherboard, you’ll need a compatible Z- or X- series chipset and a compatible -K or -X series Intel processor.

AMD is laxer in this regard, requiring only an OC-enabled chipset.

What makes Intel processors different from AMD processors

This is a more significant question.

In general, the following is true.

Intel processors are:

• Stronger in single-core performance, making them ideal for most games
• Not as strong in multi-threaded applications, like live-streaming or video rendering
• Not suited for gaming with integrated graphics
• More expensive

AMD processors are:

• Stronger in multi-threaded applications, making them ideal for live-streaming and video rendering
• Not as strong in single-core applications, which can lower framerate in some games
• Have far superior integrated graphics (when using an APU)
• Less expensive

Either platform is a great option, but your needs may be suited by another. Feel free to peruse our other guides if you want to hop on the AMD train, instead.

Intel Chipset Guide

Chipsets can be a little bit confusing to navigate, especially for a newcomer, so we’ll give you all the information you need to know here.

Intel B and H Series (B360 and H170)

• Fairly cheap
• Few extra features and limited M.2/multi-GPU support
• No overclocking support

B and H series chipsets are Intel’s budget offerings. These chipsets are targeted at common users and budget builds, and are missing a lot of gaming-centric features.

Intel Z Series (Z370 and Z390)

• Somewhat costly
• Plenty of extra features, including multi-M.2 and multi-GPU setups
• Overclocking support
• USB 3.1 Gen2 (Z390 only)

The Z Series chipsets are ideal for most gamers, thanks to overclocking support and more bandwidth for multi-GPU and multi-M.2 setups. While these are a marked step up in price compared to B and H Series chipsets, they are your only option if you plan on overclocking a K-Series Intel CPU.

Intel X Series (X299)

• Very costly
• All the features, overclocking support included
• The only option if you’re using an X-Series processor

Last but certainly not least is the X299 chipset or the Intel X Series chipset. This is reserved exclusively for the Intel Core i9 processors, which are typically considered overkill for gaming purposes. This is the highest tier in every sense, so stay away from this unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

FAQ

Do I need overclocking support on my motherboard?

No. You don’t need overclocking by any stretch of the imagination.

However, overclocking is very nice to have. If you’re an enthusiast who wants to push your hardware to its maximum potential, then an overclocking-enabled motherboard is definitely the way to go. Even if you don’t plan on doing it day 1, a future upgrade to your cooling setup and a hefty overclock can help your PC stay on the cutting edge for just a little longer.

The benefits of an overclocking-enabled motherboard mean that you’ll be able to squeeze more performance out of your hardware. This means faster render times, better performance in-game, and etc. These gains will generally be marginal, though.

Will my motherboard affect gaming performance?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: yes, but only in one specific scenario.

That specific scenario is related to- you guessed it- overclocking. Overclocking your CPU will increase your in-game performance by a respectable margin in most scenarios, but only if your CPU and motherboard both support it. This is the only real performance-related concern when it comes to motherboards, though, and it’s not a massive difference by any stretch of the imagination.

Can I use an overclockable CPU on a motherboard that doesn’t support overclocking or vice versa?

Yes, but you don’t be able to overclock the CPU.

Does motherboard size matter?

In terms of functionality and performance, no.

In terms of ease of use and expandability, yeah, a good bit.

Standard ATX boards are the largest and offer the most expansion, making them ideal for first-time builders and those intent on multi-drive setups. Mini ITX boards have only minimal expansion in return for a small form factor, and Micro ATX occupies the space in between the two.

Ultimately, the size will be a matter of personal preference, unless you plan on running multi-GPU or multi-drive setups. In those cases, bigger is better, and bigger is ATX.