How To Choose The Best Motherboard for Gaming

For all the game-lovers, it is crucial to select the right equipment for achieving an ultra-gaming experience. If you are playing games on your PC, it is essential to keep all the hardware that provides high performance.

If you want to build a gaming PC, then this post will help you. Last month I built a new Gaming PC under $1500. I choose Intel Core i7 8700k processor for overclocking. I choose ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E gaming motherboard and 16 GB RAM. You may also read this awesome review of the good motherboard for i9 9900k. Some essential CPU parts such as a motherboard, mouse, etc. must be chosen perfectly so that the gamer’s interest is matched. Therefore, it is quite necessary to select the right components for an ultimate gaming experience. For AMD CPU, you can have ryzen 5 5600x or Ryzen 5 5600g. You should purchase a good motherboard for ryzen 5 5600x.

This may be a herculean task to choose the best motherboard for Gaming as it will take most of your time and effort in research. However, in this guide, we have made this overwhelming task easier for you by providing you with all the set of the necessary information that will make your gaming experience better with its amazing features.

Let’s get started with the vital points that need to be discussed beforehand:

Which brand should you buy:

If you are in a dilemma about the brand that you must buy, remember it doesn’t matter if you buy Intel or AMD motherboard as the main thing is that it should have the same brand’s CPU as well.

Chipset classification of Intel:

H: basic class chipset
P; Z: middle-class chipsets
X: high-end chipset
B; Q: chipsets with additional safety as well as control options, mainly focused on business segments only

Chipset Classification of AMD:

A45; A50; A55; A58: basic class chipsets
A75; A78: middle-class chipsets
A85; A88: high-end chipsets

The only thing that matters for the gamer’s interest is the CPU compatibility and correspondence with the chipset you choose and use.

Motherboard Size:

As the motherboard comes in varied sizes and shapes, it is essential to check out for the correct one among them before you select one and send.

There are three sizes of motherboards: mITX (Mini ITX), mATX (Micro ATX), and ATX.

mITX and mATX: These comprise of small form factor sizes and can be bought at a cheaper rate. Although they do not have special add-on slots and fewer upgrade options. If you are considering a short and compact case, then these would suit your case better. mITX is less common than mATX ones owing to their super-small size.
ATX: These are considered as standard size nowadays owing to its great set of features. It is easily available in the market and has a reasonable price. It is more popular than mITX and mATX owing to the simple reasons that it has a higher number of slots and upgrade options available. It is important to make sure that you need to buy an ATX case as well as the ATX motherboard would not come in an mATX case if you are looking for upgrading an existing motherboard.

Now that you are aware of all the sizes of the motherboard, it is crucial to buy the right fit according to your budget as it all depends upon you.

CPU Port (Socket):

CPU ports/socket are an important part of the specifications of a CPU. Whether you are planning to buy Intel or an AMD CPU, you must have appropriate knowledge about their sockets:

LGA sockets are the best for Intel CPUs.
AM, FM and S sockets suit perfectly with AMD CPUs.

You will see the corresponding Socket type with their Model numbers given below:

Intel (LG): 1150, 1155, 2011, 2011
AMD (AM/FM/S): AM3+, FM2+

RAM Frequency and Slots:

RAM frequency highly affects gaming performance and is a prominent feature that cannot be ignored. If you are looking for the best motherboard with a perfect RAM frequency offered, opt for a higher RAM frequency and it must be higher than 2000MHz for DDR4. Well, you may also make use of DDR3 but do ensure that it is not greater than 1866MHz. It is also a key point to note that the number of RAM slots is also a crucial point to ponder. Always choose the RAM in such a way that you have the flexibility of expanding it.

Built-In Wi-Fi Adapter:

Though you may use a direct cable for having a secure internet connection during your game, if you want to delve into the world of Wireless networking, you will need a Wi-Fi adapter. Now, you can easily make use of a motherboard that comes with a built-in Wi-Fi adapter. For the gamers who love to play can get an unlimited experience, so make sure you have a motherboard that has this point included.

Extension slots:

The important thing to keep in mind is that your motherboard must come with a plethora of options for connecting the devices, like the tuners, PCI-SATA controllers Wi-Fi adapters, etc. For that, the number of extension slots in a motherboard is directly proportional to a motherboard’s form-factor. There are many useful slots like PCI-E x1 which is basically used to connect all the extension cards. The other slot available is the PCI-Express which serves its purpose well in connecting modern graphics adapters.

Given below are the Form-factors and their corresponding number of Slots available:

Mini ATX: 1
Micro ATX: 4
ATX, XL-ATX: 7

There are many other factors that need to be looked closely to get a suitable motherboard for your gaming PC, but we have covered the core points that are a must to be considered before buying the right motherboard.

Wrapping Up

A motherboard that comes with all the right technical specifications is a must as it will help in uplifting your gaming sessions’ experience manifolds. As a gamer, there is no use of getting hold of some incompatible hardware that will ruin your gaming, and you will only spend most of the time looking at the screen with degraded picture quality. Thus, if you keep all these crucial points in mind, you will be blessed with the enhanced graphics and the powerful gaming experience. So, what are you waiting for? Go for some shopping and buy the right motherboard!