Best gaming motherboard 2019 (August)

Approx. $232 | £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 range. Despite that high-end heritage, it’s rather well-suited to avid gamers and moderate overclockers alike. While most of its high-end siblings favour liquid nitrogen and record-breaking functionality in lieu of affordability, the Z390-E blends just enough of that ROG approach without overstepping into the extreme.

The Z390 chipset doesn’t offer all that much in the way of native functionality over its predecessor: Z370. However, AI overclocking and a few iterative updates to the tried and tested formula make the Z390 a worthwhile improvement. So long as you don’t find yourself paying a premium for the Z390 board over its Z370 equivalent, there’s nothing to lose with the Asus Strix Z390-E Gaming.

Read our full Asus Z390-E Strix Gaming review.

Runner-up

Approx. $190 | £160

Pros
 Z390 chipset
 M.2 heat sink included
 Great connectivity

Cons
 Won’t automatically apply all-core boost

It’s a close-run thing between this mighty MSI Z390 and the quality STRIX board above. The Asus only really gets the win because it doesn’t need any user input to get your CPU running at its best, just you setting the XMP switch in the BIOS. But the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC is still more than capable of matching the CPU and gaming performance of at least the Asus board with only a little light tweaking of the clock speeds, easily hitting the same 5.2GHz overclock with the i7 8700K. And if you’re opting for a K-series CPU then what the hell are you doing not overclocking?

This ‘AC’ version comes with a discrete 802.11ac WiFi card, reinforced PCIe slots and a twin M.2 sockets. One of those has the M.2 thermal shielding to help cool your NVMe drive, but isn’t as rigid as the one on their X299 or the Asus Z390. It also has more readily available USB connections on the rear of the board and more RGB lovin’ than you can shake a hot LED strip at. And it’s often a mite cheaper too.

Runner-up

Approx. $160 | £168

Pros
 Affordable
 All-core enhancement compatible
 Great performance

Cons
 Flimsy PCB

The lower-priced Asus TUF board delivers Coffee Lake performance for a lot less than either of the ~$200 MSI or Asus STRIX boards. The feature set is a little lighter – there’s only protection on a single PCIe slot, and the PCB feels a touch more flimsy than the others – but it still has the overclocking performance as well as Asus’ all-core enhancement feature which means it ignores the Intel Turbo limitations.

That makes it a speedy little board straight off the bat with any K-series CPU you care to toss its way. That also means it’s got the gaming performance without you having to do any tweaking beyond ensuring your RAM’s running at its XMP settings.

Winner: Best cheap gaming motherboard

Approx. $90 | £89

Pros
 Affordable
 Micro ATX form factor
 Great alternative to Z390

Cons
 Unable to overclock

The Intel H370 motherboards were a long time coming and, for the most part, don’t really offer any significant savings over the budget end of the Z370 range. As they’re newer boards they’re often more expensive. The B360 however, exemplified here by MSI’s excellent B360M Mortar, does represent a good-value alternative to the Z370 option, without sacrificing too much in the way of performance.

You will miss out on any overclocking potential of the K-series Intel processors, but with the mighty Core i5 8400 and its non-K ilk still offering serious gaming performance at stock speeds, that’s not too big an issue. The B360M Mortar is also a nicely proportioned Micro ATX board too, allowing you to drop it into more svelte chassis than the larger ATX board standard.

Read our full MSI B360M Mortar review.

Runner-up

Approx. $117 | £105

Pros
 Good selection of ports
 Wireless connectivity
Great value

Cons
 Unable to overclock

The B360 boards are your best bet for a cheap gaming motherboard now that the mainstream chipsets have been launched. The H370 options are generally too expensive in comparison with the budget Z370 boards, which also offer higher performance.

The MSI B360M Mortar has the better overall performance, is cheaper, and has the smaller form factor for extra versatility, but the Gigabyte has the added bonus of wireless connectivity. Realistically the MSI is the better option, but the Aorus is a decent backup.

Winner: BEST COMPACT GAMING MOTHERBOARD

Approx. $199 | £200

Pros
 Great features
 Compact Mini-ITX
 Impressive connectivity

Cons
 Expensive

Mini-ITX motherboards are adorable. If cute factor alone isn’t enough to convince you, however, the Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming also packs an ungodly amount of functionality onto a compact motherboard of its minuscule size. You can get eight cores and 16 threads running contempt on this board, turning even the smallest gaming build into the PC equivalent of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s quads.

This mini-ITX board packs in some serious functionality within its tiny frame. While the chipset has little to offer over its predecessor, Z370, Asus have put plenty of extra 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.

Picking the perfect motherboard for your rig can feel like walking a tightrope with all the I/O you want on one side and cost on the other. However, with a little critical thinking, and planning out your build around your board, the process can be rather painless.

After all, unless you are a super hardcore 1337 overclocking pro, it really all comes down to good quality, a form factor that works for your case or preference, and a healthy handful of ports. Performance between motherboards is totally negligible at this point, everything that used to make a difference to PC performance has long since been shifted aboard the CPU itself.

After all, the motherboard is the vessel for all your other, frankly, more interesting components that really make your gaming PC tick. It’s an important part of the puzzle, but one that needn’t keep you up at night either.

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