Which Asus motherboard is best

[Sidegrade]

been using the p8z68-v pro/gen3 for nearly a decade, I love it and hate to part with it but the time has come..
I want to stick to intel chipsets and have good quality high speed ram.

[unbound]

Tom's Hardware does thorough testing and is a good place to start...

https://www.tomshardware.com/best-pi...t-motherboards

[Sidegrade]

they seem to be a bit out of date with that list though as it's still showing socket 1200s instead of 1700s. I really do want the newest generation of intel processor for overall longevity before i have to replace the motherboard again "current one got me 10 years and still kicking" with absolutly no issues even with todays games

[kodemonkee]

"current one got me 10 years and still kicking" with absolutly no issues even with todays games

Why do you need a new one then?

[czarek]

You change smth else ? Or just MB and CPU ?

[Sidegrade]

Why do you need a new one then?

because games are starting to require more modern technology that a 2nd generation i5 chipset lacks the ability to provide and i worry by this time next year i might want to be playing one of those games.

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You change smth else ? Or just MB and CPU ?

motherboard cpu and ram are kind of a bundle deal I will also be on the lookout for a new case but the drives and video card can be transfered over and upgraded later, that said I really hate to spend more than $400 on the motherboard as 32gb of ddr5 apears to be upwards of $200 and i am hoping to walk away spending between $600-$900

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Just ensure you buy 12th gen and nothing else if you're sticking with Intel. Otherwise a 5600x/5900x and an x570 motherboard is hard to beat value for WoW and most other games right now.

Havnt played wow in years but when you want to find nerdy gamers with pc building knowledge there is no better place to look.than an old mmo nobody else plays anymore.

[arcturusm]

Just ensure you buy 12th gen and nothing else if you're sticking with Intel. Otherwise a 5600x/5900x and an x570 motherboard is hard to beat value for WoW and most other games right now.

This but get a solid B550 board with good VRMs instead. X570 is pointless unless you really need the additional PCIe 4.0 M2 slot (instead of second PCIe 3.0 slot on B550) for second SSD and/or you're an OC enthusiast. But OC is barely worth the effort on Zen 3 architecture. CPUs are already well optimized out-of-the-box. Best way to optimize is undervolting, enabling PBO for more efficiency and slightly higher clock speeds plus RAM OC which all can be done on B550 as well. Plus, that chipset fan on X570 can become quite annoying under load on many motherboards. B550 boards are cooled passively. And cheaper.

PS: Sorry for the multiple edits.

[Kagthul]

Just ensure you buy 12th gen and nothing else if you're sticking with Intel. Otherwise a 5600x/5900x and an x570 motherboard is hard to beat value for WoW and most other games right now.

Eh, the 12400 beats the 5600X for less, and the 12700K beats the 5900X in everything but core-sensitive productivity work.

As for DDR5, theres basically absolutely no reason to use it outside of some niche content creation tasks. Fast DDR4 is just as good. And buying a motherboard with DDR5 comparability for “future upgrades” to faster DDR5 is chancy because there is every likeleyhood any board you buy now wont be able to handle the much higher speeds needed to make DDR5 really pay off.

[Sidegrade]

12400 power consumption, restrictions on motherboards, RST and other nonsense Intel likes to add to their product line. Just remember that this is a WoW forum, therefore the emphasis is on WoW and mmo style games. Past 1080p most the CPUs are splitting hairs between games between 12th gen and ryzen 5000 series, and having the availability and part compatibility of AM4 and x570/b550 is worth it over going 12th gen.
The narrative of '12400 beats the 5600x for less' is not the whole picture. A 5900x is useful for the extra threads outside of core-sensitive productivity work. If you're using a high bandwidth storage solution, its easy to max out your CPU from the amount of data being processed. I regularly run into my 3950x being at 100% whenever I'm installing games and doing some heavier multitasking. If you're buying a platform long term, the extra $180 for double the core count and cache is worth. 5800x3d and overall benchmarks show that more cache will scale well long term, so why not hedge and get two 6 cores with 32MB cache?
B550 is great, but limiting. X570S chipset doesn't require active cooling and you get higher bandwidth. I went X570 because I'm running 2 4x 4.0 M.2 drives in RAID0 and B550 doesn't afford the bandwidth, its in preparation for direct storage, but I've been AoTC on next gen stuff for a while (G-sync from developer kits in 2014, AHCI m.2 drives back in 2015, 8x PCIe C drives in 2021).

Keep in mind that when you're looking at CPU benchmarks in general, it doesn't tell the whole story. Power consumption is going to matter more than ever, not including the wattage of GPUs skyrocketing. Unless you're someone running a >360Hz 1080p/1440p 16:9 display and your ryzen 5000 series is then limiting your experience I wouldn't fork the cash, but I guess if you're willing to fork the money, buy a 12900ks and draw twice the power for a sliver of performance.
For WoW, probably the best way to evolve your experience is to buy an ultrawide, I've been running 34" 21:9 displays for 5.5 years now and it turns out your CPU choice between a 5900x or 12700k doesn't matter when you're sitting between 1440p and 4k quantity of pixels.

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The X570S chipset requires no active cooling and the extra bandwidth at this point is worth a few extra $ over a B550. B550 is best suited in mITX builds or gross budget builds, otherwise the X570 chipset is the flagship, and therefore will also get better long term support. Outside of buying a 5600x and a B550, with the price cuts, you're better off just forking and snagging a 5900x and x570S (if you can afford it, obviously) just because the long term value will hold with the extra core count and cache. Motherboard choice is something that I find people regret over time, usually because they didn't spend enough to start and are limited on future features, and its not something that's financially viable to swap out later with the nature of the prices of older motherboards over time (it goes up, by a lot, thanks to IT like me retiring old servers and selling powerful xeon processors on ebay that now require old consumer motherboards to use).

Will admit i havnt kept on top of the computer tech in the last decade and i honestly dont mind giving And another shot but my conern with the motherboard is the asus uses the Uefi bios. and at least on my old motherboard and it's the only one i've ever seen that i can overclock with the mere push of a single button. which i am sure is quite common by now.I just dont know which brands are worth a crap especially when it comes to amd based boreds, hell dont even know what amds equivelent to Intels i5-2600k

[Kagthul]

12400 power consumption,

El Oh El. "But Muh Pwah Consumten!" Its a desktop PC. No one cares. Not that its MASSIVE 65W TDP is ... oh wait. What are you even on about here?

restrictions on motherboards, RST and other nonsense Intel likes to add to their product line. Just remember that this is a WoW forum, therefore the emphasis is on WoW and mmo style games.

1 - this is not a WoW forum. This is a Computer Hardware forum. People come here asking for builds for all kinds of things from workstations to HTPCs. Secondly, even if we're talking WoW and MMOs... the 12400 is still better than anything comparable from AMD. And its not on a dead-as-fuck platform.

Past 1080p most the CPUs are splitting hairs between games between 12th gen and ryzen 5000 series, and having the availability and part compatibility of AM4 and x570/b550 is worth it over going 12th gen.

What are you even on about with availability? 12th gen is available. Its MORE available than a lot of AMD parts because production has ceased on AM4 products. There are dozens of H610, B660, H670, and Z690 motherboards at my local Micro Center.

The narrative of '12400 beats the 5600x for less' is not the whole picture.

It absolutely is. Its faster at any conceivable task you're going to use it for (no one using a 12400 os 5600X is using it for Pro/Prosumer work).

A 5900x is useful for the extra threads outside of core-sensitive productivity work. If you're using a high bandwidth storage solution, its easy to max out your CPU from the amount of data being processed. I regularly run into my 3950x being at 100% whenever I'm installing games and doing some heavier multitasking.

Which the OP is very much not doing. ANd how far up your rectum and into your intestines did you have to go for "IT MAEKS MUH GAMEZ INSTALL FASTA!"? Like... something you do once in a while that still takes next to no time even on a Gen 2x2 NVMe connection? Jeezus, the fanboy is strong in you.

If you're buying a platform long term,

Ill finish this sentence for you "you should not be buying AM4 since it is completely dead"

the extra $180 for double the core count and cache is worth. 5800x3d and overall benchmarks show that more cache will scale well long term, so why not hedge and get two 6 cores with 32MB cache?

The benchmarks DONT show that. You might want to actually watch GNs video and pay attention to what Steve says. There's like... a few games out of dozens where the cache matters AT ALL. You can get all of the performance of the vaunted 5800X3D ... out of a 200$ cheaper 5700X.

B550 is great, but limiting. X570S chipset doesn't require active cooling and you get higher bandwidth. I went X570 because I'm running 2 4x 4.0 M.2 drives in RAID0 and B550 doesn't afford the bandwidth, its in preparation for direct storage, but I've been AoTC on next gen stuff for a while (G-sync from developer kits in 2014, AHCI m.2 drives back in 2015, 8x PCIe C drives in 2021).

"So, because of all this random nonsense that is anecdotal and in no way applies to your situation...."

Keep in mind that when you're looking at CPU benchmarks in general, it doesn't tell the whole story. Power consumption is going to matter more than ever,

No it isnt. The cost difference between them if you run the CPU 24/7 is going to be about 50$ a year, and literally NO ONE is doing that unless they are in production or scientific work - and if you're doing that, 50$ a year is a rounding error in your budget.

I cant stand it when fanboys have to reach into non-issue differences to try to make their "argument" appear intelligent - and this applies in every direction, mind you. I want to be clear that i dont think Ryzen is a bad product, but building AM4 now with AM5 right around the corner (and AM4 being dead and EOL) is just fucking stupid. PARTICULARLY since the Intel options are available for cheaper and beat the AMD offerings across the board (and deliver features not available on AM4, like PCIe 5). If AM5 were already out (even if the chips that went in the boards were exactly as powerful as the current 5000 series chips) then there might be an argument to be had, but right now, AM4 is DoA/EOL and Intel has better price/performance at every level except the very, very top (where they still have the performance crown but lose on price).

completely useless anecdotal advice snipped

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Will admit i havnt kept on top of the computer tech in the last decade and i honestly dont mind giving And another shot but my conern with the motherboard is the asus uses the Uefi bios. and at least on my old motherboard and it's the only one i've ever seen that i can overclock with the mere push of a single button. which i am sure is quite common by now.I just dont know which brands are worth a crap especially when it comes to amd based boreds, hell dont even know what amds equivelent to Intels i5-2600k

Building is easy. Its like Legos for adults these days.

Please dont listen to the guy that posted before your post.

Hes pushing shit you dont need if your intent is to just game and daily drive.

You do not need an ASUS motherboard to overclock easily (and as a user of ASUS motherboards, id recommend against the one-click OC anyway, as it crams shitloads of voltage through the CPU for no reason)... but honestly, you dont really need to overclock.

Both modern AMD and Intel CPUs have intelligent boosting algorithms that will run the CPU as fast as it can go given the heat and power limitations - at most, manually Overclocking might get you a MARGINALLY faster all-core speed (because unless you want to do a SHITLOAD of testing manually overclocking each core to see what that core's max stable clock is, you're going to max out at whatever the worst core is) but you might actually lose some potential performance because the algorithims will boost the best cores as fast as they can go, and for gaming, 1-2 faster cores with the rest going a little slower is more beneficial than all the cores going slightly slower.

Given that any K-SKU (the overclockable ones) in Intel's 12th gen can hit 5Ghz on at least two cores, even when not manually OCed, unless you're an OC enthusiast, you're not going to gain much by manually OCing.

The reason im recommending against AMD at this point is NOT because AMD is making bad CPUs right now. The Ryzen 5000 series is quite good. Intel's 12th gen is better (its also a year newer, so it stands to reason), and thats the reason im recommending it. If AMDs AM5 platform and Ryzen 7000 chips were out right now, id likely be recommending that instead. But unless you want to wait until at least the early fall, thats not a consideration.

Depending on what ELSE you're going to be doing besides gaming, and your desired settings (resolution, max/ultra settings or is high OK, framerate target, etc) its hard to make definitive recommendations so ill stick with some basics, just assuming you need MoBo/CPU/RAM (and likely a CPU cooler since K-SKU chips do not come with one).

"Cheaper"

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cNqMVw

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($260.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler ($44.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($80.29 @ MemoryC)
Total: $526.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-05-07 23:50 EDT-0400

Yep, thats a B660 motherboard, and you cant overclock that CPU on it. As i said above, though, you dont really need to, and you CAN use RAM overclocking (XMP) on B660, which, quite honestly, will get you more performance than a minor OC would, especially since the 12600KF will still boost over 5ghz on two cores and to 4.8ghz all-core (on the P-cores). It also has four E-cores (Efficiency) that work quite well to absorb background tasks, leaving theP cores 100% free to crunch on whatever your major task is.

The 12600K compares with or beats the AMD 5800X (and therefore, the newer 5700X as well, as that is basically just a lower-clocked 5800X) and is cheaper.

This setup uses DDR4. If you really want to get DDR5 (i made a post above about why its really not necessary at the moment) then you can swap the motherboard for the DDR5 version and buy RAM accordingly.

Im not putting in a "cheapest" - simply swap the 12600K/KF for the 12400. It doesnt have E-cores, but still boosts to 4.6ghz all cores and is a GREAT value CPU for gaming - beating the 5600X (and the slightly slower 5600G and 5600 non-X) handily.

"Budget is less of an issue"

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6bhwgb

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor ($350.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler ($44.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($159.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($147.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $703.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-05-08 00:01 EDT-0400

Still a B660 board (for the same reason), but with more robust power delivery since the 12700KF sucks down more juice. Also went with more, faster RAM.

Keep in mind im using the -KF variants, which have no integrated graphics. You can go with the normal -K SKU that does, they are 15-25$ more. Handy for diagnoising if a GPU is dead, and if you want to stream, you can use the iGPU in Intel CPUs to use QuickSync encoding to take pressure off the CPU; up to you if its worth the extra coin).

"I want to manuall OC and I want DDR5"

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gfvt78

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor ($369.97 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler ($74.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690-P WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($223.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory ($287.99 @ Corsair)
Total: $956.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-05-08 00:10 EDT-0400

Im not really sold on DDR5 at the moment. Another year (and if prices fall a bit more) itll be the only game in town but right now, fast DDR4 (3600/CL16 or better) performs just as well as DDR5 at CL36 and the 5400-5600 speed range. There is a DDR4 version of that motherboard, if you want to keep the OC ability but want to drop the expensive DDR5.

If you can provide some details about what you need (budget, expected performance metrics and resolution, etc) then we can get a bit more specific as to recommendations. The above are just basic ideas.

[Linkedblade]

been using the p8z68-v pro/gen3 for nearly a decade, I love it and hate to part with it but the time has come..
I want to stick to intel chipsets and have good quality high speed ram.

Honestly depends on your budget or which features you would like. I always found the z-plus series was everything I needed. So z690-plus or h670-plus would be a good place to start.

[Mehrunes]

Highly budget dependent. If you want to splurge and treat yourself to high end board, I'd pick the Apex out of the Maximus line, with Hero being the second pick. For Formula (which also only comes in white this gen, at least for now) you're paying extra just for the water block while Extreme has tons of little things for extreme overclockers that ramp the price up to 11 yet don't matter for normal users, all the while actually having the worst connectivity of the Maximus line in areas like storage which may actually matter to people.

Though personally I'd go with the Strix line, particularly E-Gaming. Only a few drawbacks compared to Maximus Apex while being much cheaper. Can't comment on lines cheaper still than the Strix line, because I haven't been paying attention to these.

[Rennadrel]

The TUF boards are IMO the best value of the Asus boards.

[Utrrabbit]

Why do you need a new one then?

A 10 year MoBo most likely will not take new cpus or ram.

[Altariaz]

12400 power consumption, restrictions on motherboards, RST and other nonsense Intel likes to add to their product line. Just remember that this is a WoW forum, therefore the emphasis is on WoW and mmo style games. Past 1080p most the CPUs are splitting hairs between games between 12th gen and ryzen 5000 series, and having the availability and part compatibility of AM4 and x570/b550 is worth it over going 12th gen.
The narrative of '12400 beats the 5600x for less' is not the whole picture. A 5900x is useful for the extra threads outside of core-sensitive productivity work. If you're using a high bandwidth storage solution, its easy to max out your CPU from the amount of data being processed. I regularly run into my 3950x being at 100% whenever I'm installing games and doing some heavier multitasking. If you're buying a platform long term, the extra $180 for double the core count and cache is worth. 5800x3d and overall benchmarks show that more cache will scale well long term, so why not hedge and get two 6 cores with 32MB cache?
B550 is great, but limiting. X570S chipset doesn't require active cooling and you get higher bandwidth. I went X570 because I'm running 2 4x 4.0 M.2 drives in RAID0 and B550 doesn't afford the bandwidth, its in preparation for direct storage, but I've been AoTC on next gen stuff for a while (G-sync from developer kits in 2014, AHCI m.2 drives back in 2015, 8x PCIe C drives in 2021).

Keep in mind that when you're looking at CPU benchmarks in general, it doesn't tell the whole story. Power consumption is going to matter more than ever, not including the wattage of GPUs skyrocketing. Unless you're someone running a >360Hz 1080p/1440p 16:9 display and your ryzen 5000 series is then limiting your experience I wouldn't fork the cash, but I guess if you're willing to fork the money, buy a 12900ks and draw twice the power for a sliver of performance.
For WoW, probably the best way to evolve your experience is to buy an ultrawide, I've been running 34" 21:9 displays for 5.5 years now and it turns out your CPU choice between a 5900x or 12700k doesn't matter when you're sitting between 1440p and 4k quantity of pixels.

- - - Updated - - -

The X570S chipset requires no active cooling and the extra bandwidth at this point is worth a few extra $ over a B550. B550 is best suited in mITX builds or gross budget builds, otherwise the X570 chipset is the flagship, and therefore will also get better long term support. Outside of buying a 5600x and a B550, with the price cuts, you're better off just forking and snagging a 5900x and x570S (if you can afford it, obviously) just because the long term value will hold with the extra core count and cache. Motherboard choice is something that I find people regret over time, usually because they didn't spend enough to start and are limited on future features, and its not something that's financially viable to swap out later with the nature of the prices of older motherboards over time (it goes up, by a lot, thanks to IT like me retiring old servers and selling powerful xeon processors on ebay that now require old consumer motherboards to use).

Intel 12400F with an MSI B660M-A WiFi ddr4 motherboard, and 16gb 3200 cl16 ram is a good value option; add a cpu cooler and you have a reasonable budget system. You could also save a bit more, and use an Intel 12100F cpu, which is surprisingly powerful relative to its price point.