Best Gaming Motherboards

The Asus Z170-Pro has features better than VRM hardware, with ALC1150 audio, Intel v219 Ethernet, subdued white/silver looks, and ASUS’s signature-series BIOS. It offers excellent performance and pleasant experience.

The Asus Z170-Pro is available at its hefty initial list cost of $195, making it expensive for a general order but the excellent fit for the vast 200 dollars gap in between Z170 mid-range and newfound $300+ high-end frontier.

The ASUS signature boards with white plastic shroud and silver heat spreaders first seem to be sedated, but it matches all the segments evenly. In the motherboard, the MSI’s Mystic Light, a little color, and pulse adjustable LED light display lives below the chipset logo shield. And it also adds some light where the side window in most cases remains and supplying a right touch of character, one of the Z170-Pro’s few deficiencies. Some modes enable the LEDs to react to sound inputs such as music or to change with heat system levels even though a precise numerical temperature show on the boot code readout would be appreciated nevertheless.

In this motherboard, Wifi, Bluetooth and exotic accessories like handheld overlocking consoles are not present, but options like USB 3.1 connectors, a full-speed 4-lane M.2 slot, and memory aid up to 3866 MHz are current.

Pros:

• Excellent performance
• Fixed BIOS

Cons:

• No Wifi and Bluetooth
• Less gaming-specific features

Buy Now: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro ($160)

The MSI Z170A Gaming Pro has become very popular by succeeding over ASUS. It has got great style, features, and price that resets hopes for motherboards below $150. The MSI Z170A competes with the much expensive ASUS Pro Gaming in all the features and current firmware stability.

It has a memory of 3600 MHz. It is stable and has undergone many BIOS revisions after the launch of its competing Z170 Pro Gaming board. The MSI Z170A Gaming Pro is available at a street price of $130, and it is considered as budget hardware but delivers an experience well beyond the price. It’s astounding features like full-speed M.2, 14 USB ports comprising a pair of 10 Gb/s 3.1 connectors, improved ALC1150 audio and a fully adjustable Mystic Light LED array on the right edge of the motherboard, making it a different motherboard.

The motherboard is equipped with Intel v219 for network connectivity, and it also provides protection circuitry to block voltage spikes from going with the Ethernet line and heating the port. The motherboard ensures component quality and reliability with heavy soldering, reinforced PCI slots, high-quality caps, and titanium chokes.

MSI’s BIOS is one of the easiest to use and overclocking works well. The clock speed is par with other mid-range motherboards. In the motherboard, temperatures were slightly higher at peak load than other motherboards with more sophisticated VRM hardware like MSI Z170 X POWER Gaming Titanium Edition.