Best Entry-Level Motherboard Best Value All-Round Motherboard Best ‘No Compromises’ Board Best Micro ATX Motherboard Best Mini-ITX Motherboard
Best Entry-Level
Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming MSI X470 Gaming Plus MSI X470 Gaming Pro
Today you won’t have a hard time finding an AMD X370 motherboard for $100. There are numerous options available. X470 boards though are a little more pricey as the cheapest examples will set you back $130 - $140. At that price range you have the option of the MSI X470 Gaming Plus, MSI X470 Gaming Pro and Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming. The MSI models are basically the same board, the Pro version gets an I/O cover and that’s about it, the board does look better in my opinion but not sure it’s worth the $10 premium. In any case, I’d opt for the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming which is the better equipped board. The Gigabyte X470 Aorus includes a much better quality audio solution, higher quality networking, USB type-C, more USB ports in total, better M.2 implementation. The VRM is similar, both the Gigabyte and MSI boards pack a 4 + 2 design with a doubler and this provides plenty of power delivery, even for an overclocked Ryzen 7 2700X. Overall MSI and Gigabyte offer competitive products at these lower price points, but for me Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming is the best affordable X470 motherboard on offer right now.
Best Value All-Rounder
Asus TUF X470-Plus Gaming Asrock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 5 Asus Prime X470-Pro
So you’ve got a shiny new Ryzen 5 2600X or Ryzen 7 2700X processor in your sights and you want to give it the home it deserves, but you also want to keep the budget under control, this is where the best value all-rounder pick comes in. For $160 we’ve for the Asus TUF X470-Plus Gaming, then the Asrock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 at $170, the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 5 at $180 and then the Asus Prime X470-Pro at $185. Pricing will no doubt move around a bit, so we’re not weigh our pick too heavily on these prices, but they are worth noting. I’m not a big fan of the Asus TUF X470-Plus Gaming, although it is the cheapest I feel like the entry level boards we just looked at are better equipped. The TUF model packs an inferior VRM, less features and the features it does include are of lesser quality. The Asrock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 is quite nice but I feel for just a slight increase in price the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 5 and Asus Prime X470-Pro are much better boards. Picking between those two isn’t easy though and I could easily justify either purchase. As tough as the choice is here I’m going with the Prime X470-Pro, I really like the 6 + 2 VRM design featuring 6 real phases and a doubler. The Realtek S1220A audio featuring Crystal Sound 3 is going to be hard to beat and you also get quality Intel Gigabit networking. So while the Asus Prime X470-Pro might be the most expensive of the punch, it’s where I’d put my cash.
Best of the Best, No Compromises
Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC Asrock X470 Taichi Asrock X470 Taichi Ultimate
We’re well into Ryzen 7 2700X territory now and for those proud 8-core/16-thread owners there are four good options and this time Asrock is challenging Asus for the most expensive board. There is a cheaper version of the Asrock X470 Taichi Ultimate known simply as the Taichi and the only real difference is that the cheaper model drops 10 Gigabit LAN support. So if that’s not something you require then saving $70 to get the vanilla model makes more sense. To date I’ve had a ton of hands on experience with the Asrock X470 Taichi Ultimate, Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 and the Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero WiFi. They’re all exceptionally good boards with no faults to speak of, so let me be clear there appears to be no wrong option here. In terms of value the standard Asrock X470 Taichi board is hard to beat and is therefore most likely the ‘best value extreme’ X470 board. Although I honestly feel there is no wrong choice here and from a value perspective the Asrock X470 Taichi and Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 make a lot of sense, I’m again going with Asus on this one. The Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero has won me over for a few reasons: I like the look of this board, it’s more serious and aggressive at the same time, which does it for me. In terms of features it’s well stocked, there are loads of USB ports, plenty of USB 3.1 ports, and the rest of the features are of the highest quality. One of my favorite aspects though is the BIOS. It’s set up really well for overclockers and PC enthusiasts that like to fine-tune their system. The included memory presets are amazing and it was great to find The Stilt’s Samsung B-Die profiles included as well. These kind of extras make a difference in my opinion and for me it’s made working with the Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero a real pleasure.
Best Micro ATX
A trick category since there are no MicroATX X470 motherboards, not yet anyway… Still let’s use this opportunity to discuss AM4 MicroATX motherboards. Oddly, there aren’t really any MicroATX X370 boards either, Gigabyte did offer a few models though the only one that appears to still be on sale is the AB350M-DS3H which despite the name does actually use the X370 chipset. It’s a very bizarre choice by Gigabyte and they’ve justified it by saying the boards price reflects that of a B350 board and not an X370 board, and due to the layout some X370 features aren’t present. Both points are very odd. First, the fact that you can offer a MicroATX X370 board for $70 is a good thing, why water down that by calling it a B350 board? Then, while I get that having some features missing it’s great, you can’t exactly place two graphics cards in Crossfire on the Mini-ITX X370 boards and there are a few of those from Asrock, Biostar, Asus and even Gigabyte. Anyway, MicroATX X370 boards were very rare with no models from Asus, Asrock or MSI. There’s a Micro ATX Threadripper board after all, so let’s hope we see some good X470 boards, there are certainly plenty of great cases that could take advantage of them. It’s likely there will be a number of MicroATX B450 boards once that chipset is released, but I’d still like to see a few high-end X470 models.
Best Mini-ITX
Asus ROG Strix X470-I Gaming Asrock X470 Gaming ITX/ac
As of writing, only two Mini-ITX X470 boards exist and they are both very good. From Asus we have the ROG Strix X470-I Gaming and from Asrock the X470 Gaming ITX/ac. Design-wise they both have strengths and weaknesses but overall the biggest difference is probably the price. The Asus model costs $210, whereas the Asrock board is a little more wallet friendly at $180. The advantage of the Asus model is that it packs two M.2 slots, one on the front side and one on the backside, so if you want to use two high-speed NVMe drives this board is a must. The disadvantage being that it has two M.2 slots and this crams the design and makes placement of things such as the SATA ports on the front side a bit random. Both boards pack an impressive VRM, particularly for Mini-ITX boards and both include passive cooling. The bundles are also very similar including a WiFi/Bluetooth antenna and multiple SATA data cables. I really like the look of the Asus ROG Strix X470-I Gaming but unless you require two M.2 slots I feel like the Asrock X470 Gaming ITX/ac is the better buy of the two. The only issue being that right now it’s out of stock everywhere. For those of you reading well into the future, I hope the future is bright and availability of the Asrock X470 Gaming ITX/ac is good, should the board still be a tad cheaper than the Asus alternative then that’s what I suggest you spend your money on.
