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Motherboard CPU Combo List (Gaming, Streaming & Editing)

Cover Image of Motherboard CPU Combo

Motherboard and CPU are the two most essential components of a PC. There are a lot of motherboards and CPUs available in the market, and choosing the best combination of both can get confusing sometimes.

With the popularity of AMD Ryzen CPUs, there are even more choices of CPUs and motherboards available. Like the popular AMD Ryzen is compatible with many motherboards.

Now when choosing a motherboard, some individual preferences have to be kept in mind. Like which CPU are you going to use on it, and are you planning to upgrade your CPU for the same motherboard?

And how much maximum memory you want to install on it and the number of NVMe slots you want. Today, we’ll discuss several motherboard CPU combo to help you with your decision.

6 Best Motherboard CPU Combos Based On Specifications!

Image Name Price (Mobo) Price (CPU) Features RATING
Editor’s Pick MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK + Ryzen 5 3600 
  • Popular Among Gamers.
  • Beautiful Motherboard.
  • Excellent Performance Ratio.
  • All-Rounder CPU.
Best Value MSI Prestige X570 Creation + Ryzen 9 3900X 
  • Pro Gamers Choice.
  • Extra Performance.
  • Beast of A Motherboard.
  • Powerful CPU.
 GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO + Core i7-9700K
  • Heaven For Gamers.
  • Solid-Voltage System.
  • Enormous Clocking Boosts.
  • Beast Processor.
NeoGamr’s Pick  ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO + Ryzen 5 5600X
  • New Hot Trend Among Gamers.
  • Outstanding Performance.
  • High-Speed Processor.
  • Pro-Gamers Pick.
 MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk + Core i5-10600K
  • Strong VRM Cooling.
  • Beasty Overclocking Speeds.
  • Extra FPS Boosts.
  • Excellent For New AAA Titles.
Asus ROG Strix X570-E + Ryzen 7 3700X 
  • The ASUS Beauty.
  • Decent Budget CPU.
  • All New Wi-Fi 6 Tech.
  • Value Pack For Gamers.

Best Motherboard CPU Combos – The Best Setups Made For You!

We’ve researched and selected some of the best motherboard and CPU combo. This list will give you a wide choice between different CPUs and motherboards.

You just need to set your budget and explore this list, and you’ll definitely find the one combination you are looking for.

#1 – MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK + AMD Ryzen 5 3600

– Motherboard Specs:

  • CPU Socket AM4.
  • Compatible Processor Types AMD 3rd Generation Ryzen.
  • RAM Memory Maximum Size 128 GB.
  • Memory Slots: Available 4.

– CPU Specs:

  • CPU Speed 4.2 GHz.
  • DDR4 3200 support.
  • Socket AM4.
  • Wattage: 65 Watts

The MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK is a very popular motherboard, and it has a lot of hype. MAG series is a symbol of durability and is one of the most popular choices among gamers.

The B550 is a very beautiful, yes beautiful board with gunmetal grey color tone, which looks fantastic just like some other TOMAHAWK motherboards. There are big heat sinks installed on it, which results in a cooler motherboard.

The MAG B550 is the perfect sweet spot of price to performance ratio. It is compatible with Ryzen 3000 series processors, but you should keep in mind that it is not compatible with Ryzen 3000 series APUs.

APUs are essentially the chips that have both CPU and GPU on them. For example, the AMD Ryzen 3 3200G is a 4 core APU with built-in Vega 8 graphics. Which means you won’t have to install an external graphics card to get the display or to play games.

Coming back to the B550 TOMAHAWK, it not only supports 3000 CPUs but also the next-gen Zen 3 processors out of the box. It has 4 RAM slots, which support up to 128 GB DDR 4 memory a dual channel.

For the CPU, it has a single 8-pin power connector and of course, a standard 24 pin power connector for the rest of the motherboard.
This motherboard also has some RGB fan headers if you are into RGB Lighting. Moreover, if you are finding a motherboard with 2 M.2 SSD slots, this is the right choice for you as it comes with 2 NVMe slots.

The Ryzen 5 3600 is also a very popular processor, probably the most popular one in the Ryzen 3000 series. It gives an incredible value for money and performs amazingly in all modern games and even productivity work scenarios.

Ryzen 3600 is considered as the best all-rounder, do everything CPU. It gives a stellar performance in productivity and is also great for gaming. It will easily run all the modern games on 100+ FPS.

It gives you 6 cores and 12 threads with a 3.6 GHz base clock and 4.2 GHz boost clock speeds. It is also unlocked for easy overclocking.

The 3600 is better in many ways than competitive Intel CPUs. Its direct competitor is i5-10400, and Ryzen 3600 is better in many ways than the 10400, especially when considering the price of both of them.

– Author Note:

MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK and AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a great combination for gaming and general productivity. Both components are budget-friendly and perform great according to their price.

The Ryzen 5 3600 is probably the best choice for people on a budget as it provides 6 cores and 12 threads, which is a great number for gaming and productivity.

The B550 TOMAHAWK is also amazing for both gaming and productivity, along with Ryzen 5. It gives a great choice of ports, 2 NVMe drive slots a beautiful design, all at an affordable price tag.

Both of these components work great which each other. The temperatures remain good, Ryzen gives it full performance on this motherboard. This combination is the ultimate solution for you if you want something great at an amazing price.

#2 – MSI Prestige X570 Creation + AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

– Motherboard Specs:

  • E-ATX.
  • 3 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots.
  • 4 x DIMM; dual channel DDR4; Total max. 128GB; 4533+ MHz.
  • CPU Socket AM4.

– CPU Specs:

  • CPU Speed 4.6 GHz.
  • Socket AM4.
  • Processor Count 12.
  • Memory Speed: DDR 3200 support.

MSI Prestige X570 Creation is a beast of a motherboard. It is not easy on the pocket but comes with some amazing features. This motherboard is targeted towards content creators and designers, but gamers will also enjoy it just fine.

X570 Creation supports Ryzen 2000 series, 3000 series, and 5000 series processors, which is amazingly good. It comes with 10G Lan support and the latest Wi-Fi 6 compatibility. Wi-Fi antennas are also included in the box.

There’s one thing to keep in mind that this motherboard is Ryzen 3000 series CPUs ready out of the box. But to use the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, you’ll need to update the BIOS first.

The Prestige comes with the core boost technology. It has a dual 8-pin power connector, which means you can install high-end CPUs on your motherboard. This motherboard is actually made for high-end CPUs.

The motherboard comes with an onboard fan for even better cooling. The fan speed is adjusted automatically according to the temperature, and it will automatically stop under low load situations. This will result in quieter operations.

This motherboard comes in beautiful black and grey aesthetics and comes with excellent cooling capability. It has a Frozr heatsink and extended heat-pipe design with a fan to dissipate the heat. The heat pipe extends from MOS heatsink to chipset heatsink for maximum cooling efficiency.

Prestige also has 7 system fan headers, a CPU fan header, and a pump fan header. So with all the heat pipes and fans, cooling will not be a problem for a system with X570 creation, even with overclocking.

The number of ports on this motherboard is crazy. It comes with 11 USB 3 ports, a USB-C port, and 2 USB-A ports at the back. There are also 2 network ports at the back. One of them is a regular gigabit network port, and the other one is a 10 gig network port.

It has 2 NVMe slots on the board, plus it comes with an M.2 expansion card in the box. The expansion card can add 2 more M.2 SSDs to your X570 Creation system, which means you can install a total of 4 M.2 SSDs in your PC. The expansion card also has a built-in heatsink and fan for efficient cooling.

There are 4 RAM slots that support DDR 4 RAM up to 128 GB. You probably won’t need more than 128 GB RAM in 2023. Don’t forget to install your RAM in dual channel configuration as it will improve the performance of your games and general productive software.

As we mentioned that this motherboard is made for high-end CPUs, we’ve also selected the Ryzen 9 3900X to pair with it.

Ryzen 9 3900X is a beast CPU with 12 core and 24 threads, which are more than enough for any kind of gaming and video editing in any resolution. It has a base clock speed of 3.8GHz with a boost clock of 4.6Ghz.

Ryzen 3900X is made for elite gamers and people who do high-quality video editing and other production work. You can throw anything at it, and it will handle it like a breeze.

There’s one thing to keep in mind that as it is a very powerful CPU, you should get the best cooler possible for the best temperatures so that you can put heavy loads on it continuously without worrying about the temperatures.

The Ryzen 3000 series processors use different kinds of technologies to make it possible to run at double the bandwidth than the previous generation. Plus, it comes with a 64MB L3 cache, which was a huge step forward.

Ryzen 3900X favors dual-channel RAM a lot. So make sure to set your memory in dual channel configuration to experience a major performance increase in your games and productivity tools.

– Author Note:

MSI Prestige X570 Creation and AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is a beast of a combo. It is one of the best AMD motherboard CPU combos. This combo is made for high-end gaming and productivity tasks.

We can say that these 2 components are made for each other. You can even overclock the AMD Ryzen 3900x up to 5.1 GHz with a proper cooler. The motherboard is also overclocking ready and will not have any problem handling the overclocked beast.

The inbuilt heat pipe design of X570 creation will handle the temperatures perfectly even with CPU overclocking so that the CPU can run at high clock speeds for longer times consistently.

So if you are planning to play games on ultra-high-resolution or ultra-high frame rates and also plan to overclock the CPU, this could be the best combination for you.

#3 – GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO + Intel Core i7-9700K

– Motherboard Specs:

  • CPU Socket LGA 1151.
  • Memory Slots Available: 4
  • Smart Fan 5.
  • Motherboard Form Factor: ATX

– CPU Specs:

  • CPU Speed 4.9 GHz.
  • CPU Socket LGA 1151.
  • Processor Count 8.
  • 12 MB Cache.

This is the first combo on our list today to feature an Intel CPU. The 9700K is a very popular consumer CPU, but we’ll talk about it later. Let’s have a look at the motherboard first.

AORUS by Gigabyte is an excellent gaming motherboard series and is a direct competitor to the ASUS ROG and MSI. The Z390 AORUS is powered by the usual Intel LGA 1151 socket, and it supports both 8th and 9th generation Intel processors.

The AORUS has 12 individual phases, which ensure delivering a rock-solid voltage to the most demanding Intel CPUs even when overclocked at 5 GHz.

The heatsink on this board is thick and solid, with a tube to transport the hot air from one side to the other. It will keep the motherboard stable and cool in any given situation.

On the memory side, we have 4 RAM slots that support DDR4 RAM up to 128 GB and speeds up to 4,266 MHz after overclocking. Plus, it has 2 NVMe M.2 slots for faster memory upgrades. To keep the M.2 drives from overheating, both slots come with thick padded thermal sheets.

We’ve 6 PCIe 3.0 slots for PCIe card expansion. But as expected, only the slot closest to the CPU can deliver X16 bus speed, and it is the most suited slot for installing a graphics card. The first 2 PCIe slots are also metallically reinforced for better stability of installed cards in these slots.

The AORUS comes with an integrated I/O shield. This means that the I/O shield is not removable. This is something that ASUS introduced 2 years back, and it is an excellent approach for I/O shield.

Port selection on Z390 is also good. It has 4 USB 2.0 ports, then it has 3 USB 3.1 gen 1 ports and 3 USB 3.1 gen 2 ports, including a Type-C port, plus it has a gigabit LAN port. And last but not least, a 7.1 channel supported audio jacks are also present on the back.

For the front side ports, there are 2 USB 2.0 connectors, a USB 3.1 gen 1, and a USB 3.1 gen 2 connector. Plus, it also has a thunderbolt 3 connector for the front side of your PC.

For efficient cooling of your system, the AORUS has 8 fan connectors, including 1 AIO connector and 2 water pump connectors. This means that the liquid cooling capabilities of this motherboard are also amazing.

On the beauty side, we’ve 6 RGB stripes nested on the motherboard. 3 of them are concentrated around the dual-channel RAM slots, 1 is under the I/O roof, and one at I/O integrated plate. Plus, it also has 4 RGB connectors on board if you are a big RGB fan and want to install more RGB.

Gigabyte went one step higher by adding WIMA FKP2 capacitors on the board. These capacitors provide better impedance. Plus, these are very good at filtering out electrical interferences, which result in crystal clear audio output and voice recording.

The best processor combo with this motherboard is the Intel Core i7-9700k. This processor is very popular among gamers and productivity workers.

The 9700K has 8 cores and 8 threads and comes at a TDP of 95W. Its base clock is 3.6GHz, which can go up to 4.9GHz, which is enormous. Not to forget that this processor also supports overclocking.

Performance-wise this is a beast processor. It can handle all the latest games and productivity tools with no problem at all.

– Author Note:

GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO and Intel Core i7-9700K make an excellent CPU motherboard combo to have. The i7-9700K supports overclocking, and the AORUS perfectly handles overclocking.

The 9700K can be overclocked to 5.3GHz, which means it will need consistent voltages and a motherboard that can handle the burning temperature of this clock speed.

The 12 individual phases of Z390 will deliver consistent voltages to the processor, and it’s thick and solid heat sink with proper CPU cooler will make sure that the temperature of the overclocked processor does not get too high to avoid thermal throttling.

So it’s almost like this processor and the motherboard are made for each other.

#4 – ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO + AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

– Motherboard Specs:

  • CPU Socket AM4.
  • RAM Memory Technology DDR4.
  • Memory Storage Capacity 128 GB.
  • Memory Slots Available 4.

– CPU Specs:

  • CPU Speed 4.6 GHz.
  • CPU Socket AM4.
  • Processor Count 6.
  • 35 MB of cache, DDR-3200 support.

ASUS TUF is a well-known name in the motherboards category. The new TUG X570-PRO is AMD 5000 series CPUs ready and brings some amazing features at a very competitive price.

We can say that this motherboard is a low priced leader. No other motherboard offers these many features in this price range price. Let’s have a look at all the features this motherboard has to offer.

You can all of the 3rd generation, 2nd generation, and 5th generation CPUs on this motherboard. We recommend using AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with it for outstanding performance.

There’s an 8 and a 4 pin power connector for the CPU, depends on which CPU are you using. Then there’s a 24 pin power connector right next to the memory slots.

Talking about the memory slots, there are a total of 4 memory slots that support DDR4 memory up to 128GB. The memory speed varies according to the generation of the CPU you are using.

If you are using a 2nd generation Ryzen CPU, the standard memory speed is 2666MHz, which can be overclocked to 3600MHz. And if you are using a 3rd gen Ryzen, the max overclocking speed can go up to 4400MHz.

There are 2 CPU fan pins on the top and an RGB header right next to it. There’s also an addressable RGB connector right next to the 24 pin connector for more lighting. There are 2 more fan connectors just beside the CPU for better cooling.

The motherboard comes with an app to control all the fans through it. It also has a built-in RBG LED called Aura Sync by ASUS.

There are 2 M.2 NVMe slots on this budget beast. Depending on which CPU you are using, the drives are going to perform differently. For example, if you are using a 3rd gen Ryzen then the M.2 drives will run at PCIe 4.0 x 4 mode, and if you are using a 2nd gen Ryzen CPU, then both drives will run at PCIe 3.0 x4 mode.

The X570-PRO comes with an active cooling system. It has one fan to keep the temperature of the motherboard down. There’s an active chipset heatsink, VRM heatsink, and M.2 heatsink for efficient and cooler operations. The fan of the motherboard spins at different speeds to ensure maximum cooling with minimum fan noise and better handle CPU overclocking.

There’s one thing to remember that this motherboard comes with only 2 SATA cables. So you should buy some SATA cables separately if you want to attach some more SATA accessories with them.

On the backside of the motherboard, there’s a BIOS flashback button for easy BIOS installation. Port selection contains 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports Type-A ports, A USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type C port, and a 2.5G LAN connector.

If you want to use an APU on this motherboard, there’s also a Display Port and an HDMI port on the back for the display output of that APU. An APU is a chip that comes with built-in graphics.

Now let’s talk about the AMD Ryzen 5600X, which is a great combo with this motherboard. The 5600x comes with Zen 3 core architecture, which is based on 7nm FinFET technology.

The 7nm technology makes the cores extra power efficient and extra powerful. The CPU comes with AMD Ryzen™ Master Utility, which is a simple and powerful utility for easy overclocking of your AMD Ryzen 5600X.

There are 6 cores and 12 threads in this CPU for ultra-fast gaming and a smooth multitasking experience. His processor is also great for productivity works like photo and video editing. The processor has a TDP of 65W, and it does amazingly well for how much power it draws.

It can handle all the latest AAA games at ultra settings with over 100 fps with the right GPU installed. It is also good for productivity tasks. The CPU also comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler, but we recommend getting a new, better cooler for best performance.

– Author Note:

ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is an amazingly good mobo processor combination. This combo probably offers the best value for what it costs.

As we mentioned, the X570 comes with an active cooling system that can handle the overclocking potential of AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. With the right GPU installed, you can play all modern games and do any kind of productivity work without any hassle.

#5 – MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk + Intel Core i5-10600K

– Motherboard Specs:

  • CPU Socket LGA 1200.
  • Memory Speed 4800 MHz.
  • RAM Memory Maximum Size 128 GB.
  • Memory Slots Available 4.

– CPU Specs:

  • 6 Cores / 12 Threads.
  • Socket Type: LGA 1200.
  • Up to 4. 8 GHz Unlocked.
  • Wattage 125 watts.

Yes, we’ve another TOMAHAWK motherboard on our list today, but this one is made for Intel Core processors. It is an affordable yet powerful motherboard for gamers. It is one of the most popular motherboards in the gaming community.

The Z490 provides great features and a simplistic design at a pretty reasonable price. It comes in a black-grey-silver accent, which looks pretty decent and modern at the same time.

The MAG Z490 comes with all-aluminum VRM cooling, which ensures the system runs stable and cooler without compromising the performance of the processor. The heat sinks are exactly where they should be and not where you don’t want them to be.

The CPU socket also has a large area around it, which means that even the big aftermarket coolers can be fit easily on this motherboard.

The Z490 comes with a PCIe steel armor around the PCIe slot where the graphics card will be installed to prevent the card from getting unnecessary damage. There are 4 RAM slots that support a maximum of 128 GB DDR4 memory in a dual channel.

There are 2 M.2 NVMe slots and which come with M.2 Shield Frozr for better management of temperature and prevent throttling of your M.2 drives. Both SSDs run at Gen 3×4 for maximum performance.

There are 2 LAN ports on TOMAHAWK. One port is 1 gigabit, and the other one is 2.5 gigabit for maximum stable connection and better gaming.

There are 4 USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2×2 port, which supports a data transfer rate of up to 20 Gbps.

An HDMI and a Display Port is also present to get the display output from the processors that support built-in graphics like the Intel Core i7-10700. 2 USB-A 2.0 ports are also present for connecting your keyboard and mouse.

The rear I/O is the part of the board itself, and there is no separate I/O shield to attach, which, in our opinion, is a better way. There’s one thing to notice that there is no Wi-Fi in this motherboard, but you do get 2 ethernet ports.

For the CPU, it comes with an 8+4 pin power connector and a premium layout design to bring the max out of your Core i5-10600K processor.

The Intel Core i5-10600K itself is a great processor, which is a huge improvement over the previous generation. It is considered to be a gaming powerhouse for its price. It comes with 6 cores and 12 threads and is the first CPU in the Core I5-X600 series to enable hyperthreading.

Intel did this because competitive AMD CPUs have 6 cores and 12 threads at this price range, and gamers were more likely to get those CPUs because of more threads, which ultimately leads to better gaming and productivity.

The 10600K has a base frequency of 4.10GHz and a turbo boost frequency of 4.8GHz, which is amazing. And as it is a K series processor, it can be overclocked, and its maximum performance can be increased.

The Intel Core i5-10600K beats Ryzen 5 3600 in many scenarios like rendering and most games but it takes almost double the power of the. Ryzen 3600.

Intel Core i5-10600K is very close to the very best gaming CPUs you can currently buy. And for such an affordable price tag that is very impressive. It can be overclocked to 5 GHz on all 6 cores. At this point, its performance matches the stock i9-9900K. But keep in mind that you need an excellent cooler to achieve this speed.

– Author Note:

Intel Core i5-10600K and MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk CPU motherboard combo is indeed a great one. The i5 has excellent overclocking potential as it’s all cores can hit 5GHz, at which point it becomes close to the best gaming CPUs in the market.

The Z490 can handle the overclocking of 10600K efficiently as it has all-aluminum VRM cooling, which will keep the CPU and motherboard cool. Plus, it has an 8+4 pin connector to deliver stable power to the CPU.

These features indeed make this combo one of the best ones you can have for gaming at a very affordable price.

#6 – Asus ROG Strix X570-E + AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

– Motherboard Specs:

  • CPU Socket AM4.
  • Memory Speed 4600(O.C.)
  • Memory Storage Capacity 128 GB.
  • Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 & 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen CPUs Compatible.

– CPU Specs:

  • CPU Speed 4.4 GHz.
  • CPU Socket AM4.
  • Processor Count 8.
  • Wattage: 65 watts.

The list of best motherboards cannot be completed without a motherboard from ASUS ROG. The ASUS ROG Strix X570-E is one of ASUS’s high-end motherboards, which support Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series CPUs.

It has a lot of features that other motherboards do not offer, but it also comes with a higher price tag.

Starting off with the design of the X570. It has a very gorgeous black and grey color scheme. It has some RBG on the I/O cover and also between the PCIe Express slots. You can control all of these RGB lighting effects with the software that comes with the motherboard. It has a total of 4 RGB headers if you want to add some more RGB to your PC.

You can use any of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 5th gen Ryzen CPUs, on it. It has large heat spreaders to stay cool no matter what CPU you install on it. It has an 8+4 pin power connector for your CPU.

The Strix X570 comes with 4 DDR4 RAM slots that support memory up to 128 GB at the maximum speed of 4600MHz overclocked. There are 2 PCIe 4.0 connections that deliver double the bandwidth of PCIe 3.

There are 4 PCIe M.2 slots. Both slots feature aluminum heat spreaders to help cool the motherboard and avoid speed throttling on your NVMe drives. You also get 8 SATA ports if you want to connect some extra drives with your PC.

ASUS also added a dedicated fan in the motherboard for cooler gaming and overall user experience. The fan has a plastic cover, which does not add to extra cooling.

Moving towards the I/O, this motherboard also has an integrated I/O shield, so you are not going to forget to install the I/O shield. It has a BIOS flash button to update your BIOS easily. It features 7 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports and a Type-C port. There’s also an HDMI and a Display Port to get the display in case you are planning to install an APU on this motherboard in the future.

There are 2 LAN ports on the back. One of them is 1G port, and the other one is 2.5G for an ultra-fast connectivity experience. You also get Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 built into the motherboard. The Wi-Fi 6 supports a wireless speed of up to 2.4GHz, which is amazing.

Now let’s come to the Ryzen 7 3700X. This processor is an amazing choice to use with this motherboard, and it can handle all of your games at excellent frame rates and can do your productivity works quickly.

It is an 8 core, 16 threads processor and comes with an AMD Wraith Prism cooler, but you might want to change the cooler if you going to overclock it. It has a 32MB cache and comes with 7nm FinFET technology for maximum efficiency.

The 3700X has a base clock of 3.6GHz, and a boost clock of 4.4GHz, and the processor is unlocked so you can overclock it unlock its maximum potential.

– Author Note:

The Ryzen 7 3700X has great overclocking potential, and it can handle all the latest AAA titles at excellent frame rates. Overclocking means more heat, so you need a motherboard that can handle the overclocking and the heat efficiently.

Asus ROG Strix X570-E comes with a cooling fan on board, which will handle the higher temperatures and will make sure tour 3700X performs at its maximum ability even when overclocked.

Factors Of A Good Motherboard & CPU Combo – Buying Guide

One of the factors you should keep in mind while considering a good motherboard and CPU combo is their compatibility. First of all, you should make sure that the Mobo and CPU you are getting are completely compatible with each other.

There are some more factors to consider, and we will discuss them one by one.

Motherboard Compatibility

As we mentioned earlier, compatibility should be checked first. You should make sure that the motherboard you are getting has the socket support for the CPU you are getting. Plus, you should also check if it will handle your AIO and if it has a pump header if you are gonna use a water pump for cooling.

In short, check all of your components before and then check if your motherboard is compatible with all of them.

AMD Socket Compatiblity Diagram

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CPU Compatibility

Just like the above step, make sure that the CPU you are getting is compatible with the motherboard you are getting. You should also check if your motherboard will handle the overclocking potential of your CPU and will not bottleneck it.

Motherboard Form Factors

The motherboard form factor should also be checked if it will fit in the casing you have purchased. Plus, you should be sure if you want to install your graphic card vertically or horizontally.

Motherboard Form Factors Explained

And of the cooler you have selected is compatible with the motherboard. Thus checking the form factor is also a very important step before selecting a motherboard.

CPU Core Speeds & Overclocking

This is also a very important step in selecting a CPU. Most of the AMD CPUs support overclocking, and some high-end intel CPUs can easily touch the 5GHz frequency mark now.

So look at the base clock and turbo clock of your CPU and also check its overclocking potential to make sure you are making the best choice. Also, make sure that your motherboard has the potential to handle the overclocked CPUs easily.

Recommended Reading:

CPU Coolers For AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Low Profile CPU Coolers 2023

Motherboard Ports

This is also a very important step in selecting the motherboard. This totally depends on you that how many USB ports you think are enough as most mobos come with 7-9 USB ports nowadays. Also, make sure that there is at least one USB-C port on it as USB-C devices are getting common with time.

Plus, if you need to transfer files over the internet at fast speeds, then make sure there is a 2.5GHz LAN port on it as it is much faster than the 1G LAN ports, which come with most motherboards nowadays.

And if you want faster and stable Wi-Fi connectivity, make sure that the mobo you’ve chosen is Wi-Fi 6 compatible as Wi-Fi 5 provides wireless speeds of up to 2.4Ghz.

Gaming mobo ports
Motherboard Ports

New Gen CPUs

While selecting the best motherboard and CPU combo, make sure you are getting a newer generation CPU ad they are almost always better than the previous gens.

Plus, when you select a motherboard, make sure that it will support the upcoming generation of processors. Like most AMD motherboards nowadays support all generations of processors from 1st gen to 5th gen, which is really great to see as you won’t have to purchase a new motherboard after every generation.

My Final Verdict:

There are a lot of motherboards and CPUs available in the market. We’ve compiled this list after thorough research, and you can easily select any one of these combinations with peace of mind.

In every combination on our list, the CPU and motherboard complement each other. The motherboard will unlock the maximum potential of the CPU, and the CPU will face no problems when overclocking it to its highest speeds.

Happy PC building.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: What is a good motherboard CPU combo?

A good motherboard and CPU combo is the one in which both motherboard and CPU could complement each other. The motherboard should have the ability to easily handle the CPU even when overclocked. In this way, both mobo and CPU will be able to perform at their best.

Question 2: What is the best motherboard and CPU for gaming?

The best intel motherboard CPU combo is MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk + Intel Core i5-10600K if you are looking for an Intel combo. The i5-10600K is close to the best gaming processors you can have right now.

And if you are going for an AMD motherboard CPU combo, you should go with ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO + AMD Ryzen 5 5600X as this is the best combo that gives excellent value for the money.

Question 3: Can you change the CPU on a motherboard?

Yes, you can. Most Intel motherboards support up to 2 generations of CPUs, so you can install any one of those 2 generations of CPUs.

And the AMD side is fascinating. Almost all AMD Ryzen motherboards support all of the AMD Ryzen CPU generations from 1st gen to 5th gen. So you can basically add any Ryzen CPU on any Ryzen motherboard.

Question 4: What CPU will work with my motherboard?

To get this answer, you should consult the user manual of your motherboard. You can also check online. Your motherboard’s page will show you the list of processors supported by it.

Question 5: Can I upgrade the CPU without changing the motherboard?

Yes, as we mentioned earlier that most Intel motherboards support 2 generations of CPUs, so you can upgrade to the next-gen without upgrading your motherboard.

And if you have an AMD motherboard, you can basically upgrade to any CPU available right now without changing the motherboard.

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Gregory Rosales

Gregory Rosales

I've been building gaming PCs for the last 13 years and purchased my first console seven years ago. My passion for exploring what's inside these things helped me develop professional writing skills. I benchmark the computer hardware first with the right equipment and post them here for you.
My expertise is in Computer Hardware, Gaming Hardware, Computers and Laptops, Gaming Consoles, and Consumer Technology.

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