Question Best board for core i5 9400f

[dhirajranger]

First yes I brought 9400f as the other options like 9600/k and ryzen 2600 were fairly costlier in my country. I want a midrange board like b360 which can work with 9th gen cpu out of the box as i do not have an 8th gen cpu to update the bios. I prevoisly had planned for a asrock z390 phantom gaming 4 but that has suddenly became out of stock from everywhere. other z390 are way more costly. is there any board which will work with 9th gen cpu out of the box? or i am stuck with a costlier z390.

PS: i have no plans to overclock in future as Intel will definitely depriccate LGA 1151 platform before i upgrade to a k series cpu and bclk overclocking in not something i like to do.

 

[tennis2]

Most B365 boards should support that CPU out of the box without a BIOS update. Check the CPU support list for the mobo you choose to make sure.

Just fair warning, if you get anything except a Z series board, you won't be able to run RAM at anything above 2666MHz.

 

[dhirajranger]

yeah that is there but do you think there would be any noticeable difference between a 3.0Ghz and 2.6Ghz ram on 9400f?

 

[TJ Hooker]

Doubt it, I don't think it'd be worth the cost of getting a Z series board just to run 3000 MHz RAM.

 

[Bearmann]

For an ATX board, I would get the ASRock Fatal1ty B360 Gaming K4. If not that then the ASRock B365 Phantom Gaming 4. For mATX, the ASRock B365M Phantom Gaming 4. If not that then the Asrock B360 mATX Pro4. The newer B360 boards should already have the bios update, but you would have to check with the store.

 

[dhirajranger]

only one z365 board is available in my country and that too is a barebones Asus EX-B365M-V looks like i have to either wait or buy expensive MOBO. ughhh... intel is intentionally slowing down the 9th gen compatible boards.

 

[tennis2]

Agreed. I mean, you can roll the dice on a Z370/B360/H370 board shipping with a compatible BIOS version, but....

I wouldn't buy a mobo with only 2 RAM slots personally. Every computer I've ever owned has needed a RAM doubling sometime during its lifetime. Nice to be able to keep using the RAM you initially bought and just add to it.

 

[dhirajranger]

ordered asrock-z390-phantom-gaming-sli at around $196 usd.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Seems odd to spend more on your motherboard than your CPU, but to each their own...

 

[dhirajranger]

yeah I know i usually an in favour of spending less on board but I had no other option I wanted m.2 capable board and the cheapest board available capable of running 9th gen was half the price which was barebones (no m.2, no gigabit ethernet , no heatsink on vrm)at the end its the price i paid for buying into 9th gen. in the hindsight an 8600k with h310 would have given a better performance.

 

[TJ Hooker]

no m.2, no gigabit ethernet

What motherboard were you looking at? I don't think they even make motherboards without built in gigabit Ethernet anymore. I also haven't seen at recent motherboards without an M.2 slot to be honest.

 

[dhirajranger]

update: so my adventure continues so far the sore cancelled my asrock-z390-phantom-gaming-sli order too as that also went out of stock now i am sitting without a motherboard (at least ones whose price i can justify) and a 9400f processor which i have opened so can not be returned.looks like i have to wait a few weeks for motherboard stocks to arrive or bet on an h310 which says it supports 9th gen in the listings. what would you guys recommend?

 

[Bearmann]

I would just wait until you can get what you want. Maybe you can reserve it so you will be first in line when it comes.