Best Motherboards (Archive)

[Crashman]

Here are the best motherboards for Intel and AMD’s top processors. These boards offer great features, overclocking performance and pricing.

Best Motherboards : Read more

 

[adamovera]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3106344/motherboards.html

 

[ssdpro]

ASUS still not sending Intel-based review samples? Also, I would like to advertise my proofreading services. I would be happy to copy edit every article Tom's posts for flat monthly fee.

 

[Moneyd623]

No mini/micro ATX Z170 boards made the list?

 

[littleleo]

Small error on the chart the Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP has a H170 chipset but under chipset you listed Z170.

 

[cilliers]

Why all the z97 chipset boards? Guess your sponsors are clearing old stock.

 

[why_wolf]

uh the MSI Z97I AC is not available anymore. You have to buy it used for for like $600 these days. It is absolutely not available for $116, your Amazon link doesn't even link to it, it goes to an ATX H97 board. The only Z97 ITX board still around that I can find is this ECS board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135406&cm_re=ITX_Z97-_-13-135-406-_-Product

 

[omegashock]

No 100 series ITX board? Really?

 

[FritzEiv]

SSDPRO: No. Asus provides monitors, graphics cards, gaming laptops, and a great many things, but not motherboards. We'll likely purchase some to review soon.

OMEGASHOCK: Funny, I was asking Thomas about this, since I needed a recommendation for an upcoming build I'm working toward. Let's see if we can get some of these into his hands . . .

LITTLELEO: Fixed (and thanks).

CILLIERS: We are closed off from who our advertisers are. Those boards were all reviewed back when that chipset emerged, by and large. But thanks for assuming the worst.

 

[mtbiker731]

How a reputable tech site can list a $500 mobo as their first recommendation is unconscionable. No, the included features do not nearly justify that price. Why is TH playing into this unreasonable price gouge?

 

[mapesdhs]

It's hard to accept a recommendation as "best" if the entire ASUS line hasn't been touched at all. I'd far rather use an ASUS board over MSI, and although Gigabyte makes some good boards, their BIOS setups are often kinda kooky. Asrock makes good stuff too, or at least they used to, not bought any of their boards since the incredibly popular X58 Extreme 6.

 

[cilliers]

SSDPRO: No. Asus provides monitors, graphics cards, gaming laptops, and a great many things, but not motherboards. We'll likely purchase some to review soon.

OMEGASHOCK: Funny, I was asking Thomas about this, since I needed a recommendation for an upcoming build I'm working toward. Let's see if we can get some of these into his hands . . .

LITTLELEO: Fixed (and thanks).

CILLIERS: We are closed off from who our advertisers are. Those boards were all reviewed back when that chipset emerged, by and large. But thanks for assuming the worst.

Ah, sarcasm. How refreshing. Look: This specific article "best motherboards for the money", has been under heavy crossfire since early 2015, because of its format. Since then, there have been many fan-based suggestions on how to make it better, however, nothing has changed. I'm really not trying to be a dick, I'm just saying that whenever I need to build a new system, Tomshardware articles has now become one of the last references I use, as opposed to 5 years ago, when it was the first. At this point, the Tomshardware forum community seems much more in tune with whats going on in the PC building scene than article publishers. Guys like SR-71 Blackbird, ak47jar3d and CTurbo are really helpful in that regard and they've become household names. Will Tomshardware be the authority on tech again soon? I would honestly love to see that happen.

 

[FritzEiv]

SSDPRO: No. Asus provides monitors, graphics cards, gaming laptops, and a great many things, but not motherboards. We'll likely purchase some to review soon.

OMEGASHOCK: Funny, I was asking Thomas about this, since I needed a recommendation for an upcoming build I'm working toward. Let's see if we can get some of these into his hands . . .

LITTLELEO: Fixed (and thanks).

CILLIERS: We are closed off from who our advertisers are. Those boards were all reviewed back when that chipset emerged, by and large. But thanks for assuming the worst.

Ah, sarcasm. How refreshing. Look: This specific article "best motherboards for the money", has been under heavy crossfire since early 2015, because of its format. Since then, there have been many fan-based suggestions on how to make it better, however, nothing has changed. I'm really not trying to be a dick, I'm just saying that whenever I need to build a new system, Tomshardware articles has now become one of the last references I use, as opposed to 5 years ago, when it was the first. At this point, the Tomshardware forum community seems much more in tune with whats going on in the PC building scene than article publishers. Guys like SR-71 Blackbird, ak47jar3d and CTurbo are really helpful in that regard and they've become household names. Will Tomshardware be the authority on tech again soon? I would honestly love to see that happen.

Honestly, though, how helpful was your original comment? What sort of suggestion were you making? The suggestion I read was that we were in the pocket of our advertisers. If I came to your place of work and suggested impropriety on your part, how would you react?

I try to read most, if not all of the comments. For our "Best Picks" series in particular, we always discuss the comments and suggestions internally and try to make adjustments. Sometimes that's a no-win situation -- in our Best GPUs we made some format changes based on suggestions, and then we heard from the other half of the audience who wanted it back the old way.

So tell me: What is your suggestion on Best Motherboards? How can we make this more helpful for readers?

By the way, I went back and counted, and since August 2015, when Intel's 100-series chipset came out, we have reviewed about 19 motherboards. We don't list all of them in the Best series. We list the ones that have received either an Editor's Choice (our top award) and our Editor Recommended (second highest, and largely one that factors in value), and if we leave any out it's usually because of the age of the product, or there are just too many to list. We are working on other formats where we can have a more comprehensive list of products we've reviewed, or even products available. We haven't reviewed a Z97 board in some time . . .

 

[cilliers]

SSDPRO: No. Asus provides monitors, graphics cards, gaming laptops, and a great many things, but not motherboards. We'll likely purchase some to review soon.

OMEGASHOCK: Funny, I was asking Thomas about this, since I needed a recommendation for an upcoming build I'm working toward. Let's see if we can get some of these into his hands . . .

LITTLELEO: Fixed (and thanks).

CILLIERS: We are closed off from who our advertisers are. Those boards were all reviewed back when that chipset emerged, by and large. But thanks for assuming the worst.

Ah, sarcasm. How refreshing. Look: This specific article "best motherboards for the money", has been under heavy crossfire since early 2015, because of its format. Since then, there have been many fan-based suggestions on how to make it better, however, nothing has changed. I'm really not trying to be a dick, I'm just saying that whenever I need to build a new system, Tomshardware articles has now become one of the last references I use, as opposed to 5 years ago, when it was the first. At this point, the Tomshardware forum community seems much more in tune with whats going on in the PC building scene than article publishers. Guys like SR-71 Blackbird, ak47jar3d and CTurbo are really helpful in that regard and they've become household names. Will Tomshardware be the authority on tech again soon? I would honestly love to see that happen.

Honestly, though, how helpful was your original comment? What sort of suggestion were you making? The suggestion I read was that we were in the pocket of our advertisers. If I came to your place of work and suggested impropriety on your part, how would you react?

I try to read most, if not all of the comments. For our "Best Picks" series in particular, we always discuss the comments and suggestions internally and try to make adjustments. Sometimes that's a no-win situation -- in our Best GPUs we made some format changes based on suggestions, and then we heard from the other half of the audience who wanted it back the old way.

So tell me: What is your suggestion on Best Motherboards? How can we make this more helpful for readers?

By the way, I went back and counted, and since August 2015, when Intel's 100-series chipset came out, we have reviewed about 19 motherboards. We don't list all of them in the Best series. We list the ones that have received either an Editor's Choice (our top award) and our Editor Recommended (second highest, and largely one that factors in value), and if we leave any out it's usually because of the age of the product, or there are just too many to list. We are working on other formats where we can have a more comprehensive list of products we've reviewed, or even products available. We haven't reviewed a Z97 board in some time . . .

Don't take it personal. Send me a PM if you are serious about constructive suggestions to improve the motherboard section. I would gladly prepare a high quality proposal and mail it to you. I think that since you are going through all the trouble to test these boards, there is more value that can be added for the reader, by tweaking a few things on the reporting side. The traditional way of reviewing computer hardware is slowly disappearing and most builders are thinking in terms of performance/$ and maybe some aesthetic and ergonomic considerations. The crux of the matter is how to quantify these seemingly subjective quality parameters.

P.S. Perhaps also assist first time builders in the daunting task of selecting hardware that fits their budget, while fulfilling their workstation needs. You see too many of these type of questions pop-up on the forums, which leads me to believe that we can do better in the way that hardware round-ups are presented.

 

[mapesdhs]

For a "best" motherboards article, simply include ASUS somehow, whether they send free samples or not.

 

[littleleo]

Well Asus (A-sus, they always complain people mispronounce their name, lol) does have the #1 gaming model according to them and some website or mag anyways.

You guys are forgetting in these "Best of" articles they usually only cover brands and models that the manufacturer sent in for review. I suggest you contact Asus and tell them to send Tom's some of there best models to be reviewed.

A mater of fact Asus is at Blizzcon right now showing off their gaming motherboards ask for Jimmy. If you want to talk to a rep in person and you are going, there you are.

 

[RedJaron]

As we have to remind people nearly every month, this started off being called "Best Motherboards for the Money." Asus makes a fine motherboard, but they usually charge more for their boards than competing boards with the same feature set. Paying more for basically the same performance doesn't net a lot of value awards. However, in the premium market, Asus usually did very well with awards from Tom's.

 

[mapesdhs]

But now it's just called Best Motherboards. Without ASUS included, the conclusions are of little use IMO.

 

[mikevalladao]

I'm looking for an X99A motherboard. I come to Tom's for advice on the pros and cons of different boards of that ilk.
The only review I can find is the "best" X99A board -which is a $500 board. Seriously?
It seems to me you used to have several of the top models displayed in a row with different pluses and minuses of each.
I guess I'm out of luck for now, but in the meantime, I'll keep hunting.
Hopefully you can expand on the reviews in the future so some of us who aren't super rich can get some good info too.
Thanks folks.

 

[littleleo]

There are lots of other review sites out there. Tom's isn't the only on doing reviews it's time to leave the nest and look around.

 

[Daniel_336]

i have a msi Z97 gaming 5 motherboard is this a good decent or what kind of motherboard