It’s been a very long time since we’ve had enthusiast motherboards supporting two types of memory from a single chipset, but that’s exactly what’s happened with Z690. Read our ASUS TUF Z690 PLUS WIFI D4 Review. There’s a clear divide between Asus’ upper and lower product stack, though, with its Prime and TUF ranges more likely … Read more
As one of several Z690 boards available that comes in both DDR4 and DDR5 flavours, the Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X gives you the option of jumping on either bandwagon, albeit with specific versions of the board supporting one memory type or the other. We’ve got the DDR4 version in for review here, but if you’re … Read more
While the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex has an eye-watering price tag, it’s beautifully crafted and dripping with features. The most prominent of them is an extruded aluminium heatsink spelling ROG on the bottom-right corner of the PCB. Read our Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Apex Review. This section forms part of a massive heatsink that, … Read more
If you’ve been put off an Alder Lake upgrade by the eye-watering prices of Z690 motherboards, then the cheapest example in this month’s Labs test costs £, which is certainly far cheaper than most examples we’ve seen. However, ASRock has had to cut back the Z690 PG Riptide’s features significantly to hit this price. Read … Read more
Table of ContentsNEW MOTHERBOARDS: WHAT TO LOOK FORCPU SocketsOther FeaturesPrice & ManufacturerMOTHERBOARDS: WHAT’S COMING UP?Intel: 2017 & BeyondAMD: 2017 And BeyondFuture FeaturesHOW TO UPGRADE YOUR MOTHERBOARDUPGRADE YOUR MOTHERBOARDChoosing A MotherboardInstalling Your New HardwareUh Oh…Step-By-Step Guide1 Preparation2 Dismantling Your PC3 Installing Your New Motherboard4 Reconfigure Your OSIntel motherboards guideIntel ChipsetsIntel ChipsetsSkylake Budget CPUsBudget: Biostar H110MHV3High-End: MSI H110M Pro-VDSkylake … Read more
Gigabyte F2A68HM-HD2 Review – Gigabyte has quite an impressive range of micro-ATX boards on offer these days, each offering something different or adding to an existing feature from the last revision. Finding something that combines everything in a single, inexpensive and small package can be quite a chore at times, but thankfully such a thing does … Read more
I had mixed experiences with the MSI A88XM-E45. It’s a good looking Micro-ATX design that uses a classic MSI color scheme of blue and black with a chunky heat-sink on the power regulation hardware that is screwed in place. The smaller heat-sink on the chip-set is secured with a pair of plastic pop pins. There … Read more
As a spin-off for this month’s Labs test, we’ve also included MSI’s B450M Mortar micro-ATX motherboard in the roundup. It first appears to be a B450 Tomahawk with a few centimetres lopped off the bottom. Read our MSI B450M Mortar Review. You may also like: MSI Z370 SLI Plus review ASRock X399M Taichi Review The two boards … Read more
Asus TUF Z270 Mark 1 Review – With any new chip, comes a new chipset. And with each generation, that chipset improves in a variety of ways. The improvements usually revolve around connectivity and expansion support. But there are often other notable tweaks as well, such as aesthetic design, cooling support, and updates and enhancements to … Read more
What do you look for in a motherboard? Clean style? Endurance? Good power draw? Never-ending connectivity? There’s a lot to think about when choosing the perfect motherboard. Much like a processor, you need one that’s appropriate for your build; suitable for what you want to do. In a lot of ways, it’s a contradictory component; … Read more
ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero Review – WE’VE ALWAYS TENDED more towards Asus’s Prime series motherboards than its ROG Maximus range, largely because the latter are invariably far more expensive. With the release of Intel’s Coffee Lake CPUs and accompanying Z370 chipset, it seems that won’t be changing any time soon: the ROG Maximus X Hero, more … Read more
MSI X470 Gaming Plus Review: How low do you want to go? It’s obvious from the moment you first open the box of the MSI X470 Gaming Plus that keeping costs down was a priority for the company. It’s definitely not a looker, with rather sparse cosmetic additions and lots of visible PCB traces, but for … Read more