Motherboards

In this guide, I will walk you through the best AM5 motherboards based on power delivery, features, build quality, and value.

The best motherboard for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D doesn't have to be from the X870 chipset. Budget B650 chipset motherboards perform well, too.

We have tested 10+ Z890 motherboards in the past two weeks, and after going through each of them, we have rounded the best 5 options.

The MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi is a $299 motherboard packed with the latest I/O and EZ-DIY features. It has a fairly basic (almost) all-black design with silver accents and yellow-green colors to represent the board's branding. For VRMs, the board's 16+1+1+1 (16A 90A duet stages for the board), which is enough for Intel's 15th gen chips, even if you want to overclock a bit.

The MSI MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi is a power-packed board with a feature set covering everything you could possibly think of. Its power-phase design is a 20+1+1+1 with 20x 110A SPS powering the VCore, leaving plenty of overclocking room for any Arrow Lake chip. The design is excellent, with 2 RGB zones, but the branding goes a bit overboard.

The MSI MEG Z890 ACE motherboard is a powerhouse for those who want the best features without worrying about cost. Built for Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors, it supports high-speed DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0, and offers a generous range of M.2 and USB ports. With an impressive VRM and heatsink setup, this board is optimized for overclocking and handled both gaming and synthetic tests with top scores.

The MSI MEG Z890 UNIFY-X is a $599 flagship motherboard from MSI which is aimed at overclocking enthusiasts and high-end PC gamers. The motherboard manages to please both with its solid 20+2+1+1 phase power delivery system and sleek aesthetics that blend nicely with the focus on sheer performance and on providing functionality coupled with ample option of storage, blazing fast WiFi-7, BT 5.4, and connectivity ports at the rear and on the front.

The MSI MPG Z890 Edge Ti WiFi is a $369 gaming-focused board, and it certainly covers everything a gamer might need. That includes a great gaming-focused design with RGB and solid performance with a 16-phase 90A SPS design for CPU power.

Although most of the X870 motherboards have amazing features, the best ones tend to have better storage and networking possibilities.

The MSI Pro Z890-A WiFi is one of MSI's affordable Z890 boards, but it offers enough performance and features to please most. We get a beautiful minimalistic design with its white heatsinks and black PCB. It has a 16+1+1+1 phase design with 16x 90A SPS for the CPU and supports DDR5 memory as fast as 9200 MT/s.

The ASRock Z890 Steel Legend WiFi shows outstanding price-to-performance, making it one of the best budget Z890 boards out there. It offers a fairly capable 18+1+1+1+1 VRM solution, DDR5 support up to 9466 MT/s, WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports.

The ASRock Z890 Nova WiFi is just another ASRock board that impressed us with its value. At $349, it's got a power 20+1+2+1+1 power phase design (110A VCore for SPS) with excellent VRM cooling on top. It powers the best I/O you can get right now, including Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4.