PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best gaming motherboard of 2024

ASRock B760I Lightning
Despite Intel launching a new CPU socket, motherboard chipset, and a full range of processors (Core Ultra 200S), last-gen Raptor Lake chips are still the best choice for gaming if you want an Intel setup. But you needn't spend a fortune on getting a good motherboard to go with your 14th Gen Core chip.

The ASRock B760I Lighting is small in size (mini-ITX), small in price (under $200), but big in performance and Raptor Lake support. Want to fit a Core i9 14900K in a tiny PC? This ASRock will cope without fuss and let you use ultra-fast DDR5.

Naturally, something has to give in order to reach this price point and in this instance, it's USB ports with just six in total on the rear IO panel. Due to its diminutive dimensions, you only get one PCIe and M.2 slots, too. But they're minor quibbles when the rest is all top-notch.

Read our full ASRock B760I Lightning review.

Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi
Yes, it's 'merely' a mini-ITX motherboard and it costs over $400, though you can pick one for less during sales. But if you're going to build a small but potent gaming PC, then this board is going to be the star of the show.

In terms of connectivity and slots, the small size does limit matters somewhat (just one PCIe and two M.2 slots, for example) but Asus has made up for this by ensuring the ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi can cope with any Ryzen processor, even one heavily overclocked, and stuck dual USB4 ports for good measure.

It uses clever riser boards to expand connectivity and user options, without taking up valuable space—vital when it's a mini-ITX size. There's no denying it's an expensive motherboard but you're getting more features than other models on the market that are just as pricey.

Read our full Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming WiFi review.

MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi
AMD's new X870 chipset might not seem to be vastly better than its previous X670, but you do get way more PCIe 5.0 lanes—which results in more connectivity options for vendors to play around with.

In the case of the MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi, MSI went to town with USB ports: 12 on the rear IO panel (including two USB4) and support for a further nine via headers.

You also get four PCIe slots and four M.2 sockets for SSDs, but the surfeit of USB ports means that they're not all equal, and the speeds you get depend heavily on what you have plugged into each one. It's a complicated affair, that's for sure.

It's a little on the pricey side but MSI has fitted lots of 'quality-of-life' features to make it easy to remove devices, change settings, and keep things all nice and cool.

Read our full MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi review.