Best gaming intel motherboards 2012

Look for the Rev 3. You can take additional caution by checking the bios once you receive it in the mail. For our motherboards we chose to review one of the bestselling and most anticipated motherboards of the year, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme which comes with a generous 3 year warranty.

The Maximus 4 extreme comes with 8 USB 3. Oh yeah, did we mention that it supports up to 32 GB ram? Many of the 8 series of motherboards both from Gigabyte and Asus are already compatible with the Bulldozer with a quick bios update. Some of the board's main features include a Realtek RTL 2.

Given the included feature set, it represents exceptional value for users planning on using 11th or 10th Gen Intel desktop processors. Despite not being a premium chipset such as Z or Z, the feature set of the ASUS makes it a decent alternative for users on a budget, but those that want to benefit from premium features and PCIe 4. Sure there is no support for PCIe 5. Out of the small handful of available mini-ITX motherboards for any of Intel's previous two generations 12th and 11th , not many include Thunderbolt connectivity on the rear panel: here we get Thunderbolt 3.

Also on the rear panel are five 3. In addition to the two PCIe 3. There's just not that much available right now on Z mini-ITX models, none that would be worth recommending for the price anyway. When not having to worry about budget and opting for what is considered the best money can buy, there are plenty of solid contenders.

We have seen some top-tier premium flagship models over the last couple of years on Z, Z, and even Z, but the latest Z chipset has taken things to the next level. Everything has been detailed to look as spectacular as the feature set it boasts. There's plenty of storage support with four PCIe 4.

It seems as though GIGABYTE has gone for a less is more approach, although none of the current Z flagship models feature more than six, even though the chipset actually supports up to eight. The chipsets that support this socket for desktop use are H55, H57, P55, and Q LGA — This socket is the predecessor of socket and as such any PCs with a motherboard with this socket in it will need a serious upgrade before it can be considered for gaming, in part due to only being compatible with DDR2 RAM.

It was released in , but because socket FM2 was released just over a year later socket FM1 is essentially obsolete with no upgrade paths available. As these sockets are so old it would be a good idea to completely upgrade your whole system, or if you are building a gaming machine from scratch go with a motherboard with one of the newer sockets. In general a newer CPU will fit in an older motherboard socket, but bus speeds and memory support will be reduced.

The motherboard will need BIOS support too so it is a better idea just to match the processor to the correct motherboard socket. A motherboard is the main printed circuit board PCB in a PC, laptop or other computing device and is also known as a mainboard, system board or logic board. It is one of the most important components of a computer, holding and providing communication between all other crucial components, such as CPU processor , memory and storage devices.

It also houses additional optional components such as graphics card, audio card and wireless card. A chipset is a set of interface controllers that provide the communication between the CPU and other components on the motherboard. Traditional chipsets usually consist of 2 major chips, called the North Bridge and the South Bridge.

The South Bridge handles other tasks such as audio and on-board graphics. With more advanced technology in recent times, the CPU can contain a memory controller instead of the North Bridge. Image source: ASUS. The AK is also fully unlocked, making it overclocker-friendly. Image source: AMD.

Image source: Gigabyte. Budget: Intel Celeron G - dual-core, 2. Image source: MSI.