Whenever you’re buying a PC component, it’s better to check its compatibility with the rest of the hardware components of your gaming PC.It’s a much more important issue than what it seems because, if you’ve got a bigger M.2 SSD than what your motherboard allows (for example), you’ve no option other than selling it back and purchasing a smaller one.That’s why, to save yourself from this frustration, make sure that a component checks all the compatibility-related points.
5 Best X470 Motherboards 2020
- ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming (Best X470 Mini-ITX Motherboard)
- Asus ROG Strix X470-f (Best Midrange X470 Motherboard)
- MSI Enthusiast Gaming M7
- Asus ROG Strix Crossfire (Best High-End X470 Motherboard)
The chipset compatibility is the thing most people don’t think of in the first place. More often than not, they just check the supported measurements of their CPU cooler, PC Case, Power supply, and graphics card etc, from their respective specs sheets.The chipset compatibility, in my opinion, is more important than these and should be the first thing for you to take notice of. It’s simply because it defines what CPUs you can put into your motherboard.Recently we published a round-up about the motherboards with Intel’s Z390 chipset (the latest chipset by Intel) so we thought it would be nice if we do the same on AMD’s end.Although released in April last year, X470 is still the latest chipset from the AMD and supports all Ryzen CPUs except the ones from Threadripper series.Like Z390, X470 chipset is a minor update over its predecessor (the X370 chipset) in the form of StoreMi technology and Precision Boost Overdrive. So, if you’re a PC enthusiast who looks to know about each of the teeny tiny thing happening in his machine, X470 isn’t really much different than the X370.”So should I buy an X470 motherboard?”, you might be asking.It depends actually.If you’ve already got an X370 motherboard, there’s no point getting one with X470 chipset. However, if you’re building a new PC from scratch, it’s better to go for X470 boards because of two reasons.First, there’s no big price difference between X370 and X470 Mobos. Secondly, it’ll help you achieve a bit of future-proofing and you won’t need a new motherboard in 2-3 years.
Best X470 Motherboard 2020 Buying Guide
OK, with all this talk out of the way, let’s dive into our main topic: Best X470 Motherboards for 2020.We’ve picked these boards from different price sections so that you can select one according to your needs and budget.
ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming: Check Price On Amazon
Best X470 Motherboard For Mini-ITX builds
The first board in our roundup is Fatal1ty X470 by ASRock. It’s similar to its predecessor, the Fatal1ty X370, in many ways but there are some differences in the form of integrated WiFi module, RGB headers, USB 3.1 connectivity, and (of course) a new chipset.
The Fatal1ty X370 had the red color in many places but this time, colors are much more neutral. Majority of the board is black where the heatsinks for VRM and chipset are grey colored.
Since Mini-ITX boards are naturally smaller, and also because the mounting brackets for AM4 socket take more space, these heatsinks are very compact in nature.
Mainly because of this little space, there’s no LED on the board itself but there are two RGB headers through which you can add an LED strip or two in your finished build.
The X470 chipset allows the manufacturers to put as much as six SATA 3 ports in a board but, perhaps in order to cut costs, you’ll only find four here. Right along these SATA 3 ports, there are USB 2.0 and 3.0 headers.
Other than this, there’s a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot – nothing extraordinary but not bad either.
Another thing worth mentioning here is M.2 connector underneath the motherboard which supports M.2 2280 devices.
The rear I/O panel consists of two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, as well as 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (one Type-A and one Type-C). Older hardware peripherals can be connected via a single PS/2 port while the display devices can utilize a single HDMI port and a DisplayPort 1.2
In terms of connectivity, there’s 802.11ac WiFi which promises to give a theoretical top speed of 1700 Mbps, along with the latest Bluetooth 5.0 standard.
Coming to the conclusion, there are some things that I didn’t like about this board such as smaller CPU VRM heatsink, the lack of dual M.2 slots, and M.2 cooling.
Also, it’s not a huge improvement over its X370 version. This is the reason why I think you shouldn’t buy it if you’ve already got the X370 version.
All in all, though, I believe that this board is worth its price, and has more than enough goodies to outweigh its downsides.
ASUS ROG Strix X470-F: Check Price On Amazon
Best Midrange X470 Motherboard 2020
ROG Strix X470-f is one of two Asus’ boards featured in this roundup – the other being Crosshair VII hero.It’s been targeted towards the PC gamers, and you can see that from its design. Most thing related to gamers come with the RGB lighting. Same is the case here.But many gaming components come with so much RGB lighting that it starts to become unbearable. Perhaps, this is the reason why Asus has only put RGB o the rear I/O shield. This I/O shield is fixed with the board which makes it slightly easier to install the board into your PC case.Speaking of the I/O shield, the I/O panel of Strix X470-f has a total of eight USB ports. Five of them are USB 3 Gen 1 ports, two are USB 3 Gen 2 ports, and one is USB 3 Gen 2 Type-C port. In addition to that, there’s a LAN port, a PS/2 port, as well as some audio and display related ports.The other features include four DIMM slots for RAM sticks, 2 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots for 2-way SLI or 3-way Crossfire, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, and 3 PCIe 2.1 x1 slots.There are two M.2 slots. One of them is of 2210 type while the other is of 2280 type. For storage, there are six SATA ports.For overclocking, this is one of the best X470 boards out there as I was able to get around the 4 GHz mark and even at that point, this board made things go as smooth as possible. To keep the CPU VRM components cooler, there are two grey-colored aluminum heatsinks. The primary M.2 slot is under one of these heatsinks.This board also comes with one Aura RGB header, two RGB LED headers and 3 fan headers. Also worth mentioning is the 2×2 802.11ac WiFi with advanced features like MU-MIMO.On the other side, there are a few issues in this board worth mentioning.
For starters, the software for Aura RGB lighting isn’t well polished. Next is the temperature, which can go high in case of heavy load but I think you can easily resolve this particular issue by investing in a better air/AIO cooler.The things I liked on this board are the excellent audio performance, Good M.2 cooling, Reinforced PCIe slots, as well as good VRM implementation.All in all, you have a budget less than 170 bucks and you want to join the team Red, this is the best x470 motherboard for you.
MSI M7 X470: Check Price On Amazon
The M7 X470 is a top-tier motherboard as well as the successor of the 7 X370.
While the AMD hasn’t made any bigger upgrades in the X470 chipset itself, MSI decided to provide enough feature to make you think for the upgrade.The top side of this board contains the two 8-pin CPU power connectors, while the POST code display, an addressable RGB LED header, power button and reset button are on the bottom right corner.On the right side, there are six SATA ports (and there’s RAID 0/1/10 functionality available for SATA devices), along with the USB 3.0 internal header. Two USB 2.0 headers are on the bottom side, along with a USB 3.1 Type-C header and another USB 3.0 header.Its rear I/O panel includes two USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port, WiFi antenna outputs, 1 Gigabit LAN port, as well as gold-plated audio capacitors.In terms of wireless connectivity, there’s dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2There are four DIMM slots here, but unlike in other board, you can put RAM modules with frequency as fast as 3600 MHz here.The good thing I found here is the unique M.2 cooling mechanism, one-button BIOS recovery, different overclocking tools, and a good amount of RGB.First, we’ll talk about the two M.2 slots. First one of them utilizes the CPU’s PCIe 3.0 x4 connection while the second is connected to the chipset and has a PCIe 2.0 x4 connection.
MSI has implemented a hinge-based mechanism that allows an integrated heatsink to cool both of these slots (unlike in other boards, where only one of these slots can be cooled).Speaking of PCIe connection, there are two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots that operate on either x16/x0 or x8/x8 mode depending on whether you’ve implemented a multi-GPU configuration or not. Other than this, there’s one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot and three PCIe 2.0 x1 slots.Next one is the one-button BIOS recovery. While this feature doesn’t seem as fascinating as some others do, it’s really good to have a mobo where you can flash the BIOS without installing any CPU in it. You just need to power the board and have a flash drive with new BIOS.Other than this, MSI M7 comes with the GameBoost Knob that allows overclocking with different preset levels/settings.The only thing I didn’t like in this board is the lack of video output, which means that you won’t be able to use the AMD Vega graphics here, and will to have to have a dedicated graphics card.
ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero: Check Price On Amazon
Best High-End X470 Motherboard 2020
Crosshair VII Hero is an enthusiast-grade motherboard by Asus ROG that comes with a high price tag.But after reviewing it, I must say that Asus has justified every penny you’ll put into it.Even on holding it for the first time, you can judge its class by the simple fact that metal has been used in abundance.The left side is packed with metallic heatsinks, along with I/O shroud and audio components which are also covered in metal.The power and reset buttons are situated on the top-right corner along with an RGB LED header, and a POST display which can help you in diagnosing the system-related problems.For system memory, you can have up to 4 RAM modules. Each of the 4 DIMM slots can have up to 16 GB memory. So, in total, you can have as big as 64 GB RAM memory.The rest of the specs are usual for a high-end motherboard: Two M.2 slots, SATA 6 Gb/s connection, two RGB LED headers, 802.11ac capability, and eight fan headers.There are six SATA ports and for CPU VRM, this board features an 8+4 pin connector.The area I really like in this mobo is the rear I/O panel which houses a ton of connectivity options.
To be specific, there are eight USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.1 ports (one Type-C), Five audio jacks, one PS/2 port, one CMOS button, and one button for BIOS reset.Apparently seeming perfect, this board actually come with a couple of downsides.
First one is about the top M.2 slot. This slot is the only one that has a heatsink, so it would natural for people to utilize it. But any usage this slot reduces the bandwidth of the top two X16 slots connected to your graphics card.You can solve the issue by using bottom M.2 slot but that one doesn’t have the heatsink. So, you have to sacrifice in one way or another.Another issue is the price. Coming at more than 250 bucks at the time of this review, this board is certainly expensive.That being said, if you have the budget, this is the best High-end X470 motherboard you can buy.