Best Motherboard for i9 9900K

When you are looking up a motherboard to overclock your Intel Core i9 9900K ignoring the budget, Gigabyte has some of the potent options in their Aorus series for you. The Z390 Aorus Master replaces the older Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 motherboard with an array of identical features in both. Still, the older one supports only six-core processors, while this one is also compatible with eight cores CPU.

You don’t need to dig down into the specifications of this board to know that it’s a premium model because the promotional image itself tells all about it. There is a black-colored PCB with many RGB lights, and shiny grey heatsinks give striking looks to the board. Controllers on this motherboard are pretty expensive, which increases its price, but they are worth the money when it comes to their performance.

The VRM section of this motherboard has 14 phase regulators with extended shiny heatsinks over them, which gives cooling and looks simultaneously and allows users to overclock to a great extent. There are two M.2 slots on this board and an M key slot for Wi-Fi modules, and all of them come with shiny grey-colored heat spreaders on them. For further storage expansion, there are six right-angled SATA slots.

This motherboard supports both AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI in threeway, and all of the PCIe x16 slots come with PCI Steel Armor which gives excellent support to large-sized graphics cards. There are four memory slots on this board that accepts 128 GB of memory. Overclocking is also available, which can be done with built-in XMP profiles that allow the users to install highly overclock RAM modules.

The rear side of this motherboard has many ports, including USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and Type-C and a few USB 2.0 ports. The backside of this board has an integrated IO cover with power on/o0ff and a Clear CMOS button. Those processors that come with integrated graphics come with a single HDMI port, while DisplayPort has been removed, which was available in the Z370 motherboard.

The major downside of this motherboard is its slightly more expensive price, while a bit of flaw which users face in it is the moderate memory overclocking support. Also, there is a metal backplate on this motherboard that may cause some coolers’ compatibility issues. Overall, if you can afford this would be the best motherboard for i9 9900K for overclocking this gaming beast.

We’ve seen most of the users prefer compact m-ATX motherboards over the ITX boards because they offer a great set of features for a relatively lower price. The Asus ROG Gene series has many of these motherboards from which we’ve picked the Maximus XI Z390. Of course, these motherboards don’t have ports and slots like ATX boards, but still, it offers enough connectivity options.

Aesthetically this motherboard is a little straightforward, but the compact design and many RGB lights make it appealing to users. The black-colored base with some shiny grey colored heat spreaders gives attractive looks, and the RGB lights on the IO cover and chipset heat sink can be controlled through the Asus ROG Aura software to produce great lighting effects.

There are two DIMMs on this motherboard which allows the users to install memory up to 64 GB, and you can also overclock the modules with the built-in XMP profiles. The VRM section of Maximus XI Gene has a 12 phase power design that can overclock any high-end processor, including the Intel Core i9 9900K, as they have extended heat sinks over them, which are responsible for their great cooling.

There are many 10GBPS USB3 ports on the rear panel of this motherboard, which includes both USB Type-A and Type-C, while two USB 2.0 ports are also available to users. High-speed internet, great quality audio, and integrated Wi-Fi are also available on this motherboard which is considered a premium feature in motherboards as most of the options in the market lack them.

Because of its small size, mostly motherboards have the problem of installing front header wires and GPU blocks them, but this one comes with down-angled headers, which doesn’t have any clearance issue. There are two M.2 slots on this motherboard with a heat spreader on them, while it also has four SATA3 right-angled slots while the secondary M.2 slots convert the PCIe x16 slot to x8 mode.

The two memory slots and no support for legacy SATA in M.2 slots as it’s only available to SATA slots may disappoint some users about this motherboard. Also, if you enable the CPU storage slot, it will turn the PCIe x16 slot to the x8 mode. Overall this motherboard is great to consider for high-end processors like i9 9900K, but only when you build a compact build as there are some ATX boards cheaper than it offering better features.

The ROG Strix Z390 is a great motherboard in the series, but you may already know Strix motherboards are considering as mid-range options because of the features set they offers. The price of this motherboard is slightly higher than competitors, but if you like their software suite, you can justify its price, but it’s not going to happen if you are considering a board only because of features.

The good thing about this motherboard is it can easily overclock processors like Intel i9 9900K to a great extent, so at least you can hit 5 GHz frequency with it. There is a black-colored base on this board with some grey shiny heat sinks, which look appealing, and there are some RGB lights that you can configure with the Aura software to produce great lighting effects to make it more attractive.

There are 10 phase voltage regulators on this board with heat spreaders with nice cuts that look, which maintains the aesthetics and gives great performance for overclocking the CPU. The four slots on this motherboard accept 128 GB of memory which you can overclock with built-in XMP profiles to get some great performance boost, and overall it gives excellent overclocking options.

There are two M.2 slots on this motherboard with a heat spreader on both of them, while it also has six SATA slots which are the norm in any mid-range Z390 board. When it comes to connectivity, there are a single 10 GBPS Type-C and three USB Type-A 5GBPS ports, while two USB 2.0 ports are also available. There are controllers which are not too expensive but get their job done perfectly, especially the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.

The three full-length PCIe x16 slots allow you to install multiple graphics cards on this motherboard as it supports three-way Crossfire and two-way SLI, while there are some PCIe x1 slots too for expansion cards. Most of the mid-range motherboards we’ve tested with i9 9900K push the clock of the CPU back to 3.6 GHz when it goes under high loads, and you know K series CPU is all about overclocking, so it will not worth it if you own that but doesn’t utilize their overclocking power.

Overall it’s a great motherboard to consider for high-end processors, but its expe4nsive price makes us think that either we need to go with some other options or not. There is a cheaper option too of this board that has F suffix in name having the same core features, but some premium things got cut off from it, but you can get for a slightly lower price for that.

In 2017, MSI released an X399 chipset motherboard. They revised their naming structure of the motherboards where they named enthusiast motherboards as MEG, performance gaming motherboard as MPG, and arsenal gaming boards ass MAG. There we’ve picked an enthusiast motherboard, namely MSI MEG Godlike Z390, which will impress you with its great performances, features, and high price.

This motherboard is more than what we usually see in the market as it comes with M.2 Xpander, which was available in the TR4 MEG X399 motherboard. Additionally, a dedicated capture card on this board allows you to share your gaming experience with users on platforms like Twitch or YouTube. It’s an extended ATX or E-ATX motherboard which needs a large-sized casing to install.

When we see the lower section of this motherboard, four full-length PCIe x16 slots operate at x16, x16, x8, and x4 mode coming from top to bottom. This means that it allows users to install four-way AMD Crossfire and three-way SLI, rare in any motherboard. The four memory slots on this motherboard accept 128 GB of memory clocked at 4600 MHz.

There are three M.2 slots on this motherboard that come with their integrated heat sinks, which have black and grey colored shade, while the M.2 Xpander allows you to add two more M.2 slots. This motherboard also has six SATA3 slots for further storage expansion, making it the best motherboard for connectivity and storage options. These options are only available on premium boards.

The rear side of this motherboard has many high-speed USB3 ports, including Type-A 5 GBPS and Type-C 10 GBPS and few other connectivity ports. There are excellent quality audio and networking controllers, especially Wi-Fi, as it has the latest-gen killer Wi-Fi 1550, which is rarely available in any motherboard except a few premium and expensive options.

Overall it’s the best motherboard for i9 9900K when you are looking for every premium feature in one place, ignoring the price as it’s the most expensive option too in the market. There are some storage performance issues with this motherboard which users mostly mentions in reviews, while this motherboard also lacks the 10 GBPS Ethernet port, which we’ve seen in some cheap boards too.

There are about seven different Intel Z390 motherboards in the 180-200$ price bracket, which puts pressure on the manufacturers to bring the best features set in boards to stand out first on the list. The Aorus brand is targeted at gamers. As claimed by the Gigabyte, this motherboard has premium features set for a very affordable price, making it a considerable choice for Intel i9 9900K.

There are two different versions of this motherboard, where one comes with integrated Wi-Fi while the other lacks it. The price difference between them is very little (Not more than ten bucks), and I would recommend you to with the GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Pro WIFI. The PCB of this motherboard is colored in black and has a grey color falcon on it with Aorus branding and lights on the heatsink.

The VRM section of GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Pro has 12+1 phase power design voltage regulators, which gives smooth power delivery and great OC performance to i9 9900K. There are extended heatsinks over the VRM section of this board which dissipates maximum heat and makes them cool down. Further, there is an IO cover over the right heatsink, which gives great aesthetics and hides them under it.

Memory support for this motherboard is also great as it allows you to install 128 GB of RAM across four slots, supporting the newer 32 GB UDIMMs slots. Speed-wise the memory options are also good as it supports DDR4 4266 MHz modules, both ECC and Non-ECC. The storage options on this motherboard are standard like all other boards of this caliber as it has six SATA3 slots and two M.2 slots.

Luckily, both of the M.2 slots have individual heat spreaders on them, which helps in better cooling the drives and allows them to get great performance out of them. The rear side has four USB3 Type-A ports and one USB Type-C port, while it also has some USB 2.0 ports. For display, this motherboard has only a single HDMI port, and it lacks DP, which may disappoint some users.

There are three PCIe x16 slots on this motherboard which supports AMD Crossfire in three-way and Nvidia SLI in two-way. Two of those slots also have Steel Armor which gives better support to large-sized graphics cards. Overall it’s a great motherboard to consider for Intel Coffee Lake processors and offers competition to Aorus Master Elite’s series. Still, some things could make it even better.

Asus Prime series of motherboards are known for their budget-friendly price and great set of features that give other manufacturers great competition. Usually, I recommend this motherboard for budget builds, especially if you are working on a white build because of their color scheme, which gives attractive looks. You might already know that there are very few white motherboards in the market.

Though it’s not a complete white motherboard but a black base with white and silver heatsinks, it still looks impressive. There are RGB lights integrated on both the chipset heatsink and the IO cover. Looks-wise there is nothing bad in this motherboard, and if you love white builds, you will never put this motherboard on the back of any other option, but let’s see how good it performs in modern builds.

There are four memory slots on this motherboard that allow you to install 64 GB of RAM clocked at 4266 MHz, which is exceptional for this category of the board. The three PCIe, x16 slots on this motherboard allows you to install AMD Crossfire in three-way and Nvidia SLI in two-way. The PCI Armor on these slots gives excellent support to large-sized graphics cards.

There are two M.2 slots on Asus Prime Z390-A, which are enough for high-speed storage, but one has a heat spreader while the other lacks it. Also, for more storage expansion, there are six right-angled SATA slots on this motherboard. The rear side of this motherboard has many USB ports, including Type-C and Type-A, and a couple of high-speed USB3 ports, which are enough for connectivity.

Prime Z390-A costs a little more than other Prime Z390 series of motherboards for the fleshy aesthetics and the gamer-targeted features. Though when we look at the features of this motherboard, they justify its price. One great thing about this motherboard is that it comes with UFEI BIOS, which is very easy to use and has a search feature too, which helps search settings instead of finding them one by one.

Overall, it’s a great board to pair with Intel Core i9 9900K because of its features and overclocking power. The VRM section of this motherboard has DrMOS regulators, which give smooth power delivery to the CPU and allows you to overclock the i9 9900K at 5 GHz. Overall, it’s a great motherboard to consider, but you may need to look up other options if you are looking for premium features set.

Firstly, this motherboard is most commonly known for its high-end performance and long-living design that most people wouldn’t want to miss. It comes with increased support options for i5-9600K, 9th i9-9900K, 8th Generation Intel Core, i7-9700K, 8th Gen Pentium Gold, and also the 8th Gen Celeron processors that are made for LGA 1151 socket.

In addition to it, the motherboard also supports dual-channel DDR4 memory that exceeds the maximum of up to 4400(OC) MHz. Also, Its Core boost technology that comprises of ddr4 boost and 8+4 pin CPU power connector, is also admirable in enhancing the memory capacity of your CPU.

Furthermore, this motherboard is exclusively built for reliable performance that every PC user is found to have in their setup. Its operating system is best in supporting windows 10 that reaches up to 64 bit in existence.

Moreover, it’s Turbo M.2 technology that includes PCI-E gen3 x4 interface is famous for maximizing the performance of the CPU. Also, the steel armor PCI-E slots are powerful enough in supporting the 2-way and crossfire.

To make your CPU well-equipped with advanced stability and the fastest USB speed, this motherboard has a turbo USB and USB 3.1 gen2 controller that also provides you an uninterrupted connection with whatever device you connect with it for your convenience.

Finally, the most powerful and extended heatsink design that comprises an enhanced circuit design and an MSI extended PWM turns your CPU extremely fast by lowering down the increased temperature of your processor.

This is one of the most durable and reliably performing motherboards that you might not want to miss out on if you have ever been greatly concerned about getting these things in your personal motherboard.

To provide you versatility in the connected devices, it comes with better support for both 8th and 9th Gen Intel Core processors. So, even if you are using the 8th Gen and want to upgrade it to the next one, you wouldn’t have to replace your motherboard; you can enjoy its better connections with the Next Gen also.

Moreover, it comes with 4 DIMMs and a dual-channel non-ECC un-buffered DDR4 for better memory support. Also, it has an I/O Controller Chip to make its Intel Optane Memory extremely powerful for all heavy-duty operations.

Additionally, the most admirable thing about this motherboard is that it comes supported with RGB light strips that have the widest range of colors. These colors make your CPU look more attractive and give a feeling of owning the classy-looking build in your home.

It has an ultra-durable design that comes with multi-way graphics support to help you enjoy the better performance of your processor. Whatever you do on your system, this motherboard is great in supporting you incredibly in your task.

If you are worried about over-heating issues of your CPU, you can simply take advantage of the Smart Fan 5 feature of this motherboard (combine that with a utility like Speedfan for more monitoring). Also, to keep your system cooler and to work better, the motherboard also has advanced temperature sensors and hybrid fan headers. With these additions, the board becomes highly efficient in making your system cooler and better in its performance.