Best CPU & Motherboard Combo [The Ultimate Guide]

People often are confused about which motherboard they should combo with their CPU to get the best performance. And if you are one of these people that are tired of looking for the right CPU and Motherboard, then you have come to the right place. You will find the best CPU & Motherboard combo at a different price range and from both Intel and AMD in the list below.

Here is a video that benchmark all the CPUs listed below in both productivity and gaming, so you can have an idea about the performance that you are going to get from your purchase.

A benchmark of all CPUs is listed below.

Best Budget Combo

1-AMD Ryzen 3 3300X

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X is one of the best budget options to consider when building a Gaming PC. This CPU comes with 4 cores, 8 threads, and good quality stock cooler.

Furthermore, Ryzen 3 3300X uses an AM4 socket, which means that with the right motherboard, you will be able to upgrade your CPU without needing to change the mobo as well, since all Ryzen CPUs use the same socket type.

Also, while 4 cores start struggling in modern games, the fact that the Ryzen 3300X comes with 8 threads helps to deliver a smooth gaming experience.

In terms of gaming performance, the Ryzen 3 3300X is around 7% slower than its big brother, the 3600, while it’s 25% cheaper. And it also competes with high-end Intel CPUs.

After comparing it with all budget CPUs, the Ryzen 3 3300X worth named the best budget gaming CPU. On top of its affordable price, this CPU delivers a really high competitive performance even with a budget motherboard.

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2-Gigabyte B450M DS3H

The Gigabyte B450M DS3H is the best budget B450 motherboard that you can buy without sacrificing too much on the quality.

This motherboard supports both 1st and 2nd Ryzen Generation, and with a BIOS flash, it can also support the 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs, which makes it a great budget future-proof motherboard.

In terms of features, the Gigabyte B450M DS3H has 4 DIMM slots, 1x M.2 slot, and 2x PCIe slots. And for connectivities, it has 4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A, 4x USB 2.0 Gen2, one DVI, and one HDMI port which is great for Ryzen APUs.

Also, after AMD has released its B550 motherboards, will surely be some discounts on the previous generations, making it again an unbeatable budget option.

Overall, the Gigabyte B450M DS3H comes with a black and grey design, and it also has all the necessary features that will allow you to benefits from a good entry-level gaming PC.

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Best Value Combo

1-AMD Ryzen 5 3600

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is the best CPU in his league. It performs the same as its competitor, Intel Core i5-9600K, gaming while it crashes it in multitasking.

Also, if you are not a fan of overclocking, then the stock cooler that comes with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 will be more than enough, which is going to save you some extra cash for something else.

The fact that for less than 200$, you will get 6C/12T, a good quality stock cooler, and a very competitive gaming performance makes the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 an unbeatable CPU.

For gaming, you can pair any high-end graphics card with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, even the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, without worrying about bottlenecking issues.

Overall, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is the best CPU for any midrange build. It offers amazing performance in both gaming and productivity, while it comes at an amazing price, especially if we include the stock cooler and the affordable motherboards.

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2-MSI B450 Tomahawk Max

One of the best midrange B450 Motherboards, the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max. This motherboard offers amazing features for such an affordable price, and it’s also so popular among Ryzen CPU users.

The MSI B450 Tomahawk Max comes with an excellent VRM design. Also, the Max version has a bigger BIOS chip compare to the Non-MAX version. Moreover, it has full support for the AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs out of the box.

Furthermore, the VRM quality is good enough to support the Ryzen 9 3900X, which means that you won’t need to change the motherboard in case you decide to upgrade your CPU.

Also, with a good aftermarket cooler for Ryzen 5 3600 and the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max, you can easily overclock your CPU for extra free performance.

Some of the most important features of the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max are the full support for all 3 generations of AMD CPUs, 4 DIMM slots that support up to 4133MHz speed, high-quality audio, PCIe Steel Armor, and much more.

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Best Overall Combo

1-AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is one of the most popular CPUs among Pc Gamers. This CPU offers very high gaming performance and multitasking at a very competitive price. It comes with 8 cores and 16 threads and has a boost clock of 4.4GHz while it consumes only 65W.

The reason why the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is the best CPU among gamers is not only because of its affordable price but also to the motherboard compatibility.

Also, the cooler that comes with the Ryzen 7 3700X is pretty much good and quiet, but if you are willing to overclock your CPU, we recommend a good aftermarket cooler.

Overall, the Ryzen 7 3700X is a great value. It competes for head to head with the Intel Core i7-9700K in gaming while it outperforms it in multitasking.

With this being said, the Ryzen 7 3700X should fit perfectly for any Gaming PC at around 1500$ budget, since you will be able to get this amazing CPU, along with a high-end graphics card.

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2-Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite

Even though the X570 is the best AM4 chipset, there are many good value motherboards that offer high-end features at a very reasonable price.

The Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite is among the best affordable motherboards that didn’t compromise on the features. It comes with good quality VRM, dual NVMe M.2 slots with a single thermal guard, dual PCIe slots, several USB ports, high-quality audio, and an audio noise guard.

Furthermore, the Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite has a beautiful design along with some RGB across the board. This motherboard comes with almost all the essential features that you need to have for a good gaming experience.

While there are many other amazing motherboards for Ryzen 7 3700X, the Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite is a great option for anyone looking for X570 features without breaking the bank.

With this being said, if your budget doesn’t allow you to go with an x570 motherboard, a good B450 Mobos such as MSI B450 Tomahawk Max will work fine with the Ryzen 7 3700X.

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Best Gaming Combo

1-Intel Core i7-10700K

Intel has always produced high-quality gaming CPUs, and the latest Comet-Lake line-up has brought us what every gamer was waiting for, a CPU that offers very high single-core and multi-core performance.

Furthermore, the Intel Core i7-10700k is the sweet spot among the latest Comet-Lake Intel CPUs. It has the same number of cores and threads as the Core i9-9900K, which are 8 cores and 16 threads, while it cost around 100$ cheaper.

Also, the Intel Core i7-10700K uses LGA 1200 socket type, which can be found on Z490 and B460 motherboards. But in order to get high overclocking potential and high memory clock speed, you will have to go with a decent Z490 motherboard.

Overall, the Intel Core i7-10700K is the best gaming CPU since it offers the same performance as the Core i9-10900K at a lower cost, making it the best Intel value CPU.

With this being said, if you are looking to build a high-end Intel gaming PC, then you should definitely go with the Intel i7-10700K. The 8 cores and 16 threads will be more than enough for streaming, while its single-core performance delivers the best gaming experience.

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2-MSI MEG Z490 Unify 

The Z490 motherboards bring upgrade and new features for all 10th gen Intel users.

The MSI MEG Z490 Unify is built specifically for intel 10th gen CPUs. It offers high-end features along with an appealing black design.

Moreover, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify is built with a large aluminum heatsink to provide the best cooling performance for the VRM. These heatsinks draw the heat away from the VRM, so you shouldn’t worry about any heat issues even while overclocking.

Also, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify supports the PCIe Gen 4.0 and higher memory speeds up to 4800MHz with the MSI DDR4 boost.

On top of these amazing features, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify comes with triple M.2 slots with Shield Frozr that act as heatsinks which can help to prevent SSD throttling. It also has in-built Wifi and 2.5G Lan support.

For some people, it can be an inconvenience that the MSI MEG Z490 Unify doesn’t have any RGB lighting across the board.

Overall, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify offers all the premium features that can be found on an expensive Z490 motherboard.

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Best Productivity & Gaming Combo

1-AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is the top tier CPU among the Ryzen lineup. It offers 12 cores and 24 threads and has a boost clock up to 4.6GHz.

Furthermore, this CPU outperforms all the latest Intel CPUs in almost all types of a heavy workload, though it’s slightly behind in gaming, especially at a higher resolution.

Also, since Ryzen 9 3900X uses the AM4 socket, there is a wide variation of motherboards available at different price ranges and features. What is interesting, though, is the fact that it’s a 12c/24t CPU that consumes only 105W.

Since all Ryzen CPUs are unlocked, with a decent motherboard that has a good quality VRM, you can push the Ryzen 9 3900X beyond its limits for better performance in both gaming and productivity.

With this being said, if you use your PC for gaming and any heavy productivity tasks, then the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X should be your primary option.

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2-Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (Wifi)

A beast of performance like the Ryzen 9 3900X requires a high-end motherboard like the Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero. This motherboard is for hardcore gamers and tech enthusiasts.

First and foremost, the Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero has 16 high-quality VRM power stages that offer a very high overclocking potential covered by a large aluminum heatsink.

Also, the Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero features optimum 3 technology that allows its users to lower memories latency, reduce voltages, and operate the memory at higher frequencies.

Furthermore, the Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero has 4 DIMM slots that support up to 128GB at 4800MHz, and in terms of USB ports, the motherboard comes with (8 x USB 3.2 Gen 2) and (4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1).

The chipset also has a large heatsink with more fins along with a fan that helps heat dissipation.

Overall, the Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero is a real premium board. It has monstrous performance, amazing features, and an efficient cooling system, along with an astonishing design with some customizable RGB illumination.

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Best Extreme Gaming Combo

1-Intel Core i9-10900k

If you are the type of gamer that cares about each frame, then there is only one CPU that can satisfy your performance hunger, and it’s the latest Comet-Lake Intel CPU, the Core i9-10900K.

First and foremost, the new 10th gen Intel CPUs including the Core i9-10900K, comes with turbo boost max 3.0 along with thermal velocity boost, which means that under any heavy task or game, these CPUs will reach a very high clock speed.

As it’s known, AMD CPUs have always offered the best multitasking performance, but with the Core i9-10900K, this gap was significantly reduced.

Moreover, with the new Intel thermal velocity boost technology, the Core i9-10900K is able to reach up to 5.3GHz, which allowed this CPU to offer the best gaming performance.

Also, in order to get the best performance out of the Core i9-10900K, you will need a decent Z490 motherboard or a high-end one the same as MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE.

With this being said, if you want the best gaming CPU, along with very high multitasking performance, then the Core i9-10900K is the right choice for you.

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2-MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE

The MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE is the best Z490 motherboard from MSI and one of the premium motherboards for the Intel Comet Lake CPUs.

First and Foremost, the MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE comes with 16 power stages that deliver up to 90AMP covered by a large-high-quality heatsink with active cooling, which means that even if you are going to do extreme overclocking, the VRM will maintain a very good temperature.

Furthermore, the MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE has triple M.2 slots gen 4.0 covered by Shield Frozr that acts like heatsinks. This motherboard also comes with M.2 XPANDER-Z Gen 4.0 that allows its users to have extra M.2 slots.

When it comes to memory support, the MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE supports up to 128GB of DDR4 5000MHz, and it also has shielding for each DIMM slot.

For those who are in love with the RGB lighting, the MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE has an RGB dragon logo up in the rear I/O shield. It also has illumination on the PCH and an LCD screen at the top edge of the motherboard. The LCD screen offers many functionalities such as temperatures, CPU frequencies, and much more.

Overall, the MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE is the best motherboard for anyone that is looking to build an extreme gaming PC. It’s a very high-quality motherboard that offers all the high-end features at a premium cost.

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Conclusion

So, these were the best CPU & Motherboard combo available in the market from both Intel & AMD. In terms of performance, from the Budget until the Extreme Combo, be sure that you are getting the best performance for the money you are going to spend.

Don’t forget to share your opinion with us about this list in the comment below, please, and if you liked our CPU & Motherboard combo’s article, you could share it on social media with a simple click with the buttons below.

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