Best X470 Motherboard In 2021 (Overclocking, For Ryzen 7 2700X, Best Value)

best x470 motherboard

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The AMD X470 chipset is currently the most powerful chipset AMD offers, which is why it’s purposefully built for overclocking. As you’d expect, there are a wide range of motherboards that boast this chipset with a variety of features– both old and new.

Since the second generation Ryzen processors require hefty power delivery to overclock, especially the octa-core Ryzen 7 2700X, it’s kind of important to have an X470 motherboard comparison to understand what’s available that could meet your needs. Today we will be looking at the best AMD X470 motherboards, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Buyer’s Guide

Choosing the best motherboard is essential; however, since it requires a lot of knowledge to understand all of the various concepts regarding motherboards, we put together a guide to help people understand some of the basics. Following are the key aspects when buying an X470 motherboard for your ultimate Ryzen powered computer.

VRM Quality

One of the most important things when buying an X470 motherboard is the quality of the VRM. VRM stands for Voltage Regulator Module and it is responsible for controlling the power delivery.

A higher-phase VRM provides better overclocking headroom for both your processor and RAM. However, make sure that your processor needs such a hefty VRM, such as a Ryzen 7 2700X.

For instance, if you use a 2700X, then you’ll want at least a 6+2 phase VRM motherboard. However, if you’re using a 2600X (or lower) then you could settle for a less beefy motherboard since anything below the 2700X can be overclocked on almost any X470 motherboard.

Memory Overclock Support

Memory overclocking is very complex, especially with AMD Ryzen processors. First of all, make sure that you buy the motherboard before buying the RAM sticks so that you do not run into any kind of compatibility issues.

Then you’ll need to check the motherboard manufacturer’s official memory overclock support because memory support issues are common and are notorious for causing issues when building your new AMD Ryzen platform PC.

Cooling Solution

A motherboard’s cooling solution is not nearly as important as the cooling solution for the processor, however, it is necessary for prolonged use and will make the motherboard durable. This is often overlooked by a lot of enthusiasts and many motherboards get burnt after prolonged usage just because of high temperatures on the VRM components.

BIOS and Ease Of Use

A lot of users do not have deep knowledge about their BIOS which can often lead to them unwittingly not achieving the optimal performance of their build.

Therefore, if you are not a PC-enthusiast and do not know much about overclocking, then you should buy a motherboard which has a great GUI in the BIOS. Currently Asus is considered to be at the top when it comes to user friendly BIOS according to many enthusiasts. However, I find that often the perception of the quality of a BIOS’ UI is strongly affected by the user’s prior experience with that manufacturer’s design.

For instance, different BIOS’ call the same function by different names. So the uncore (L3 cache of the CPU) frequency might be called the mesh frequency with one brand, but the ring frequency on another board. As such, if you’re familiar with a specific brand you might want to stick with it (unless you hate it, then you should probably switch).

Additional Features

Some of the motherboards provide a lot of additional features which can be quite useful, like built-in Wifi. Moreover, most of the motherboards have the standard ALC1220 audio codec; however, some motherboards offer better audio solutions, which might be desirable unless you want to get a sound card anyhow. So keep an eye out for these type of additional features when making your purchase decision.