![]() This will allow you to opt for a dual-channel low-latency 16 or 32GB RAM kit at less than $60 or $100 bucks, respectively.Īll in all, then, the Asus Prime H610M-E D4 is a fantastic bare-bones board in that it doesn’t offer excessive features, but covers everything that’s needed.Īsus also makes the Prime H610M-A D4-CSM, which is nearly identical to the H610M-E. Additionally, while the H610M-E D4 only supports the transfer speeds of PCIe 3.0 and below for M.2 drives, gen 3 storage is the best in terms of price-to-performance anyway.ĭDR5 should be out of the picture for any budget rig, so this board’s DDR4-compatibility is both expected and welcome. Up to 64GB of 3200MHz memory is more than users will need, and this motherboard’s target audience won’t even need that much capacity. It only features two DIMM slots and one PCIe x16.Įven so, it has everything that’s really essential and it won’t limit your CPU’s upside. The H610M-E D4 is perfect for budget builds at the time of writing it’s one of the only boards available at or under the $100 mark. Best Budget Motherboard: Asus Prime H610M-E D4 It checks all of the boxes that a cheap ITX board should, and it’s extremely affordable for a motherboard in general, let alone an ITX one. Thus, for these CPUs the Prime H610I-Plus is certainly the best budget mini-ITX board. Memory frequencies of up to 3200MHz are supported, which is the maximum supported spec for the i3-12100 and i5-12400. This mini-ITX motherboard has 5+1+1 power stages covered by the Asus Prime lineup’s signature Silver heatsink, as well as another branded heatsink over the chipset. ![]() An additional four front-panel USB ports are supported. In the rear are, most notably, four USB-A ports, an HDMI and DisplayPort, and a gigabit Ethernet plugin. As limited expansion is requisite for small-form-factor motherboards, this is solid, especially for an H610 model. The H610I-Plus D4 has two DDR4 RAM slots and a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, with room for a PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD. There are only two competitors in this price range, Gigabyte’s H610I and ASRock’s H610M-ITX, and neither of these is of quite the same caliber. If you’re looking to build a budget mini-ITX PC build, this is hands-down your best option. Asus’ Prime H610I-Plus D4 breaks this rule in a big way it’s barely over $100. It’s well-known that ITX boards are expensive. Our choices of the best motherboards for the i3-12100, i3-12100F, i5-12400, and i5-12400F take into consideration form-factor, expansion options, hardware limits, board quality, connectivity, and pricing, among other options. Because of this we’ve listed some motherboards that may appear to be redundant since at any given moment one may be a better deal than the others listed. Some of the motherboards we’ve chosen are nearly identical in functionality (such as the Asus Prime H610M-E D4 and the ASRock H610M-HDV), so often the decision will boil down to price. These motherboards are also well-suited for other 60 or 65W Alder Lake SKUs like the i3-1230F, i5-1260F, i7-1270F, and i9-1290F. It should go without saying that the outlined boards could also be considered the best for the Core i3-12100F and i5-12400F (these simply lack integrated graphics). For this reason, we can’t recommend any of these at the moment for the Core i3-12100 or Core i5-12400, however we’ll reevaluate as supply becomes more widely available and prices come down. While Intel’s 700-series motherboards, including B760 and H770, have already dropped, they’re a bit more expensive than equivalent 600-series boards and don’t offer many tangible benefits over the older generation. Z690 was designed with the more expensive K-series line in mind, and many of the features you’re paying for would be largely wasted on an i3 or non-K i5. Since these processors fall towards the lower end of Intel’s Alder Lake lineup, they’re best paired with motherboards in a similar performance range, namely those of the H610, B660, and H670 chipsets. The i3-12100 has a maximum draw of 89W, while the i5-12400 pulls up to 117W. While the i3-12100 and i5-12400 have TDPs of 60W and 65W respectively, they use a lot more juice when running at higher Turbo frequencies. The primary differences between these two CPU models are different core counts (the i3 has 4 cores while the i5-12400 has 6), clock speeds, and power consumption. Boards compatible with these CPUs, especially the generation-old Intel 600-series motherboards, aren’t too expensive, so upgrading won’t break the bank too badly if you play your cards right. We’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of the best motherboards for both the i3-12100 and the i5-12400.
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