Motherboard

An inexpensive Micro-ATX AM5 board with sensible power delivery. Ample for processors up to 120 W.

A proven AM4 mid-range board with PCIe 4.0 for the GPU and primary drive, and no chipset fan.

An inexpensive Intel board with six SATA ports — a good foundation for a home server.

The DDR4 version of the same board. Only sensible if you already own DDR4 modules and want to carry them over.

The cheapest way onto AM5. Weak power delivery and two memory slots — for 65 W processors only.

A sensible board for Core Ultra 5. Memory overclocking without CPU overclocking, which costs nothing on non-K models.

Solid power delivery, Wi-Fi and three M.2 slots. The most sensible choice for most AM5 builds.

Mini-ITX on AM5 with good power delivery. The choice in this form factor is narrow, so the board is picked first.

The newer B850 chipset with solid power delivery. It handles even a 9950X without reducing clocks.

The flagship chipset with USB4 and four M.2 slots. Only worth it with many drives or a 170 W and above processor.

Full memory overclocking and strong power delivery — needed for Core Ultra 7 and above, which draw 250 W under load.

An alternative to the Tomahawk on the same socket. Four M.2 slots and Wi-Fi 7.

A flagship board with five M.2 slots and very strong power delivery. Only sensible for extreme overclocking.