Best Budget Motherboards for Gaming:
Motherboards are essential when building a PC, but a more expensive motherboard offers very little advantage compared to a cheaper one, especially when you could be spending the money on components like storage drives and CPUs which cause noticeable speed increases. A nicer motherboard may feature RGB lighting, extra PCIe slots, extra USB ports, extra RAM slots, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth compatibility, but these features aren’t necessary for the majority of users.
If you’re looking to build a cheap PC with the best budget motherboard and no unnecessary fluff, look no further than this list. We’ve compiled a list of the best 5 LGA 1200 motherboards that cost less than $100 to use in your gaming rig (or workstation, for that matter).
All of these motherboards are compatible with Intel 10th and 11th generation CPUs. Note that, if using with an 11th-gen processor, you’ll probably need to update the motherboard’s BIOS for compatibility before use.
Overview of metrics:
Before we get into the different motherboards, I want to take a moment to go over the different metrics displayed for each motherboard, and what they mean in terms of performance and functionality.
- Price is, of course, very straightforward. Instead of writing down a price that will inevitably fluctuate, I’ve added links that will update as the price changes, so you can view real-time pricing.
- Form factor reflect the size of the Motherboard. ATX motherboards are the largest standard size, followed by Micro ATX and then Mini ITX. Mini ITX motherboards tend to be more expensive because of their small form factor and, as such, there are none in this list.
- Max memory speed reflects the fastest supported RAM clock speed for the specified motherboard. What this means is that if you use 3200MHz RAM with a motherboard that has a max memory speed of 2666MHz, your RAM will run at 2666MHz. In other words, faster RAM is still compatible, but the additional speed over the max memory speed will not be utilized. This can sometimes be worked around using XMP in BIOS.
- RAM slots reflects the number of DIMM slots the motherboard has. If a motherboard has 2 RAM slots, this means it will only be able to use single or dual-channel RAM, but 32GB RAM sticks are widely available on the market, so even with only 2 slots you can easily use 64GB of RAM, which is far more than most people need.
- M2. slots reflects the number of M.2 slots in the motherboard, which are most commonly used to connect NVMe storage drives.
- PCIe x16 slots gives the number of these slots built into the motherboard. These slots are most commonly used for graphics cards, and only one PCIe x16 slot is usually needed.
1. ASRock B460M-HDV
| Check Price: | Amazon | Newegg |
| Form Factor: | Micro ATX |
| Max Memory Speed: | 2666MHz |
| RAM Slots: | 2 |
| M.2 Slots: | 2 |
| PCIe x16 Slots: | 1 |
2. MSI B460M-A PRO
| Check Price: | Amazon | Newegg |
| Form Factor: | Micro ATX |
| Max Memory Speed: | 2933 MHz |
| RAM Slots: | 2 |
| M.2 Slots: | 0 |
| PCIe x16 Slots: | 1 |
The MSI B460M-A Pro has no M.2 slots, and is therefore not the best choice for PCs with an M.2 NVMe. One option to work around this is to buy an NVMe adapter that plugs into a PCIe x1 slot. These cost roughly $15, making the total price less than $100 at the time of writing. Even with its lack of M.2 slots, the B460M-A Pro is, all things considered, an excellent budget motherboard.
3. Segotep H410M-K Pro V20
| Check Price: | Amazon | Newegg |
| Form Factor: | Micro ATX |
| Max Memory Speed: | 2933 MHz |
| RAM Slots: | 2 |
| M.2 Slots: | 0 |
| PCIe x16 Slots: | 1 |
I included the Segotep H410M-K in this list because, unlike the other motherboards so far, it supports overclocking. It’s a very basic motherboard otherwise, with no M.2 slots and 1 PCIe x16 slot. Even so, you can use an adapter as described above to allow M.2 support.
4. ASRock B560M-HDV
| Check Price: | Amazon | Newegg |
| Form Factor: | Micro ATX |
| Max Memory Speed: | 2933 MHz |
| RAM Slots: | 2 |
| M.2 Slots: | 2 |
| PCIe x16 Slots: | 1 |
The ASRock B560M-HDV is a very well-rounded motherboard; it may very well be the best budget motherboard in this list. Its two M.2 slots are nice to have; there are not many other motherboards at the $75 price point with M.2 support (Check Newegg, as the Amazon listing is over $100 at the time of writing).
5. Segotep Battle-AX B460M-D
| Check Price: | Amazon | Newegg |
| Form Factor: | Micro ATX |
| Max Memory Speed: | 2933 MHz |
| RAM Slots: | 2 |
| M.2 Slots: | 1 |
| PCIe x16 Slots: | 1 |
The Segotep B460M-D is another simple yet competent motherboard, and it comes equipped with an M.2 slot.
Which of these should I get?
If you’re on a tight budget and trying to decide which of these motherboards you should buy, think about what you need. If you’re planning to build a computer with an NVMe drive (which I’d highly recommend), make sure you get one that’s equipped with an M.2 slot unless you plan on using an expansion card.
If you know you want faster memory support, get one that supports 2933 MHz. Once you’ve narrowed your options down based on your specific needs, just get the one that’s the most affordable. All of these motherboards are well-made, so you won’t be losing out on quality by buying a slightly cheaper one.
