Best Motherboards For Intel Core I7 CPUs 2020 Guide

Broadwell – 5th-Generation i7 CPUs
Intel’s Broadwell CPUs were released in 2015. For reasons only known to Intel, they were released around the same time as the newer, faster Skylake chips. This is perhaps the reason that there were only two Broadwell processors that were launched for desktop use, and from these two there was one i-7 CPU: the Core i7-5775C.

Broadwell is still an improvement over Haswell, and according toGordon Mah Ung of PC World, Broadwell has 5% to 10% better performance. This makes an attractive proposition for gamers who already have a socket 1150 motherboard and who don’t want to upgrade their whole system but would like a boost in performance. Broadwell processors are not compatible with 8-series chipsets, and they require the newer Z97 or H97 chipsets.

MSI Z97 Gaming 5
MotherboardMSI Z97 Gaming 5Socket TypeIntel LGA 1150ChipsetZ97Form FactorATXYear Released2014CPU SupportBroadwell / HaswellExpansion Slots7 PCIe, 6 SATA, 1 M.2RAM Slots4 x DDR3Maximum RAM32GBThis is a great motherboard for those who just want to game without all the tweaking. It features one-click automatic overclocking software to allow you to spend more time doing what you bought the motherboard for: gaming.

The high-end Realtek ALC1150 sound chip, along with the Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3 gaming audio suite and the AMP-UP Audio Technology, means that the audio performance of this board is phenomenal. The Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201 Ethernet port reduces lag, prioritizes gaming traffic, and delivers the fastest networking speeds, which translates to faster, smoother gaming.

Considering that theGigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5has an M.2 connector, a SATA Express 10Gb/s port, PCIe x16, and USB 3.0, it is most definitely one of the best gaming motherboards on the market.

ProsConsSupports 3-way CrossFire or 2-way SLINo integrated WiFi or BluetoothQualcomm Atheros Killer E2201 Ethernet portHigh-end Realtek ALC1150 sound chip