Choosing the right motherboard is crucial when you’re taking a step toward optimizing the performance of a processing unit. This is because a processor alone cannot process anything; it needs to be coupled with a high-quality chipset. The primary thing you need to consider is the compatibility of the socket that connects the motherboard to the processing unit.

Like the best AM4 motherboard fits with AMD processors having AM4 sockets only, instead of intel or other units. Well, that’s not enough about the motherboards! You need to know about other aspects as well like memory, clock speed, overclocking potential, cooling mechanism, connectivity, and whatnot. In this comprehensive article, I’ll explain all the important terminologies and will recommend the best AM4 motherboards from my side.

Buying Guide for the Best AM4 Motherboards

The market is full of AM4 motherboards, each claiming itself the best one, but that doesn’t mean every product is suitable for your processing unit. You need to be specific about the processor as well as the features you need in a motherboard like speed, connectivity options, memory slot, and so forth. The highest-priced AM4 motherboards of course offer better performance and plenty of features than a low-priced model, but again you need to shortlist your requirements.

If you’re a gamer or high-end developer, a top-tier AM4 motherboard with extra whistles like LED, RGB illumination, wireless connectivity, excellent audio input, and more will be a great choice, especially when you’re not too concerned about the budget. But, regular consumers who only have to work on search engines or a few applications, can also get a moderate AM4 motherboard with no fancy features.

For your information, AM4 is basically the socket that helps the motherboard to connect with the processing unit or vice versa. The motherboard sockets are specific, and you need to consider them to choose a compatible motherboard for your processor.

In this sequence, the best AM4 motherboards have AM4 sockets with four holes and are designed for relevant Ryzen processing units. Not only the compatibility should be your concern, but you have to look for other prominent aspects as well; let’s discuss:

Design

The design of the motherboard matters a lot; you need to see which material is used in construction. Please avoid metal motherboards because they are prone to corrosion. In my recommendation, the latest heat sink designs engineered by ASUS are great because of their stylish appearance, and better performance.

Chipset Type

The compatibility of an AM4 motherboard depends on the chipset type. As far as the Ryzen processors are concerned, they can be installed on different motherboards without a hassle, so all you need to consider is a compatible socket. In simple words, the slight difference added by the chipset style is in the compatibility and ability to update the unit.

Form Factor

The motherboard form factor has nothing to do with the performance, but it impacts the applicability. The micro ATX form factor refers to the powerful AM4 motherboards. It is compact and powerful for gaming, high-end development, programming, coding, content creation, live streaming, video editing, and more.

Connectivity

The motherboard is basically a chipset that comes with a couple of ports and each connectivity port has its own importance and purpose. For example, the peripheral component interconnect express, shortly written as PCIe, is used to connect the SSDs, RAID cards, GPUs, and Wi-Fi cards to the motherboard. Other examples include USB ports, HDMI, and wireless options like built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Memory Speed

Every motherboard has a certain memory speed, and a faster memory speed is always advantageous. This is because high memory speed supports multiple tasking without a break. However, keep in mind that you need to pay when you demand high-end or superior features like maximum memory speed.

Overclocking

Clocking is the cycle executed by the CPU in a minute and it is measured as clock speed (GHz). The faster clock speed means quick processing of a CPU, which is of course a beneficial thing. But what does the motherboard have to do with it?

As I said earlier, the processing units can’t work alone; they are dependent on the motherboard. In this sequence, there is a specific term used called overclocking which means the ability of a motherboard to enhance the clock speed of a processing unit. In this sequence, you need to opt for the best AM4 motherboard that offers high overclocking capacity/rate.

RGB Lighting

RGB motherboards are trendy in the market these days. They are designed to give pleasant visual effects and inform you about different ongoing functions. The best thing is that you can also customize the lighting as per your choice because of the built-in lighting system of these motherboards that can be personalized easily.