Question Mobo suggestions for 10850k.

phillyman36

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2004
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Hey I think I'm going to hit Microcenter and grab a 10850k @320 bucks. Looking for mobo suggestions under say $300. I have heard that on some mobo the intel lan is busted. Should I grab a z590 instead? Any suggestions? This will be my back up/ second gaming pc(1080p most likely)
 

killster1

Banned
Mar 15, 2007
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i was going to say z590 taichi but then i looked at the price and its 429$? DAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG how about a b450 / x470 and a 3600 for the same price as the cpu, 1080p gaming isnt tough for any modern cpu, do you have some kinda high refresh monitor?
 

phillyman36

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2004
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Yes my main pc is on a 1140p@144hz monitor. The one I want to build will be on a 1080p@240hz. This one(second pc) will just be used strictly for gaming. (and maybe some web surfing if my main pc is busy doing other things).
 
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nerp

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2005
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Feel free to get a z490. Cheaper. The only thing you lose is PCIe 4 nvme support. For gaming, not even an issue. And the 10th gen chips don't even support it anyway. PCIe 3 nvmes will give you indistinguishable experience for gaming.

I paid $149 for my ASUS TUF Gaming Plus z490 (non-wifi model) last year. The z590 TUF Gaming Plus (there is only wifi model available) is nearly $100 more. The Prime Plus z490, the MSI Pro z490 are other more affordable z490 boards.

Note that some z590 boards might not provide you with use of the pcie4 nvme slot even with a pcie3 ssd and a 10th gen chip. It is wired to the CPU directly and the 10th gen CPUs are not supported for that on those boards. All the more reason to look at z490 with 10th gen. You might buy a z590 board with three m.2 slots (yay!) only to realize one of them is useless with your 10850k (boo).

IF you do get a z490 board, it is important you pay attention to the onboard NIC. If it is intel i225-v 2.5gb LAN, be wary. The b1 and b2 steppings of that NIC have known flaws that are only partially mitigated with firmware and driver updates since release. Many of these boards don't seem to have the b3 stepping that totally fixes it and many people buying even recent shipments are still getting b2. It appears all the z590 boards do have b3 stepping, so no worries there. I specifically chose my z490 TUF board because it has the tried and true i219-v 1gb Intel NIC. I don't have 2.5gb switches or networking gear, anyway.
 
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ronss

Member
May 25, 2003
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The Aorus Elite line has been the best value proposition for Z boards since z390 IMO.
got my eye on that...i had a few problems in the past with gigabyte boards. one the pin on 24 pin main connector got hot and melts some things...on another, ethernet stop working..but i might try this board
 

JWMiddleton

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2000
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Back in Jan 2021, I bought an i9-10850 and the Asus ROG Strix Z490-A Gaming MB. The board was the only decent one available at MC when I bought it. I am very pleased with my setup. See sig for the entire build. Have not been able to get an upgraded GPU, so I'm using the 1660 Super I picked up April 2020 for previous build.

John