z690 unify x especially used ones are under $400 and can handle very fast DDR5 due to being a 2DIMM mobo.

MSI also has very good BIOS and MSI Lite load control on BIOS is similar to PBO curve optimizer for undervolting the CPU.

Amazon warehouse has one for $311 in used acceptable condition.

Amazon.com

 

Won't do that anymore, last time I did that was an X570 Pro-Art Creator and it was apparently in very good condition and came with bent CPU socket pins...

 

I've never really found much difference between cheaper and expensive motherboards as long as they are the x90 series (e.g. z590, 690, 790). I have ran super top tier $1000 boards and cheaper $200 ones and it had no effect on overclocking performance or anything that was measurable to me. The reality is any of the x90 series should be designed to run the most top tier processor (13900ks) with an overclock. The PWM stages are usually quite overbuilt on all of the major brands. Once the price goes up, you're mostly just getting more features that most people dont use anyway like more USB 3.2 ports or more PCIE x16 ports for SLI and more PWM stages for super extreme overlocking, like LN2 world record level stuff.. If you are going to use the features, then by all means, but most people dont, thus they are a waste.

 

Why Z790? Why not Z690?

 

If you use any PCIE devices besides GPU like RAID cards, pass on MSI boards.

They will drop out of devices upon wake from sleep or hibernate, and you must reboot AND reinstall/add the device again manually.

Z690 Force wifi and Z790 MEG ACE both did this, MSI said they had no idea why.

Tested with ARECA, Dell, and LSI RAID cards, every available firmware and BIOS.


I use RAID cards with SSD's so sadly MSI boards were a no-go for me, i ended up getting a Z790 Apex and Z790 Creator. Zero issues with either.

 

my suggestion is to avoid Asus... worst mobos this days.