After building a lot of hype, Intel has finally released the 13th gen of the Core series processors. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as AMD released their 7000 series processors. The 13th gen comes packed with performance, and for you to take advantage of that performance, you need the right kind of PC components to draw out the full potential of the high-end processor. Still, choosing the right PC components can be quite a hassle to look for, especially the motherboard, which is the foundation of the whole PC. This is why I am bringing you the list of the best motherboard for i7 13700K today.
The Core i7 13700K is a high-end processor belonging to the products formerly Raptor Lake. It has got 16 cores and 24 threads. Since it is based on the Intel 7 lithography, it comes with 8 P and 8 E cores. The base clock of the E cores is 2.50 GHz, and the boost clock is 4.20 GHz. The base clock of the P cores is 3.40 GHz, and the boost clock is 5.40 GHz. Also, check out our guide on i7 13700K GPU, which will allow you to get max performance out of the processor.
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Best High-End Motherboard ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-F Gaming Wi-Fi Read More | See On Amazon |
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Best White-Themed Motherboard ASUS PRIME Z790-A Wi-Fi Read More | See On Amazon |
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Best Looking Z790 Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 AERO G Read More | See On Amazon |
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Best Gaming Motherboard MSI MEG Z690 CARBON Wi-Fi Read More | See On Amazon |
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Best Motherboard For Overclocking ASRock Z790 Taichi Read More | See On Amazon |
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ASRock Z790 Steel Legend Read More | See On Amazon |
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ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX Read More | See On Amazon |
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MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4 Read More | See On Amazon |
The TDP of the processor in normal conditions is 125W, and when in turbo mode, the TDP rises to 253W, which is quite a lot, and not every cooler can handle it so you must choose the best CPU cooler for the processor. It would be best if you had the right motherboard to run the processor past its limits, as it’s quite a capable processor that will deliver maximum game performance and help you be more productive during content creation. But you can still go for an expensive motherboard, as that will not boost your performance. On the other hand, if you cheap out on the motherboard, your processor will underperform, and you might face lag when running games and resource-intensive apps as the processor starts to thermal throttle.
A basic rule of thumb is to choose a motherboard that will connect the PC components in a manner so that the bottleneck is reduced to the minimum. I advise going for a motherboard with the high-end Z790 Chipset with all the unlocked features to run the i7 processor at maximum capacity as well as the fast RAM kits that you will be pairing it with. We also have a detailed guide on selecting the best motherboard for your PC build. We’ve also reviewed the i7 13700K CPU coolers and a few top-performing memory kits for the i7 13700K to make the right decision without picking the wrong components.
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Buying Guide for Motherboard
Picking the optimal product out of many offerings is the most challenging part, especially while buying a motherboard for your PC. And it’s even more challenging when you do not have sufficient knowledge and are afraid of buying something wrong. Hence, to overcome that bit, remember the below-explained things to get the right motherboard.
Chipset
Chipset matters quite a lot for mid to high-end builds, as the powerful processors like to have equally matched stuff to easily show their full potential. High-end chipsets like the Z690 or Z790 are the optimal choice for the unlocked K series processors as they allow you to perform overclocking and lets you make use of the latest features like 5th gen PCIe slots and the latest USB ports and faster DRAM speeds. This is one of the key reasons you should keep the chipset in mind to avoid making any future mistakes and regret.
Power Phases
Power phases, or Voltage Regulatory Modules, are essential, especially for high-end processors and unlocked chips. These phases regulate the right amount of power to the CPU after converting it into 1.3-1.5V from 12V. The more the number of VRMs, the higher you can push your processor to get every ounce of performance. These come at a cost. The more powerful a motherboard is, the more expensive it will be.
Exclusive features and I/O
Because of technological advancements, we’re seeing more and more features being implemented on motherboards and other products. As for the motherboard, a fine set of I/O plugs and other exclusive and intriguing features are pretty important as they play a key role in the motherboard’s overall functionality. The current generation of motherboards of both Intel and AMD offers the latest stuff like USB4, 2nd generation of USB3.2 ports, 5th generation of M.2 and GPU slots, and much more which helps the motherboard to be more practical.
PCB Form Factor and Protection
Motherboards are available in different form factors and build type, which varies from model to model and also affects the price of the specific motherboard. The standard and common sizes are ATX and mATX, which can be seen almost in every other build. Other than that, there are Full ATX and mini iTX for either humongous or smallest possible builds. As for the build quality, nowadays, motherboards come in 6-layer and up to 10-layer PCB designs, but the common ones are 6 and 8 because the higher the PCB protection, the more expensive its cost becomes.
Compatibility
To get a working PC, you must pick compatible parts as there are many variants in the market, like generational gaps and other complexities. Compatibility matters and it’s not hard to keep track of it; if you’re considering building yourself a 13th gen PC, you must get a 13th gen supported motherboard like the B760, Z790, etc. Moreover, the 13th boards come in DDR4 and DDR5 variants, so they get only the required DRAM type. If your motherboard is DDR4 support, then you must get DDR4 memory and not vice versa.
Best Motherboard for i7 13700K Reviews
ROG STRIX is a well-known series of gaming components from ASUS that provides premium-level features and aesthetics. They are manufactured specially to provide gamers with various reliable, solid components to look forward to.
The ROG STRIX Z790-F GAMING WIFI packs so much inside of itself, which leaves no room for not adding it to the wishlist. 16+1 (90A), which makes it 17 in total phases for Voltage Regulatory Modules, provides the much-needed OC capability to a great level. This ATX board from a reputable manufacturer brings excellent results when used with CPUs like the 13700k and 12900k. Additionally, the VRMs are kept cool even under high load thanks to some of the larger heat spreaders with an L-shaped heat pipe.
The manufacturer provided the 128GB of DDR5 memory support and integrated 4x DIMM slots to make it happen. And the higher speed is also achievable at an impressive level of 7200MT/s. It is a good use of money not to do this since it greatly assists in significantly increasing performance.
Additionally, the board features an impressive design and a QLED on the I/O heat spreader that can be configured to display the ROG STRIX logo and enhance the board’s looks and overall feel. Moreover, the board has a variety of characteristics to turn itself indistinguishable. It accommodates a graphics card slot of the latest PCIe Gen5, a lightning-fast 2-and-a-half Gbps supported port for Lan, and 4 x NVMe drive slots of Gen4.0. As for the Type-C port, well, it features two of them, one with Gen-2x2 and one with Gen-2 USB-3.2.
Standard Type-A USB ports are also USB-3.2 like Type-C, but four are Gen-1, and two are Gen-2. BIOS flashing and CLR CMOS buttons are also available for unexpected situations. In case you don’t want to indulge in budget motherboards, the ROG STRIX Z790-F GAMING WIFI is the best motherboard for i7 13700k, according to the information we reviewed above.
PRIME series is one of ASUS’s very own motherboard department offerings. ASUS PRIME motherboards target low and mid-range budget users who don’t want every fancy feature available on the market and want to settle on a reasonable budget.
This motherboard series focuses on being budget-friendly and tries to provide some new tech. The board is built on the ATX form factor and contains DDR5 memory type for a maximum performance boost. It also boasts a decent number of VRMs, and 17 (60A) phases set up in 16 + 1 config, which, together with the i7 13700k or i9 12900k CPUs, give excellent performance and overclocking headroom. In addition, even under heavy loads, VRMs work surprisingly cool, thanks to the new and improved cooling system with the L-shaped heatsink pipe.
Manufacturers exclude two DIMM slots to cut down the cost of their latest motherboards, but that is not the case here, and we can utilize all four available RAM slots to house a maximum of 128 GB of D5 memory. And they certainly can also be OC’ed by utilizing the Intel XMP 3.0 or AMD EXPO overclocking profile to up to 7000MT/s and higher (depends). This permits us to get use our PC at its maximum potential.
ASUS PRIME 790-A WiFi is cleverly engineered with PRIME branding on the I/O cover to increase its appeal further. As for the practical features side, it’s filled with a lot of them, like having the latest Gen 5 x16 slot for the GPU, a 2.5 gig ethernet for stable and fast internet connection, four NVMe drive slots for adequate and lightning-fast storage with its Gen4 tech, two USB3.2 powered TypeC ports one is Gen2 and the other is Gen2x2, 2x four Gen1 and two Gen2 Type-As powered by USB-3.2 tech.
For the Audio, Realtek S1220A Audio Codec is installed in the motherboard mentioned above. After considering many factors, it is fair to conclude that the ASUS PRIME Z790-A WIFI is the top consideration.
Gigabyte’s AERO G gaming series is a fairly new offering, focusing on white-themed motherboards accompanied by solid performance. This specific series is designed to give gamers looking forward to building a white-themed PC a high-quality motherboard to match both the PC and the expectations related to performance.
The AERO G has 19 VRM phases to regulate the power to the CPU, and they are aligned in a 16+1+2 sequence to allow sufficient OC headroom. The thermal design is also rather advanced, with many heatsinks employing Direct Touchpad Heatsink Technology and high-rated thermal conductivity pads that keep the temperatures of the Voltage Regulatory Modules at a safe level under overclocking sessions.
Nowadays, 16 gigs of RAM is the bare minimum for gaming and productivity, which needs to be improved for pro-grade work, and to solve that, this motherboard lets you install a total of 128G DDR5 RAM. The speed of those memory modules on the board is 4000MT/s initially, which can easily be leveled up to 7600MT/s and even higher using the XMP-3.0 or AMD EXPO OC profiles.
Gigabyte Z790 AERO G has a great design and many incredible features. Although it lacks substantial LED or RGB illumination, its white concept compensates with a subtle touch of RGB on the I/O cover. Besides that, the board includes features such as onboard 2.5Gbps Ethernet, Gen-5 x16 slot for the graphics card, and Gen-4 x4 slots for the NVMe drives. At the rear side of this motherboard, we can see a single Gen-2x2 compatible and one Gen2 only TypeC port, four Gen-1, and two Gen-2 TypeA ports, all USB 3.2.
For the sake of looks, the handful of custom-designed heat spreaders does a great job, and the motherboard’s white color scheme also helps it stand out from the rest of the boards. Overall, it’s an outstanding motherboard and one of the best solutions for white-themed PCs when paired with an i7 13700k or 13900k CPU, and it can be dubbed the best motherboard for i7 13700k.
Having to maintain a standard and your name is a tough task to do, but MSI is one of those companies that has evolved over the years and only gained popularity instead of going into loss. Being one of the most popular gaming and industrial-level computer manufacturing companies, it needs to bring something fresh to the table to stay in the game. The Carbon motherboard series from MSI is one of those that feature great value-for-money and intriguing characteristics.
Being a motherboard from one of the value-providing series is a great challenge always to produce something new and terrific while staying within the budget criteria. This Z690 CARBON exactly does that in the mid-range segment. The board has enough overclocking headroom with 18+1+1 configured VRM phases, making them 20. Several enormous heatsinks are installed over them to ensure sufficient cooling for the abovementioned VRM phases with 7W/mK certified thermal pads between them.
Apart from that, it comes with 4 black-themed DIMM slots to run four memory sticks of 32 gigs simultaneously; besides, the OC capability allows you to crank up the memory speed to 6666MT/s and higher. Furthermore, it also comes equipped with XMP 3.0 to provide a path in OC’ing your memory the way you want.
Nevertheless, this specific board isn’t a letdown in any way, even in the build quality department. This includes a comprehensive list of distinctive characteristics that does nothing bad but only adds value to it as it houses a Gen5 x16 graphics card slot, an Ethernet port with up to 2.5Gbps speed support, accompanied by four x4 Gen4 slots for the NVMe drives, one of which is a Gen3 x4, one of the USB3.2 and Gen2x2 supported Type-C, 5x as well as five Gen2 Type-As, 7.1 supported HD Audio Codec, and lastly a button for flashing BIOS when needed.
This is an excellent motherboard for your mid-range PC build and can also be called the king of all motherboards due to the required and unprecedented features it holds on a budget. And if you do not wish to play with the limits of your rig on an enthusiastic level
ASRock motherboards are available in two price ranges: entry-level and high-end. ASRock’s Taichi motherboard line delivers unrivaled performance due to the power it holds, as well as an interesting enough feature set.
The ASRock Z790 Taichi is the motherboard to acquire if you want a high-end motherboard with intriguing features and one of the best-looking designs. It comes in EATX form factor from an underappreciated manufacturer that needs a lot of recognition like the big 3 because of its quality products. Firstly, for the performance side of things, with the integration of 27 VRM power delivery phases designed in 24 + 2 + 1, this info tells that it’s a motherboard to be mixed with CPUs such as the 12900k or 13700k. Aside from that, such a heavy VRM configuration also needs a great cooling system, and it surely has that, too, with heavy-duty thermal pads.
Such a price also provides aesthetics to make up for the current demands of consumers with its number of heatsinks all over the motherboard. Besides that, the working clock gears are a welcome touch to the motherboard that helps enhance its design significantly.
On the practical side, we have 2 Gen5 PCIe slots to house two GPUs simultaneously, 2x USB4 powered thunderbolt ports for lighting-fast connectivity, one Gen 5 x 4 Hyper NVMe slot, and four with Gen 4 x 4. The USB section features USB 3.2-supported ports, two of which are Gen2 Type-A and six Gen1. To provide great audio quality, it comes with Realtek ALC4082 Audio Codec, and for wired connectivity, it boasts 2.5 gigs supported Lan port. Not to mention, it also has a physical button to flash its BIOS on the go.
The capacity of supporting 128gigs of DDR5 type memory in four of its RAM slots makes it a versatile product. With this motherboard, you can crank up the memory module speeds to up to 7000MT/s, and more by using the Intel XMP 3.0/AMD EXPO OC presets to get the most out of it. In conclusion, we can say that it’s a fantastic motherboard that offers so much and justifies its cost, and in my opinion, it’s the best motherboard for the i7 13700k in the mid-range price bracket.
ASRock Steel Legend is one of the most affordable options if you’re going for ASRock motherboards. Steel Legend series provides a balanced mix of aesthetics and performance while staying true to the budget, which is a big concern for many.
Discussing the motherboard’s overall build, we see that it has the standard 6-layer PCB design, which is perfectly normal for this budget segment and strong enough to keep it alive in most situations. As for the overclocking performance on this Z790, ASRock has opted for the DrMOS’s SPS VRMs, which count to 18 in number. This lets you overclock your CPU to an impressive level, and the available heat blocks over the MOSFETS and CHOKES are important in keeping them cool to provide stable and constant power to the CPU.
Furthermore, memory capacity and speed matter a lot when considering a motherboard for purchase. In this case, this motherboard offers support for 4 DDR5 memory sticks, 128 GBs, and an overclockable limit of 6800MT/s. This configuration provides a layer of future proofing because of the latest and fast DRAM.
And to not disappoint in terms of housing and input/output ports, the ASRock Z790 Steel Legend comes packed with one 5th generation 16-lane and one 4-lane slot for GPU and Gen5 NVMe drive. When we talk about the Audio Codec, this is where things take a turn as it’s not the best of the best but acceptable at this price point and does a fair job for casual gamers. Although, it won’t be enough for you if you’re an audiophile. Nevertheless, you won’t be disheartened as the motherboard price isn’t of the flagship tier. Although, you get the latest 2nd and 1st generation of Type A and Type C plugs on the back of the I/O.
ROG MAXIMUS is the elite-level motherboard series that comes after the ROG STRIX series, which is also premium but less than the ROG MAXIMUS. ROG MAXIMUS APEX is a different approach towards the consumers but with the same level of power and features. As for today, we’re going for one of those boards but with the Z790 chipset.
ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX is a great contender for the upper mid-range price segment, as it checks all the boxes of providing premium features and such a level of performance. Being in such a price upper-level price segment, this board tries to make up for it by coming up with 24 power stages, or what we can also call as VRMs. These overpowered VRMs can be used for enthusiast-level overclocking, such as liquid nitrogen. However, such powerful VRMs also require the same level of cooling that the manufacturer has provided here with heavy and big thermal padded heat blocks over those CHOKES and MOSFETS.
In terms of DRAM capabilities of this motherboard, it is glad to say that it beats almost every other category by providing support for memory modules to be utilized with over 8GHz of speed. However, the capacity has been downgraded there because of the implementation of only two DIMM slots that can only go up to 64GBs of DDR5 instead of 128G.
Nevertheless, to make up for that downgrade, the board comes bundled with 2x M.2 storage extenders - one is a PCIe5 M.2 card, and the other is a DIMM slot format that can accommodate two M.2 drives at once. As if this wasn’t enough, we also get two traditional onboard M.2 slots that run at PCIe4 with hefty-looking cooling heat sinks and not to mention; the back I/O is also great as it provides all the premium and new ports like the 20Gbps supported USB TypeC, five of the 10Gbps supported Type As, and in the end, four 5Gbps supported Type As as well.
MSI PRO Series motherboards used to be acceptable a few years back, but now they are mostly in the go-to choice category of many due to their overall quality and performance uplift. The MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4, the latest iteration of the PRO series from MSI, does exactly that and delivers a seamless experience on a budget.
The MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4 comes at a competitive price of 270-300 $, compelling for a chipset like the Z790. However, the PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4 still makes its way to develop an 18-phase power design that is more than enough for most consumers and would provide a satisfactory OC experience. This is possible because of the integration of heat dissipation blocks over the motherboard’s CHOKES and MOSFETS, which handles the temperatures of the motherboard’s VRMs.
The DDR4 DRAM tag is reassuring in terms of saving cost as much as possible, and this is because of the high prices of the D5 memories. DDR4 memory at a staggering speed of 5.3GHz performs well, and the difference between both types of memory during gaming isn’t much, either. Hence, the DDR4 variant is enough if the focus of the build is gaming only; otherwise, investing in the DDR5 variant of this motherboard is the optimal choice. As far as the memory capacity of the board is concerned, it has four DIMMs that can operate 128 GB of RAM simultaneously.
Similarly, for the features and other connectivity stuff, we get quite a decent one here, like the implementation of the PCIe-Gen5 slot for the GPU and four x4 slots for M.2 drives running at PCIe4, and the inclusion of six 2nd and 1st generation USB ports running at 5Gbps, 10Gbps, and 20Gbps is also compelling.
Conclusion
This article is a complete guide for choosing motherboards and what to consider before buying them. We have covered almost eight motherboards, from different price points to use-case scenarios, making choosing the perfect motherboard for your build even easier.
To brief the article, in case you’re going to spend a good sum on your build, which implies a great budget for the motherboard too, then you can consider ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX, MSI MEG Z690 CARBON WIFI, or the ASRock Z790 Taichi. Each is from the upper mid-range budget segment and is plenty for the likes of the i7 13700K.
Similarly, when you wish to have a balanced motherboard in terms of price and performance, well, in such a case, you could buy yourself the ASRock Z790 Steel Legend, ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-F GAMING WIFI, or the Gigabyte Z790 AERO G. All three of them delivers great performance for the price and comes with some intriguing characteristics as well.
Last but not least, the MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4, ASUS PRIME Z790-A WIFI should be your go-to choice when you do not have a premium to pay for the motherboard and want something good for the lowest possible price point in the Z790 chipset family.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which motherboard is the best for i7 13700K?
As the i7 13700K is an unlocked processor, only a Z series motherboard makes sense with it. We have listed and reviewed some of the best possible Z series motherboards up there from which you can pick accordingly as each motherboard serve a different situation.
Is it necessary to get the fastest memory for the 13th Gen PC?
No, it’s not really necessary to get the fastest memory as it will cost you a lot. If your only concern is gaming then you’re fine with fairly priced memory kits with not very high speeds like 3000-3200MT/s for DDR4 and 5200-5800MT/s for DDR5.
Which chipset is the best for “K” series processors?
As the “K” series processors are unlocked and there’s no point in buying them unless you’re in for the overclocking stuff then a “Z” series motherboard is a must for you. “Z” series motherboard allows you to overclock the unlocked processors unlike the “B” and “H” series ones as they’re built to provide cheap motherboard solutions for locked chips.
Is it fine to buy a motherboard with bad VRMs?
No, however, if you’re planning to build a budget PC with a locked processor that can’t be overclocked then only in such a scenario, buying a cheap motherboard with bad VRMs makes sense. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time and money.
