The Best Motherboards for the i9-9900K

A powerful processor is essential if you want to build a high-quality gaming rig. The i9-9900K is still a highly capable gaming CPU. The 9900K's eight fast cores and 16 threads are ideal for modern games. It looks like it will continue to be a powerful gaming CPU well into the future. A powerful motherboard is required for the flagship-level 9900K CPU. You can also visit our motherboards section to look at our various motherboard buying guides.

The CPU is capable of consuming a lot of power under load. You need a reliable motherboard to support it, especially if you intend on OCing it. We're going to show you the top motherboards for the i9-9900K. We offer budget, mid-range, and high-end options, as well as mATX and ITX motherboards.

Before we list the best motherboards for i9 9900K, please take a few minutes to read our list of the top CPU coolers for the i9-9900K. This CPU is extremely powerful and requires a high-quality cooling solution. Gamers with the 9900K should check out our guide to the best graphics card for the i9-9900K. We also have an article on GPU and CPU undervolting. Undervolting your 9900K may reduce the heat.

1. Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro-Best budget motherboard for i9-9900K

MEMORY

4x DIMM, DDR4

max. max.

STORAGE

2x M.2

6x SATA III

EXPANSION LOTS

3x PCIe x16, 3x PCIe x1

WI-FI

No

You might be hesitant to spend on the most expensive, worst-performing motherboards if you are on a tight budget. That's okay. It's possible to get high performance for very little money. For example, take the Gigabyte Pro, our choice for the best budget motherboard for the 9900K.

We were immediately drawn to the Aorus Pro. It features a beautiful black-and-orange theme with the Aorus bird and prey logo, along with orange stripes on its motherboard and RGB lighting. A good motherboard is more than just cosmetics. It's about real-world performance.

The Aorus Pro features a 12+1 power section. This is a major upgrade to the Z370 line. This will give the i9-9900K more power than it needs.

The board's top has three PCIe slots. All of them are reinforced. If you are looking for high-quality audio, this board supports any modern GPU. Gigabyte's AMP-UP audio technology is available if you wish to use the i9-9900 K's native sound.

You get two M.2 slots to store lightning-fast SSDs. You can also attach up to six SATA drives. Each M.2 drive will consume a SATA connection. If you have two M.2 SSDs installed, you will only be able to attach four SATA drives.

You get four DIMMs for memory. The i9-9900K processor is obsolete before it runs out of RAM. There are many connection options on the back of this board. You will find a single HDMI port as well as five USB Type A ports (3.0, 2 3.1), and one USB Type C port.

Overclocking is also possible with the Aorus Pro. VRM cooling will allow you to run your i9-9900K at full 5GHz with just 3.33 volts. Although the load line calibration can be a little shaky at this price, it's not an issue.

2. ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate - Best mid-range motherboard for the i9-9900K

MEMORY

4x DIMM, DDR4

max. max.

STORAGE

3x M.2

8x SATA III

EXPANSION LOTS

3x PCIe 3.0 x16

2x PCIe 3.0 x1

WI-FI

No

As with all technology, motherboards offer diminishing returns. If you want to get the best-bang-for-your-buck board for your i9-9900K, a mid-priced option is where it's at.

The ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate motherboard is designed for online gaming. You can use it to access a game console or as an Ethernet port.

Taichi Ultimate has three PCIx16 slots that allow you to install any sound card or GPU you want. You might need to adjust the placement depending on what hardware you choose.

The top M.2 module might be impacted by longer cards that are placed in the upper slot. You should also be aware that the lower slot is very close to the RTC battery, so you need to be cautious when installing a card there.

The Taichi Ultimate, like the Aorus Pro, supports six SATA drives. You can only use one M.2 slot. The second will take up the third SATA port. Each slot will steal two SATA connections (0/1 and 4/5), respectively. If you have three M.2 SSDs and need to store data, one SATA port will suffice.

Taichi Ultimate supports DDR4 RAM at clock speeds of up to 4,200 Mt/s. This is far more than your standard DDR4 memory speeds. You can, therefore, overclock your RAM to your heart's desire.

You can overclock your Taichi Ultimate i9-9900K on the Taichi Ultimate. You should avoid the automatic overclocking algorithm. The automatic algorithm is based on voltage and will cause your processor to underclock.

You can get 5GHz out of your i9-9900K by increasing the BCLK, dropping the core voltage to 1.33 volts, and increasing the multiplier. You'll be able to achieve lightning fast speeds if you play around with it.

3. Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme - Best high-end ATX motherboard to use with i9-9900K

MEMORY

4x DIMM, DDR4

max. max.

STORAGE

3x M.2

6x SATA III

EXPANSION LOTS

3x PCIe 3.0 x16

1x PCIe 3.0 x1

WI-FI

Yes

The Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme board is the ultimate in high-end gaming. This board is our top pick for the highest-end 9900K. The Aorus Xtreme can support up to 128GB of RAM, including Intel's high speed Optane memory.

The board is stunning, featuring an RGB Aorus bird-of-prey and RGB lighting throughout. There are also four connectors on board for lighting strips. You can also find our guides to the best RGB case fans or the best RGB cases.

Heatsinks are located at the rear IO shield and the north and south bridges, as well as the M.2 module. They all have a Perspex coating. Perspex, a light and durable plastic, can withstand very high operating temperatures.

Four PCIe ports allow for dual graphics cards to be installed on the Aorus Xtreme. Optane memory and dual graphics will make your friends swoon. It's possible to run Kingdom Come: Deliverance at maximum settings. It's not possible, but it's funny!

You'll need to install a single GPU in each of the PCIe slots if you have them. You'll see a slightly lower speed from the third slot because it shares bandwidth with the M.2 socket. You can choose to have the other M.2 slots use either PCI bandwidth or SATA bandwidth depending on your settings.

However, the majority of people won't use all these ports. Practically, there aren't any problems. Despite this, there are many options for future upgrades due to the large number of slots.

The Aorus Xtreme uses a pair of 8-pin CPU power connectors that allow for even the most demanding CPUs. The i9-9900 will not require all that power.

About the i9-9900K

The Intel Core i9-9990K was first released in October 2018. It is still one of the fastest CPUs available. This is Intel's response to AMD's Ryzen processor range, which has been driving Intel out of the gaming sector for many years. It was designed to be a multi-core processor that could multi-thread using the LGA 1151 socket.

The 9th generation i9 has been updated, but only minor improvements are made to the 9900K. The base frequency is 3.6GHz and the maximum speed is 5.0GHz. There are eight cores and 16 threads. It is faster than any other AMD processor available at a similar price. It excels in hyper-threading.