Best Motherboard For i7-7700K – Editor’s Choice 2021

I know how hard it is to choose the perfect motherboard, so today I will show you the best motherboards for i7-7700K from multiple categories. I am sure that if you stick with me and this text, you will find something that will perfectly work for you.

This will be a pretty long article, so if you don’t have time, you can find a category that is best for in a table of content. However, I recommend you to read the whole text because it is worth your time, and spending lots of money on the motherboard requires some research.

Oh man, I love this board. It has every single feature that average PC gamers need and the price isn’t ridiculously high. So if you want to build a high-end gaming system, you should really consider buying this motherboard.

Let’s start with the design. Like every other Maximus from Asus, it looks sick. It is all black and gray with subtle red accents.

I also like Maximus and ROG logo on the motherboard that glows in red. Build quality is excellent, and there is no flexing or tilting. Every part of this motherboard is made from high-quality materials for maximum performance and experience in gaming. It is a full ATX board, and I would like to see more motherboards that look this good. It has 1151 socket and Z270 chipset, so it is designed for 7th generation Intel processors.

I also love Aura Lighting Control software because it allows you to synchronize all your devices in the same color. It also supports 3D printing, so if you want to customize your board fully and have 1/1, this is an excellent pick for you. I think these are unique features, and it is nice to have them.

Right next to CPU slot, there are 4 RAM slots that support up to 64 GB with a maximum speed of 4133MHz. I don’t know if anyone needs 64 GB of RAM, but if you are hard-core, go for it. There are 2 M.2 slots and 6 SATA 3 connectors.

If 2-way or 3-way SLI is your thing, you can do it on Hero. I love the feature that two of three slots have steel protection, and this is a big plus if you ask me. That’s why I said that the build quality is on a high level.

Hero has more ports than you probably need, but it is better to have more than less. It has 4 USB 3.1 and 4 USB 2.0 ports. I love 3.1 ports because they are faster than 3.0 ones by 2 times.

There are also HDMI, DisplayPort, and audio jacks. Moreover, if you need it, there is USB Type-C. SupremeFX is an audio technology that Hero is using.

It is one of the best audio systems that I ever listened to on a PC. It has advanced software, and if you have a good pair of headphones, you will experience the whole new world of gaming.

When we are talking about internet connections, there are zero reasons for worrying because this is one of the best LAN ports that exist.

It is ultra-fast, and you won’t have any problems with online gaming or video streaming. If you think about overclocking, it isn’t a big deal for Maximus Hero.

It is super easy and fast to overclock components on this thing if you have a little knowledge about overclocking. Bios is looking nice, and it is easy to customize whatever you want.

All in all, this is one of the best motherboards for i7-7700K, and if you are building a high-end system, look no further than this.

Features
Well, I like it. It has a ton of useful features and room for upgrades. Maybe the best motherboard for i7 7700K.

Design
I love famous ROG red and black color theme. I think it looks awesome, especially little lights all over the place.

Price
I know it is a little too much for someone, but trust me, it is worth every penny. I recommend it!

PROS

• Very nice design
• A lot of unique features
• Great for high-end gaming PCs

CONS

• It is a little expensive for someone

This is something that most gamers dream about. But I need to tell you now that a normal gamer won’t use most of the features on this board. Asus Maximus Formula is their best model, and you will see why. It is a full ATX board with Z270 chipset. This is perfect for your i7-7700K. First, let’s talk about build quality. This is one really well-built board, and you can tell that immediately. There is a giant steel backplate and there are top covers everywhere. It won’t flex or break under pressure, so no worries about that. It is RGB, so you can set it to whatever color you want to match with your setup. RAM won’t be a problem because it brings 4 DDR4 slots with a maximum of 64 GB. This is more than enough for any kind of multitasking, so if you are a streamer or video editor, this is great for you. There are a lot of ports, especially USB ones. The Formula has 4 USB 2.0 and 4 USB 3.0 ports. There is also one USB 3.1 port and that is the fastest one on the market right now (they claim that it is twice as fast as 3.0 ports). It also has 6 SATA and 3 PCI ports. I don’t even know if you need USB Type-C or Type-A, but this motherboard has even that. That’s why I said a lot of normal gamers won’t use all the features of the Formula. LANGuard is included, and that means that your internet connections will be safe. If you are more WiFi type of guy, you can use it with nice dual-band system (one band is 2.4 and the other is 5GHz). I really love when motherboards include both LAN and WiFi options.

Asus knows that audio is very important and that’s why they stepped up the game and put the best gaming audio card they can. They are using new SupremeFX audio technology and it is one of the best on the market right now. Now, let’s talk about cooling. Of course, you can put air cooling, but it would be a shame if you don’t use water cooling system. It is perfect for that and they even include a CrossChill EK II plug for better performances. Formula IX is definitely one of the best motherboards for custom water systems. You can literally do whatever you want. And the last but not the least, overclocking. It is one of the main points of something this expensive. It is made for overclocking and playing with speeds. You can do this really fast and easy, and relatively safe. I think that every system should be overclocked if that is possible. Tell me one reason not to do that? After all, I really love Maximus IX Formula. It is definitely the best motherboard for i7-7700K, but it is also one of the most expensive Z270 motherboards. However, if you are hard-core and you need this number of unique features, go for it. You won’t make a mistake, and you will absolutely love it!

Features
Did you see the Hero version? It is a little baby in comparison to this one. This is the beast and only for hard-cores!

Design
Another design by ROG, but this time with an even bigger number of details. Everything is premium and build quality is unbelievable.

Price
As I said, this is the beast. But only for gamers with deep pocket because it is really expensive. For hard-cores, it is worth the price!

PROS

• Design is at the maximum level
• Everything is phenomenal
• Amazing choice for premium gaming

CONS

• It is a little expensive for someone
• Check if it is available

This is the second premium motherboard on this list. And when I say premium, I really mean that. Price is unbelievable, but if you really have the budget, you will like it. Well, you will like it anyway, but I’m just saying that it is ridiculously expensive. However, for this price tag, you are getting a lot of great and unique features. I will start with the design of GA-Z270X. It is all black with nice white covers, so it fit into most setups. GA-Z270X is a little larger motherboard, so you need to pick big tower case. I can’t go further without speaking about RGB. It is amazing. You have light straps everywhere, from RAM slots to GPU slots. I really like it because you can really customize it to be unique. I think this is the most RGB you can get on Z270 motherboard.  All in all, built quality is really high, and you can’t flex or break anything by accident. Everything is made rock-solid and that’s what I love the most premium motherboards. Like on the Formula, there are built-in EK G-Frost hybrid water blocks. You can choose to go with air cooling, but that’s really stupid to do with a motherboard like this. With GA-Z270X-Gaming 9, you can create really cool custom water cooling and when you mix that with RGB lightings, this setup gets really sick. CPU slot is really well-made and there won’t be overheating or other things like that. Right next are 4 DDR4 RAM slots, with a maximum capacity of 64 GB. As I said in the previous review, it is more than enough RAM for any kind of multitasking.

There are pretty lot ports, and I really mean a lot. Gigabyte brings: 2 x USB 3.1 and 2 x USB 2.0 ports, both Type-C and Type-A ports, 2 LAN ports and gold-plated jacks. And this is only beginning. On this motherboard, you can hook 4 GPUs, and make this system even cooler. I can’t imagine having a 4-way SLI PC in my house. It also has dual M.2 ports, for maximum storage speed. It is also powered with dual U.2 connectors, as well as with triple PCIe SSDs with Raid 0 support. In a build with this, I don’t expect to see less than 1GB of SSD. THe quality of the audio is really amazing. It has Sound Blaster ZxRi sound system, which is one of the best on the market right now. If you never had an audio system like this, you will experience the whole new level of gaming, because it is so much more exciting and interesting. Smart Fan 5 is one of the smart features on this motherboard. With SF5 you can ensure that your PC can maintain the performance while staying cool and quiet. I need to mention that it is VR ready and I really think that this is the future of the gaming. More and more games are made especially for VR platform and I have big expectations. However, if you love VR, this motherboard fully supports it. For maximum performance at online gaming and streaming, there are 2 killer GbE and 1 killer WiFi ports. Gigabyte claims that this is the fastest available connection on the market at the moment. All in all, if you want something that can support all the things you can imagine, this motherboard is for you. But prepare to pay the price for the premium like this!

Features
First, keyboard from Gigabyte, and it is phenomenal. Just take a look at it. It has millions of details with a nice amount of great features.

Design
I really like the white and black combination, especially when you add this amazing RGB lights. It has nice 'gaming' design.

Price
This is another expensive motherboard, but I like it. If you are building high-end gaming PC, consider getting something like this.

PROS

• Lighting is crazy cool
• Ultra durable design
• 4-way GPU support

Cons

• Really high price

We finally finished with premium motherboards, and if that was too expensive and out of your budget, you will love this section because I will show you two best budget motherboards for i7-7700k. First on the list is Asus Prime Z270-A, and for this price tag, I really love it. It has all the features that standard motherboard in 2021 should have. I really love the design of Z270-A. It is all black and white, with beautiful  accents. It really looks more expensive than it actually is. You won’t get the full RGB system, but you are getting ‘Aura Sync’. At the bottom of the motherboard, you can find RGB header which is used for controlling all external RGB lights. It is a really nice feature for a budget option like this. RAM slots are pretty basic for Z270 board. It is equipped with 4 DDR4 spaces with about 64 GB. Also, it supports speeds up to 3866MHz, and that’s more than enough. I think that 16 GB is enough space for 2021, but if you multitask a lot, 32 GB will be just fine. I don’t think anyone really needs 64 GB at the moment. It is also equipped with dual PCI-Express x16 slots, so you can do SLI with this motherboard. SLI is a really cool thing, but I would always choose 1 strong GPU for the price of 2 weaker. I think the 2-way SLI and more is only acceptable if you are using the best GPUs that are on the market.

If you are a fan of M.2 sockets for fast storage, Asus brings 2 slots. This is standard for 2021 and you really don’t need anything more than that if you are building normal-priced PC. Like on other motherboards, there are 6 SATA 3 connectors. If you  about  on budget motherboards, you should relax. There are 2 x USB 3.1 ports (1 x Type-A and 1 x Type-C), 4 x 3.0 ports, 1 x LAN port and other standard ports. I love 3.1 ports because they are twice as fast as 3.0 ports. It is equipped with the high-end audio system, Realtek Crystal Sound 3. It is a really great audio system for this price tag, especially if you have a nice pair of gaming headphones. One of the unique features is 3D printing friendly. Asus is the first manufacturer to support 3D printing, so you can customize your motherboard even further. You can really step up the customization game with your own and unique parts. I also love that you can overclock on this motherboard if you have some kind of knowledge in this field. It is easy and smooth, and you should do it without any bigger problems. At the end of the day, Asus Prime Z270-A can be the best motherboard for i7-7700K in this price range. It truly deserves this place because it has everything that one motherboard should have. On all of that, I really love Aura Sync and 3D printing support for even further customization.

Features
This is something more affordable, but I really love it. It has a decent amount of great and useful features, so keep that in mind!

Design
I like it very much! I think white parts are the best thing about this motherboard. Build quality is also very good, so I would give it 5/5 stars.

Price
As I mentioned earlier, this is in the budget group of motherboards. Man, for this price tag, it is worth every single penny.

PROS

• Amazing for this price
• Lot of different ports and features
• Excellent build quality
• You can't expect more at this price point

Tomahawk is just one of the motherboards that MSI just released. It is more of the budget motherboards, but I really love it and I really think that this is enough for normal gaming PC. It is a full ATX board, and it has LGA 1151 socket, so it’s perfect for Intel i7-7700K. The design is really great, it is all black and gray, with the military color scheme. It also has red accents like every other MSI motherboard. It is made from great materials, and if you worry about building quality, don’t, because it won’t flex or break by any accident. I mentioned before that Asus Prime Z270-A has Aura Sync but doesn’t have real lights on the board. With Tomahawk, you get both RGB Mystic Light Sync and lights on the board. The software is looking great and you can change the complete style of the board in seconds. There are a couple far headers which are great for keeping the motherboard cool and stable while long gaming sessions. Right next to CPU slot are RAM slots. There are 4 of them and they support a maximum of 64 GB DDR4 memory. It is really more than enough, and I don’t know if anyone needs that much, but if you are one of them, go for it. There are 3 PCI-Express x16 slots, and one has steel on it for more protection.

There are two M.2 slots, and 6 SATA 3 connectors, which became the standard at this price tag I really love the fact that you can upgrade so much if you ever want to. You can upgrade almost everything, from RAM to storage space. There are 4 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, and one USB 3.1. As I said multiple times, this port is really fast. There is also USB Type-C port if you need it. LAN port is really fast, so you will get maximum experience with online gaming and streaming. Almost every motherboard brings the custom audio system, and that’s the case with this one. It has Realtek system, which is great for new experiences at gaming. A unique feature of Tomahawk is VR support. You can smoothly run VR games, if you have other good components, without any lags and errors. I think VR gaming is getting more and more popular, and that in 10 years, it will completely change the world of gaming. Trust me, you will see the change in that direction. However, let’s talk about overclocking. With little work and patience, you can overclock your components really well. I am not the expert in this field, but if you love to experiment, you can do it. All in all, this is another budget option on this list. I love it because you get a ton of features, with incredible opportunity for upgrading in the future. If you need something that won’t break your budget, Tomahawk is a great option.

Features
MSI is a very good brand in this world and Tomahawk is another great motherboard. This one is very good, with a nice amount of ports.

Design
I like how different it looks. It is all in gray and black color theme, with some red details. It looks pretty nice, and you can make a sick looking PC.

Price
For this price tag, I think it is worth it. You are getting all the great features and options, so you should definitely consider it.

Pros

• I love the design of this motherboard
• Two fast M.2 slots
• VR support

Cons

• Choose between this and Asus Prime Z270-A
  
  

This is another great motherboard from MSI. It is also Z270, but a little bit more expensive than Tomahawk version and that’s the reason it is in the mid-range category. Build quality is great and it has Military Class 5 components. That means that all components are high quality for best protection and efficiency. It’s a full ATX motherboard, and I need to tell you that I love when the motherboard is big and clean like this one. I think mini-ITX  cases and boards are more for enthusiasts and people that want to try something new. But it is a lot easier to operate in a big case with the big motherboard. I also love the design of Pro Carbon. Like the name says, it has carbon details all over it, with nice black components. It looks stealthy and that’s what I love about MSI motherboards. They are all simple but nice and full of little accents. Like Tomahawk edition, it is also RGB with Mystic Light Sync. It is a standard in 2021 to have RGB on the motherboard, and I love it because you can customize your system however you want. Of course, it supports 6tth and 7th generation of Intel processors for LGA 1151 socket. There are 4 RAM slots for a maximum of 64GB running at 3866MHz. It has ‘DDR4 Boost with Steel Armor’ for a performance boost. There are two M.2 slots, both with steel armor on it. It is a big plus for MSI because they have all the small details that bring great performances to customers.

There are 3 PCI-Express x16 slots, again with better protection. You can really build a high-end system on this not-so-expensive motherboard. There are all ports that you expect, with new 3.1 USB port. It is really high-end and faster two times than normal 3.0. There is also USB Type-C, so you can use it if you really need it for something. The audio system on Pro Carbon is better than on other boards with this price tag, and that’s something we want to see. We always want to see better performance for the lower price point. It is powered with Audio Boost 4, which will give you maximum pleasure in audio while gaming. Of course, you need a good pair of headphones for this. It’s the same thing as with internet connection. It is useless to have ultra-fast internet speeds if you have an old, shitty router. Of course, it is VR ready so if you want and love to play VR games or watch VR videos, you can with Pro Carbon. I tried it a couple times and I really love the whole idea of VR and I think capabilities are endless. And the last but not least is Bios. I need to mention that it has one of the best systems on the market in this range. You can really easily and with no effort tweak things. At the end of the day, if you want a motherboard for normal gaming PC, this is a great choice and you should really consider it.

Features
Another MSI board on this list and I like it even more. It has very good and quality components on it and a lot of space for upgrades.

Design
Just look at it. It has carbon design everywhere, and it looks so aggressive. It is gray, so you can fit components in any color.

Price
It is in mid-range category, but I like it. For the medium price, you are getting all the features and ports you need. You will get even more than you need.

Pros

• Military Class 5 components
• VR ready
• 3 PCI-Express x16 slots

Cons

• I can't find any because it is really great and worth the price tag

I can’t make the list without mini-ITX motherboard. I really think that there are awesome and that building a small, but powerful PC system is a completely new experience. It is also pretty fun, but for many people, annoying. With small systems, there is no room for any extra cables or things, so everything needs to be organized and planned before building. For i7-7700K, this is probably the best mini-ITX motherboard. The design is nice and everything is black with gray accents. I also love STRIX and ROG logos. Build quality is better than on the most of the mini-ITX motherboards on the market. Everything is made from high-quality parts, and overall motherboard’s construction is rock-solid. Like on Asus Prime Z270-A, there is ‘Aura Sync’ technology. There is a big RGB strip on one side, and you can control and change the colors of it with Asus software. This is a pretty cool feature because you can customize your setup even more now. There are 2 RAM slots, with a maximum capacity of 32 GB. This is more than enough for gamers, even for ones that do some heavy multitasking. The one thing that I think is amazing, number of M.2 slots. On most mini-ITX motherboards, you can find only one M.2 slot, but with Z270I, you get two of them. One is on the top side and the other one is on the bottom side of the motherboard.

I really think that this is a big plus for Asus and their Z270I because space for upgrading is always a nice thing to have. Of course, this is the very small motherboard, and there is space for only one GPU. However, this is normal, and I think that mini-ITX board with 2 PCI-E slots doesn’t exist. There is a total of 8 USB ports (4 are 3.0 and 4 are 2.0 ports), which is plenty for normal usage. One thing that I don’t like is that there isn’t any 3.1 port on the rear side. However, this is one of the only motherboards that have one 3.1 internal headers. I really love this feature, and this is one of the reasons why I put Z270I as the best mini-ITX boards. Sound quality is also on the great level. Asus and SupremeFX are really doing their job for customers to get the best possible gaming experience. It really has high-quality input and output, and you will really love the sound. On the most gaming motherboards, there are gaming LAN port and preinstalled WiFi system. And that is the case with this one, too. It is dual band WiFi, so you won’t have problems with disconnections and other lags. It also supports 3D printing, so if you want to customize your system to the maximum, this is a great and unique feature for you. After all, this is the best motherboard for i7-7700K in ITX form and if you love to build small gaming systems, without thinking, this is the best option for you.

Features
It is mini ITX, so I respect them for putting everything you need on it. It has very good audio and I need to mention it here.

Design
I really love mini ITX motherboards, and this one even has LED strip on one side. I like it very much, it looks fantastic.

Price
Well, it isn't cheap, but it isn't too expensive either. I like it and if you want to build powerful PC in a small case, you should buy this one!

Pros

• Small and great design
• Nice sound card
• Very cool lighting

Cons

• Quite expensive

Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H

This is one of the cheapest motherboards with 1151 socket. I don’t know why you should put i7-7700K on something like this, but okay. This is B250 motherboard, so there isn’t an option for overclocking. Also, I need to mention that this is micro-ATX board, so you won’t need a lot of space for building it. The design is pretty standard, but I don’t like brown motherboards. They just look cheap and old, but it is what it is. However, there are some gray and gold details. There are 4 RAM slots, with a maximum capacity of 64 GB. Also, the maximum speed of RAM is 2400MHz, so be careful when buying. It doesn’t have RGB or anything special, and that is because it is really on the budget side. However, there is one 32 GB M.2 slot, which is nice to have. But it isn’t the same story for the GPU. There are only one PCI-Express x16 and two PCI-E x1 slots. If you decide to buy this board, you won’t need to worry about ports. There are 4 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0 ports which is more than enough. Also, there are HDMI, LAN, DVI and VGA ports, as well as audio jacks. This is the pretty standard configuration for motherboards like this one. There really aren’t many things to say about GA-B250M-DS3H. If you are on a really tiny budget and you need to think about spending any dollar than this is a good option for you. But if you have money, my advice is to go to ‘Budget’ category and pick something from there.

Features
Man, it doesn't have too many unique features or ports, but for normal gaming PC, it will be enough. You can't expect to get everything to the budget motherboard.

Design
It has famous black and gray components on a brown table. I don't like it, but most budget PCs don't have a window on the side, so who cares?

Price
As the name of the category, this is the cheapest model out there. For the small price tag, you will get a good motherboard for budget or medium-end PCs.

PROS

• Worth the price
• Have some features

This is one big article, and I hope that I helped you with picking the best motherboard for i7-7700K for you. I was talking about a lot of motherboards, from premium to cheap models. I don’t recommend cheap motherboard (Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H) if you have money for something better. You shouldn’t save money on the motherboard because it is one of the most important components in the PC. After all, I hope you had a great time reading this article. Stay smiled!