Team Red, AMD, is currently killing it on the CPU front and I personally will always recommend them over Intel at this point.

The value for performance is outstanding, especially when it comes to being an all-rounder. Content creation and gaming, AMD excels in the current age. So of course to pair with all these, we’ll want to have a top-end motherboard to match with the absolute unit you’ve got inside.

GIGABYTE’s AORUS MASTER rev. 1.2 is a killer board. It supports AMD Ryzen 5000, as well as 1st through 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs.

This is ideal for those looking to futureproof, as the PCIe slots are the latest 4.0 variants, perfect for both your storage in the three M.2 storage slots for exquisite speeds, but also will give you enough headroom for when graphics cards come back in stock on a more frequent basis in the not too (hopefully) distant future.

You’ll be able to activate PCIe 4.0 if you run 3rd generation Ryzen, but they’ll slow down to 3.0 speeds if you’re on 2nd gen.

I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to motherboards, so it’s not usually how they look that does it for me, but the sheer amount of connections on this board is wild. USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C is a mouthful to say, but is incredibly quick, making external SSD drives a perfect place to bank games or content without worrying about dips in speed during transfers or access.

But speaking of future-proofing, there’s even support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 for those that require a wireless connection. This is just a handy thing to have, even if you are sensible and run either ethernet through the house or overpower plugs.

This is a powerhouse of both features and future-proofing, but more importantly, has the option for a physical TPM chip, even if your Ryzen comes with it.

Okay, yes, we need to recommend all you out there who are dedicated to Intel. That or you just really like Celeron processors. You do you, I won’t judge.

The ROG Maximus XIII HERO is a beast, however. While it sports many recognizable and standard features for modern motherboards, it does feature one of my favorite I/O connections: Thunderbolt. (Don’t ask, I just like these things.)

Thunderbolt 4 is basically the perfect addition for people who need to transfer or access stuff at speeds that are just ludicrous but don’t really want to invest in M.2 drives once the machine is closed up.

Thunderbolt 4 has also been updated to support much longer cables (go look at the length of some bundled Thunderbolt 3 cables and tell me how some of them were usable), as well as taking the relief off your HDMI or Display Ports as they can now support up to 2 4K monitors at once, which if you’re in the game for multiple monitors, it seems this board has you covered.

If you’re all about power though, it does support up to 128GB of RAM, so those in the editing or creative business will never have to worry about potential overhead is limited.

Of course, there’s room for four M.2 drives, as well as support for 11th and 10th generation processors.

Now this board does apparently have a header connection for the chip, but of course, isn’t included. We’ve never needed niche hardware like this until now. So, you’ll want to activate the included on your CPU – make sure it has it – before you get ready to install Windows 11.

More. MORE! MORE!!

The Threadripper series from AMD is quite honestly, overkill for a majority of folks. It is filled to the gills with pure, unbridled power that it has become a go-to for video editors and 3D animators, as it – as the name implies – rips through content generation like nobody’s business.

There’s a lot of boards out there, but for Threadripper (and Intel’s higher-end CPUs) you need a TRX40 board. They’re much larger than your typical board, but ultimately it’s because they pack a lot of punch.

This board is kitted out with a disgusting amount of ports and connections, namely a TPM 2.0 header for you to fit one of the two TPMs that MSI makes. Of course, being a modern CPU, always check your BIOS for fTPM that might be hidden away in an advanced menu somewhere.

On the back is multiple USB 3.2 Gen2 USB A and C ports, with the holy grail of a 10 Gigabit LAN port for those who happen to require ultra-fast server transfers.

This board and CPU won’t exactly fit a lot of criteria for those out there, but we can’t leave the professionals out in the cold. If you are in the industry that uses Nuke or Boris FX on a regular basis, you’ll be happy to know that these RAM-hungry programs can satiate with 256GB of RAM.

PCIe 4, 3 M.2 slots, and 4 slots for graphics and accessories are also included, in case you needed to load it up with more stuff.

So while this board isn’t as feature-rich as those listed beforehand, it’s still a really impressive bit of kit for a much lower price. With an update, it can even support Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series CPUs, so there’s not much of a worry about being ‘entirely’ left behind.

With 2 PCIe 3.0 slots, you won’t be hurting too much for accessories, but the fully fleshed I/O and support for M.2 drives is really going to keep you going for a while.

For those on a budget, this a perfect entry-level board to build around in 2021, especially for those who don’t particularly push their gaming side too hard. Get a real nice 1080p or 1440p monitor and reap the rewards of a far cheaper gaming PC, that combined with Ryzen will absolutely be able to do some content creation work.

Of course, Ryzen 2nd Gen is supported by Windows 11 and the onboard TPM header is going to allow you to rest easy if you can’t activate it via software.

For an incredibly low entry price, you can forgive the omission of USB C on the back of the machine, but the cash saved can be used to fit the additional PCIe slot with an expansion card filled with USB-C ports.

This board is fairly generic, it is what it is, nothing to really write home about, but it’ll do the job and it’ll do it on both 8th and 9th generations of Intel CPUs.

You will however want to avoid a particular subsect of the i9 CPUs if you decide to go the 9th generation route, as a few of them appear to be missing for whatever reason.

As always, there’s a TPM Header on here too.