Hi guys, I'm looking for a motherboard that is the most compatible and suitable for my new i7 12700K processor. Use is solely for music production, (workstation) and some graphics work with Illustrator. What are your recommendations? Preferably DDR5, and I wouldn't want to go over $399 as a budget.
Thanks

 

I have had good luck with Asus and Gigbyte. I have a 10700k on a Asus z490-f it's rock solid so far.

 

what midi-man said. I'd add that any ASUS Z4xx-Pro will serve the purpose well. When I'm looking for a mobo for music making I always buy the one with less features, rather than all kinds of unnecessary features like Wi-Fi, RGB lighting, hardware monitors and controllers. The less features like that the better.

What can also be potentially important is less PCIe lanes used by PCIe slots. Like 1-16, 2-8, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1. Not 1-16, 2-16, 3-8, 4-1, 5-1. First PCIe lanes configuration leaves more PCIe lanes for NVMe and SSD drives you will surely use.

 

The only thing I'll add is i7-12700k uses a LGA 1700 socket, so make sure the motherboard you get supports that socket. So, I believe that means you need something like a Z690 / Z790, etc., as the Z490 / 590s are LGA1200, I believe.

But I definitely have never been wronged by an ASUS mobo, and I'm pretty happy with my current MSI motherboard.. I have AMD chip currently, though. I've always liked ASUS as my #1, and consider Gigabyte and MSI great too.

BTW, always a good idea to check compatibility on pcpartpicker.com

 

Look for a mobo that supports thunderbolt. Youll have more options down the road.

 

Three "Pro-sumer" DDR4 boards as an example:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/pLjBD3,m9Fbt6,TLVmP6/

Four "Pro-sumer" DDR5 boards as an example:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/bPYmP6,P6PQzy,XLqPxr,cFQcCJ/