Motherboards greatly determine how well your computer will work. They dictate the quality of RAM, graphics cards, and other factors that affect the performance of your computer (and thus its cost) significantly. If you’re looking to buy a new motherboard for an i5 6500, then look no further! We’ve got all the information you need here on our best motherboard for i5 6500 review.
As a gamer or enthusiast of any kind, you’ll want to get the most out of your computer in terms of performance and graphics quality. If this is what interests you, then we’re talking about high-end motherboards that are designed to maximize the graphical potential that’s built into Intel Core i5 6500 CPUs (and other Intel CPUs, for that matter). High-end motherboards generally always support the latest technology and have the best quality components. Although most motherboard manufacturers make these high-end boards in both ATX (for tower cases) and microATX models.
As you read through our best motherboard for i5 6500 reviews, you’ll see that the top brands in motherboards right now are Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. They’ve got years of experience developing high-quality components and other components that are essential for gamers. If you want to invest in a gaming motherboard, then the companies I just mentioned have some of the best i5 6500 motherboards available!
For those who don’t understand what makes a motherboard good or bad, allow me to explain. Some people look at these reviews and think that the best motherboard for i5 6500 simply has to have a lot of RAM slots on it. This isn’t necessarily true! For example, a motherboard will be better overall if it has more than one USB port. It doesn’t matter if there are two USB 2.0 ports or 8 super-fast USB 3.0 ports, just so long as there’s more than one. With this in mind, check out these top-rated motherboards for i5 6500 CPUs!
ASUS PRIME B250M-A
This ASUS PRIME B250M-A motherboard is tailored to fit your growing business, making it an excellent foundation for your new build. It’s built with high-quality components and packed with premium features that mainstream motherboards simply can’t match. The exclusive 5X Protection III safeguard provides electrostatic discharge protection, corrosion control, super LANGuard, and more to ensure a stable, long-lasting operation. And with 5X Protection III, you’ll enjoy maximum energy efficiency with the B250M-A — for you and the environment.
The ASUS PRIME B250M-A is a micro ATX motherboard designed for business PCs. It supports 6th generation Intel Core processors in the LGA1151 package, with integrated graphics, memory, and PCI Express controllers to provide great performance for small businesses. It features Business Smart technologies, including a 5X Protection III package and Fan Xpert 3 for advanced cooling and networking options. The B250M-A is well suited for everyday business computing and is also one of the best i5 6500 motherboards, and it’s equipped with multiple features to protect you from power abnormalities or network outages.
Before you buy the PRIME B250M-A, there are some good features in this motherboard. I have successfully overclocked using Intel’s XTU program with max turbo at 3.7Ghz and voltage up to 1.35v (temperature is around 60C). The bios have a new upgrade that feels much better compared to other brand motherboards. I have tried to update bios from the internet but it has been failed, so i suggest everyone should buy this motherboard with an updated BIOS version (V1.01)
Audio quality is good for onboard audio chips because there are isolated caps and dual op-amps on the back of the board where it is connected to front panel audio connectors. It’s a bit loud compared to other brand motherboards.
This motherboard has 2x M2 sockets on the back of the board where you can install SSD and it’s also covered by a heatsink which makes it cooler than most SSD heatsinks. And this one does not need a thermal pad for M2 slots, so it won’t damage your CPU when you use it.
It does not include any sound card within the retail box but there are/were some promotions for this motherboard which you can get a PUBG game voucher to redeem a steam copy of the game. (I don’t really like PUBG at all, maybe that’s why I didn’t try it) On the back panel, this one has HDMI and Dsub connector where you can use HDMI to connect your monitor or display (TV, Projector, etc.) with a resolution up to 4k 60Hz (HDMI 1.4 only supports up to 5K 30Hz).
It’s almost everything all the new motherboards should have but I’m really disappointed that it still doesn’t have M.2 NVMe SSD PCI-E 3.0 x4 dual onboard slot. Because I don’t think anyone will buy this motherboard just for “better” onboard audio chip and isolated caps when the most important thing is missing in this board.
On the positive side, it’s a much better choice compared to H370M PRO4 because of isolated caps, M2 heatsink, and B250 slot which has much more options to overclock or upgrade.
The PRIME B250M-A is a good motherboard to use if you want to build a PC that can play the latest games on low to medium settings with stable 60 fps and I expect that all games in the future will run well without any problem on this board.
Related Article: How A Motherboard Can Impact Gaming Performance
MSI Z170A GAMING M5
With the MSI Z170A GAMING M5, MSI continues to impress with its high-level motherboards. But is it really worth the money? Let’s see if it offers a lot more than we expect from this price category.
We could say that for entry-level motherboards, MSI already has a good reputation. The Z170A GAMING M5 is one of the best gaming motherboards for i5 6500 in the entry-level category with an excellent price/performance ratio and also comes with some unique features that other manufacturers don’t offer for this price category. It looks also very nice as we have now gotten used to MSI.
The MSI Z170A GAMING M5 comes with an ATX form factor and has several features for gamers like Intel Ethernet, USB 3.1, and a good audio controller as well as the possibility to connect up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory. While this motherboard is positioned in the entry-level category, it shouldn’t be overlooked because it has some very good features that are offered for this price category.
MSI Z170A GAMING M5 Overview: As we have already mentioned, the MSI Z170A GAMING M5 comes in the form of an ATX motherboard and has a black PCB with dark red elements on it. The dimensions are 305mm x 244mm for the PCB which allows for almost every component that you could wish for. However, this motherboard is not very flexible since it only supports up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory and comes with 2 M.2 slots and 6x SATA Express ports. Memory wise you have two options in terms of quantity and frequency (DDR4/3200 MHz and DDR4/2133 MHz).
For the expansion slots, we have three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (which are also working at x8 speed when only one of them is in use), four PCI-E 3.0 x1 slots as well as three PCI slots. This means that you can even install an SLI setup with two high-end graphics cards.
The MSI Z170A GAMING M5 comes with an 8-pin ATX 12V power connector as well and has a dark red CPU socket which can be spotted quickly since it is illuminated in white. The whole motherboard is protected by a big armor cover which gives it also its name GAMING M5.
This motherboard is compatible with the standard ATX heatsink & fan and can be used with a large variety of them. The same applies to both 4-pin PWM as well as 3-pin PWM coolers and you also should have no problems finding one which fits into your case or on your desk because the dimensions are quite normal.
Key Features: One of the main features of this motherboard is its USB 3.1 feature, USB Type-C, and/or Type-A ports which you will find on the back panel as well. That makes it not only unique to other M5 motherboards but also very interesting for those who want to use the latest USB standard. The latter two ports are also working with Thunderbolt 3 motherboards, however, you will have to get a special cable for it since the motherboard only has one Type-C port and no other. We think the implementation of this feature is very good because you can even connect up to 4x USB 3.0 devices at once.
USB 3.1 is also working when you are using a dual graphics card setup with the three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, but in that case, it will only work as so-called super-speed+ (type A) and will be limited to 10 Gbit/s which is better than nothing, but not that fast.
Another main feature is the Turbo M.2 slot which supports both SATA & PCIe mode and allows transfer speeds of up to 32 Gbit/s or 3 GB/s if you are using a PCI-Express SSD card. You can also connect 1x USB 2.0 device via this slot in case one of your SATA ports isn’t working or if you want to add more devices. MSI uses the so-called KLEVV M.2 thermal guards which are made out of graphite and will make sure that your SSD card is cooled properly, even when it isn’t the best solution because they cover some contact points on the motherboard. However, we haven’t had any problems with SSD temperatures in our tests.
Gigabyte B365M DS3H
Gigabyte now offers the most affordable Intel B365 chipset-based motherboards with their B365M DS3H motherboard. Available for $69, this is the cheapest LGA1151 V2 socket i5 6500 motherboards I have ever seen on the market. And this really surprised me as we are talking about Gigabyte here. While it’s true that this board can be used with one graphics card, I don’t think anyone will want to do so due to its single PCI-E x16 slot. This motherboard is clearly meant for the entry-level build, and the price represents this perfectly.
The B365M DS3H comes with the usual 4 x DIMM slots for up to 64GB RAM, one PCI-E x16 slot that can work with full speed at x8 if a graphics card is installed. There are plenty of ports on this board including 1 x M.2 storage slot and six SATA-III ports. The board is quite small and very basic. We have the normal power, reset buttons on the top side along with a clear CMOS jumper. The audio section comes with 7.1 channel support and an optical S/PDIF header. On the aesthetics side of things, Gigabyte didn’t overdo it as we have silver-colored capacitors and chokes along with a black and white color scheme for the PCB. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX connector while we have one 4-pin header for CPU fans and two for system fan control.
It comes with four DIMM slots supporting DDR4 memory operating at speeds of up to 2666MHz. There’s a full range of XMP profiles available and we can also program the DIMMs to run at slower speeds. The board has a single M.2 connector that would allow us to install an SSD drive using a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. There’s no integrated WiFi/Bluetooth module but this (and other boards in this segment) do come with a built-in Realtek® ALC887 audio codec which means we get to enjoy onboard audio without the need for an add-on card. Storage options include six SATA 6Gbps ports and two USB 3.1 headers that offer support for Six additional ports via two internal headers, while I/O includes Six USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI output, and Realtek® GbE LAN port.
Related Article: What is the Difference Between Regular and Gaming Motherboards?
MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS
The MSI Z370 Gaming Plus motherboard is MSI’s more budget oriented offering, providing premium features at an affordable price. The black and red color scheme provides a nice aesthetical touch. As you may have guessed from the name, it comes with RGB LED lighting and the Mystic Light software provided with all MSI motherboards will allow you to customize the colors and effects to match your rig. Aesthetically speaking, I like it.
The Z370 Gaming Plus comes equipped with four DDR4 DIMM slots capable of supporting up to 64 GBs of RAM at speeds up to 4200MHz when overclocked. The motherboard features a single M.2 slot for high speed SSD devices, four SATA3 ports and two Gigabit Ethernet network ports powered by Intel i219V NICs that take advantage of MSI’s Game Boost software. The back panel provides one PS/2 port, four USB 2.0/1.1 ports, six USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, one RJ45 port and one S/PDIF out port for audio connections. Four HDMI 1.4b jacks are a nice touch along with three surround sound out (7.1) jacks if you care to add on to the onboard Realtek ALC892 audio. The MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS also features two DVI-D ports and one VGA port if you need them for your display needs.
The MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS has two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, four PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots, four DDR4 RAM slots and also supports up to 64GB of memory. A total of four SATA 6G ports are here for storage with two running off the PCH and the other two being provided by an ASMedia controller, a clear sign that M2 support is not present on this motherboard. One can add up to three additional storage devices via two M.2 slots capable of supporting PCIe, SATA or even both the techs on this board. Two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports are found at the rear along with two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and a pair of USB 2.0 ports to make up the I/O panel.
The MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS supports an Intel Optane memory module if you would like an acceleration drive for your PC. Two PCIe Gen3 x16 slots are available to support graphics cards and the MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS which is a best choice for i5 6500, just like many other motherboards from this series, supports multi-GPU setups with the help of MSI’s Steel Armour.
USB DAC-UP is present in the form of a digital USB port that will amplify the sound quality of your headphones. MSI’s Audio Boost 4 technology also features enhanced circuitry that promises superior audio output quality when you’re using an external amplifier.
The MSI App Manager is present in the form of an icon near the SuperCharger CPU area and then there are several other applications on this board, so if you want to use them, you have to download them through the MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS.
Pin-infused sockets are on this motherboard, so if you want to replace a component with a bigger or smaller one, you’ll have to broaden the socket and use new pin-infused ones.
MSI has equipped this board with RGB LED lighting, which gives it a vibrant and fantastic look. Regarding controls, we found MSI’s Mystic Light Sync technology, which offers more than just LED control; you can also change the colors of individual components on this board. Also included are multi-color LEDs for audio shielding and a cover that showcases the Audio Boost 4 chip.
Overall, MSI’s Z370 Gaming Plus is a great choice for i5 6500 users who want to customize their computers while maintaining high-performance and fast network speeds.
