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MB: ASUS
B360M-C/CSM

Description: Prime Micro-ATX MB, W/Coffee Lake B360 chipset
Standards: Micro ATX, LGA 1151, Coffee Lake, B360

Several motherboard manufacturers make boards for Intel's Coffee Lake CPU's. And they each include cutting-edge technologies to be proud of. However, ASUS stands out for one reason: reliability. After asking techs at several busy distributors which board is returned the least, it was always an ASUS board. And this matches our own experiences. MSI and Gigabyte also make great boards but we have had to return these a number of times, whereas only one of our ASUS boards were ever returned.

The next question is form factor. In the past Standard-ATX always delivered the highest value. However, in 2018 Micro-ATX has taken its place. And what a relief, its about time we save some space on our desktops. Finally, we can deliver all the same power and features for the money as a full blown ATX, yet within the roughly half-sized Micro-ATX form factor. Will this change again? Yes, it will change over and over as circuit boards and CPU's continue to miniaturize, mass produce, then drop in price. The next step will be Mini-ITX, and all it could take is one new motherboard that meets our criteria. It is almost there now.

It is for these reasons that we sourced an ASUS Micro-ATX board for our PC's.

From here the choices were narrowed down to the best board for both business and game use, yet at a good price.

The sweet spot given all this is the ASUS B360M-C/CSM.

It also comes with some bonuses. For one it includes server-grade IT management software, the CSM program (36 month lifecycle support for the chipset), 2 ultra high speed M.2 ports (great place to add a super fast M.2 SSD), 4 DDR4 module slots (holds up to 64GB RAM), PCL slot, 6 SATA 6Gb/s ports, 4x USB 3.1 ports out the back plus 2 more run to the case side, HDMI, VGA, LAN, audio (Intel's surround sound), and a PCI Express 3.0 slot. It also includes circuitry for the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) (this is used to secure encryption end-points), a BIOS that automatically recovers itself from a backup when necessary, and Secure Boot (optional extra password to access the computer).

The motherboard comes with these certifications: NIST SP 800-147 (computer security standards), UL, and Blue Angel.

Its only real drawbacks (to some people), are the lack of overclocking support, and the lack of ECC support. In all other respects this is truly a superior motherboard.

This Micro ATX motherboard utilizes a Windows 10 only chipset.