ASRock B860M Pro-A Motherboard, LGA 1851, Micro ATX, DDR5

The board uses the LGA 1851 (Socket V1) socket paired with Intel's B860 chipset, so it's aimed at builders putting together a system on Intel's current desktop platform. It's a sensible base for a new PC rather than a stopgap, and leaves budget for the parts that matter most to you, such as the CPU or graphics card.

With four DDR5-SDRAM slots, you can start with two memory modules and add more later instead of replacing what you already have. That's handy if you want to keep the upfront cost down now and expand memory once your workload grows, whether that means more browser tabs, bigger projects or more demanding games.

Three M.2 slots let you run your system, games and files on separate drives without needing extra adapters. For a micro ATX board, that's a generous amount of storage expansion, and it keeps the build tidy because the drives sit directly on the motherboard rather than taking up drive bays or adding cables.

This board suits anyone building a compact Intel desktop on the LGA 1851 platform: home and office users, gamers on a sensible budget and DIY builders who want DDR5 and plenty of M.2 storage in a micro ATX case. It has no built-in Wi-Fi, so it works best with a wired network connection or a separate wireless adapter.