NVIDIA managed to ship several more nForce4 SLI Intel Edition motherboards since we last mentioned them. There were some severe doubts about whether or not nForce4 for Intel was really going to take off, but it seems manufacturers have been able to adopt boards well enough. NVIDIA anticipates low priced SLI boards for everyone before the end of the year, but it looks like the price point will have to lower significantly for something like that to happen. These boards are dual core capable but also come with lots of features, which place them in good competition with 955X motherboards. A favorite of ours, the MSI P4N Diamond [RTPE: MS-7160-010] includes Creative's SoundBlaster Live chip. Then again, if you don't really plan on pursuing SLI but do want a dual core CPU, it's more cost effective to go the route of 945P.

As our recent roadmap revealed, Intel has virtually no plans to pursue 1066MHz front side bus. Thus, all of those 925XE motherboards that were released a few months ago with the faster bus speed over 925X serve no purpose to anyone. Abit's AA8-DuraMAX [RTPE: Abit AA8-Duramax] 925X motherboard is one of the cheapest boards around with excellent features (but it won't support any of those dual core Pentium D chips). Then again, your money is probably better spent on an AMD combo if you're in the market for a new CPU/motherboard.

There is little point in mentioning 915P motherboards as well, but we couldn't help but notice the Biostar I915P-A7 [RTPE: I915P-A7] fell to $80 shipped over the last few weeks. Again, you're better off spending the money on an AMD combo, but if your 915P motherboard died or something, the Biostar makes a decent replacement.

Intel Motherboards
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  • dornick - Sunday, June 19, 2005 - link

    Or the DFI Ultra at 85 :D
  • ryanv12 - Sunday, June 19, 2005 - link

    I got a nice disappointment when I saw the Asus A8N-SLI on the price guide for $109, only to find out that it's really $142 :(

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