Price Guide, November 2005: Motherboards
by Haider Farhan on November 5, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Intel Motherboards
Intel's main two chipsets for the LGA775 are the 955X and 945P. The difference between the two is that the 955X supports 8GB of RAM, ECC-RAM (which is great for low end servers and workstations) and the main difference is the Intel Memory Pipeline Technology (iMPT). Through testing, we've seen that the iMPT benefits are small and are only seen in synthetic benchmarks. And if you won't notice it in real-world workloads, then it is obvious that there is no purpose in spending large amounts of money on such a feature. Between the 955X and the 945P chipsets, we suggest the 945P because we don't see the huge price difference warranted in the 955X.
As one of the most expensive yet one of the best of the 955X based boards, the ASUS P5WD2 Premium [RTPE: 955X P5WD2] supports dual core CPUs, 8 channel HD audio, DDR2 800 (ECC and non-ECC) and one revision with WiFi-TV.
Hovering in at around $108, one of the good buys this week in the 945P chipset category is the Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G [RTPE: 945P GA-8I945P-G]; fully-featured with SATA 3.0, support of up to 4GB of DDR667, dual core processor support, and Gigabit LAN.
For those who don't need a high-end graphics accelerator, the 945G may be right for your application. It's definitely not something for gamers, but should be adequate enough for most 2D work. We recommend either the Gigabyte 945G GA-8I945G Pro [RTPE: GA-8I945G Pro] or the MSI 945G Neo-F [RTPE: MS-7176-040]; the MSI board being the cheaper alternative.
Intel's main two chipsets for the LGA775 are the 955X and 945P. The difference between the two is that the 955X supports 8GB of RAM, ECC-RAM (which is great for low end servers and workstations) and the main difference is the Intel Memory Pipeline Technology (iMPT). Through testing, we've seen that the iMPT benefits are small and are only seen in synthetic benchmarks. And if you won't notice it in real-world workloads, then it is obvious that there is no purpose in spending large amounts of money on such a feature. Between the 955X and the 945P chipsets, we suggest the 945P because we don't see the huge price difference warranted in the 955X.
As one of the most expensive yet one of the best of the 955X based boards, the ASUS P5WD2 Premium [RTPE: 955X P5WD2] supports dual core CPUs, 8 channel HD audio, DDR2 800 (ECC and non-ECC) and one revision with WiFi-TV.
Hovering in at around $108, one of the good buys this week in the 945P chipset category is the Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G [RTPE: 945P GA-8I945P-G]; fully-featured with SATA 3.0, support of up to 4GB of DDR667, dual core processor support, and Gigabit LAN.
For those who don't need a high-end graphics accelerator, the 945G may be right for your application. It's definitely not something for gamers, but should be adequate enough for most 2D work. We recommend either the Gigabyte 945G GA-8I945G Pro [RTPE: GA-8I945G Pro] or the MSI 945G Neo-F [RTPE: MS-7176-040]; the MSI board being the cheaper alternative.
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SniperWulf - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
no mention of the EPOX s754 SLI board? its a nice package for just over $100CWK - Sunday, November 6, 2005 - link
How about a section for micro-ATX boards (and some reviews maybe?)microAmp - Saturday, November 5, 2005 - link
Any plans on doing a review on this motherboard? Asrock M1695 939Dual-SATA2Hopefully not a cherry picked one from the manufacture either.
Anton74 - Saturday, November 5, 2005 - link
They've already done this nearly 2 months ago: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524">ASRock 939Dual-SATA2: First Retail ULi PCIe/AGPmicroAmp - Sunday, November 6, 2005 - link
Can't believe I missed that :) Thanks!IRQ Conflict - Saturday, November 5, 2005 - link
What is more supprising is the :(http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=16281&a..."> DFI LANParty UT RDX200 CF-DR doesn't seem to be in the list eitherKristopherKubicki - Saturday, November 5, 2005 - link
Well, we could recommend a $120 SLI motherboard, or a $250 Xpress 200 motherboard. SLI for me - that's for sure :)Kristopher
Anton74 - Saturday, November 5, 2005 - link
Are the new Socket 939 boards based on the GeForce 6150/6100 (and 410/430 southbridges) not yet included in this guide?I think they are very good alternatives to nForce4, especially if you want both integrated graphics and gigabit LAN.
highlandsun - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
I was just looking at the Asus A8N-VM CSM, looks like it'd do well for an HTPC but I wish it had digital audio inputs. It has a coax S/PDIF out but I'd like a board with optical I/O. Do any of those others have optical in and out?rrcn - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
It looks like the only board that has In and Out is the Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9. Although it has coaxial in and out, you can always purchase a coaxial to optical converter/adapter.