Meet the Contenders
Intel has been on a roll since the introduction of the Core 2 processors and P965/975X chipsets over two years ago. Since then, we have seen the launch of the Intel P35, P45, X38, X48, and a whole slew of G-series chipsets for the IGP market. Out of those, the P35 and X48 were probably our favorite chipsets, although the P45 has turned into a decent chipset after some teething pains. Just last month Intel launched the Core i7 and X58 combination, ushering in a whole new set of hardware and changing many of the rules when it comes to Intel platforms.
In the meantime, NVIDIA got a chipset license and brought the 680i, 780i, 650i, 750i, and 790i products to market for the Core 2 series, along with their GeForce 7xxx and 9xxx IGP products. If you wanted to run SLI on an Intel processor, your only choice up until the X58 chipset was to go with an NVIDIA solution. We found their products to be very good at times… and not so good at others. Still, we have been extremely impressed with their GeForce 9xxx series chipsets and would gladly choose it over the Intel G45 any day of the week.
At last count, we noticed over 400 motherboards for sale for current Intel processors. It has been very difficult for us to whittle down the list for today's guide -- so much so that we will probably have another motherboard guide early next year so we can properly address all of the various categories and price points. Our recommendations today will provide a look at the boards that have impressed us during testing. We probably missed a couple of favorites but without spending a good ten pages on suggestions we did our best to quickly hit the top choices.
AMD based systems are still a compelling value in the entry to midrange markets. The chipsets are mature, driver support is very good, and the price to performance ratio is excellent. While the Phenom launch was not as successful as AMD (or we) wanted it to be, the X3 series offers very good performance in a particular niche. We should also see some interesting competition in the midrange market when Phenom II launches next month.
How that launch and product lineup will affect the current Phenom series is something we are still trying to nail down. The manufacturers are still working on full Phenom II compatibility across their product lines, but we know at this point that the vast majority of AM2/AM2+ motherboards released this year will be compatible with nothing more than a BIOS update. We will be recommending boards that are currently compatible with the Phenom processor series as that should ensure compatibility with the upcoming processors. However, it's possible some motherboards will be neglected and not get the necessary BIOS updates.
On the supply side there are not nearly as many AMD platform boards as Intel options. Where we could find over 400 different currently shipping Intel boards, there are only about 160 AMD boards. Quantity does not necessarily equate to quality and fortunately for most users, most of the AM2 based boards are solid. That said, let's take a look at the boards that impressed us.
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bob4432 - Monday, December 15, 2008 - link
this is the board to use if overclocking is of prime importance to you. Our only knock against the board is that it does not overclock quad-core processors as well as the Gigabyte or ASUS boards.in the first sentence you say this is the board (biostar) to get for o/cing, but then state that it won't o/c quads, so imho, this would not be the board to get for o/cing????
the way i read it, you contradict yourself in the whole midrange intel area. why not just recommend the gigabyte or asus boards since they o/c everything well, not just dcs?
zebrax2 - Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - link
if you read the whole paragraph you could easily understand that this board is recommended because of its ability to overclock dual cores and anyway both the gigabyte and the asus board are also recommended anywaysymbul - Monday, December 15, 2008 - link
It's a bit late to buy for Christmas I think. The best deals were on Black Friday and the Thanksgiving weekend. I got a brand new Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P for 100$ during that time. At that price point, everything else is moot, unless you really need a x48 chipset motherboard.djc208 - Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - link
I jumped on that one as well. If anything it was nice to see it recommended to re-affirm my purchase. Should have gotten a second one for my Sage server with all the ports on it, but it'll get that as a hand-me-down when I finally go to something with DDR3.Noya - Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - link
I gotta say the best deals were on eBay thanks to Microsofts Live Cashback. From Black Friday to that Sunday, they were offering 30% cashback. And if you were smart, you bought from a buyer that combined the shipping in the price and claimed "free shipping".I was on a budget as usual, but bought a Gigabyte UD3p for $84.50 and a Q8200 for $119 (e8400 was $121, but I wanted a quad as I only upgrade every 2 years). Besides, the UD3p overclocked my Q8200 to 3.3ghz without even trying. Fry's had 2x2gb Ballistix DDR2-800 for $20 with rebate, though their site was laggy for a few days.
Mwave.com was selling tons due to valid rebates also as the invoice was from mwave.com.
Graphics cards were crazy cheap- 4870 1gb @ $165, gtx260 core 216 @ $175, gtx280 @ $240-250 and the 4870x2 @ $300-315.
Wesley Fink - Monday, December 15, 2008 - link
Where were motherboard deals on Black Friday? CompUSA is gone from retail, Circuit City and Best Buy were never real motherboard players, and Fry's is only in the West.Etailers have been running special pricing all along and you can buy through early next week and still get a motherboard in time for Christams from Newegg, ZipZoomFly, mwave and others.
Still others will get cash or gift cards for Christams that they will use to buy motherboards, video cards, memory, and other computer components AFTER Christmas. This article and the other guides that will appear this wekk will be very useful to many potential buyers, if not all.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - link
I thought Black Friday was very weak this year. Maybe CompUSA leaving the market is to blame, but there wasn't anything I though was worth getting up very early for. My brother-in-law and I went to Circuit City around 8AM, he bought a wireless keyboard/mouse, I bought a USB TV tuner, we both would not have cared much if they were sold out. We then swung by Sears to pick up a My First Craftsman set for a friend's kid and went home. Unless you were looking for a TV or still chasing a Wii this was not a good year.JeBarr - Monday, December 15, 2008 - link
Yes an article such as this is a tad lat for christmas anyways. Not just here but most all review sites seem to have gotten lazy this year when it comes to holiday-type buying guides. I guess too much time was spent beta testing all those x58 boards, didnt leave much time for anything else.Elvis2 - Monday, December 15, 2008 - link
I like the layout :)flipmode - Monday, December 15, 2008 - link
With that $170 price of the DFI x48 mobo, I am surpised with the recommendation of the $160 Biostar P45 mobo. I am curious, what is the thinking there? Is there something wrong with the DFI mobo? Because if not, how could it *not* be the *only* recommendation in the $150 and above range? Even for people that don't want to spend more than $150 I'd say save up the extra $20 to get the x48 fer cryin out loud.