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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1792
Price Guides, September 2005: Motherboards
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Howard Johnston on September 16, 2005 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
It's time again for a new edition of our motherboard price guide. Just like in our last edition, mail in rebates (MIRs) are plentiful this week but the prices are only reflected in the price engine itself. We'll be sure to mention any great rebate deals explicitly. Be sure to check out the RTPE at labs.anandtech.com for up to the minute pricing. Also, you can visit our Motherboard Forums for the latest discussions on all the latest motherboards.
There were a few rumors going around that Chaintech was getting out of the motherboard business, but they were quickly dispelled by Chaintech. Although Chaintech does have a new majority shareholder (Walton Advanced Engineering), they will continue to produce motherboards, video cards, and now memory modules under the Walton Chaintech name.
This week we finally start seeing boards based off the ULi M1695 chipset shipping in the retail channels. Boards based off this chipset benefit from both PCIe and AGP 8x slots, making it great for the transitioning gamer. Read on for more info on the latest ULi offerings!
Athlon 64 Socket 939
On the Socket 939 front, things haven't changed much since our last Price Guide. There are plenty of PCIe boards to choose from. If you're looking build a new system, PCIe is the way to go. With new high end cards like the NVIDIA 7800GT and GTX coming out first as PCIe exclusive and AGP several months later, there's no good reason to go for an AGP board unless you've already invested a lot in a high end AGP card.
Prices of SLI motherboards have seemed to level off a bit since our last guide. One of our favorites, the MSI K8N Neo4 SLI [RTPE: MS-7100-030] is the price leader this week at $99.99 after a $25 MIR. If you're adamant about not waiting for rebates to come in the mail, the Biostar N4SLI-A9 comes in at $103.49. We, however, would front the extra $25 for an MSI board and wait for the rebate. (Even without the rebate, we're a little hesitant to go with the Biostar unless you have no interest in overclocking. Biostar is hit-or-miss in terms of overclocking support in our experience.)
If you're not interested in extreme gaming performance, you can ditch the SLI and save a few bucks. Springing for an nForce4 Ultra motherboard buys you a few more fancy features like the Creative Labs Sound Blaster 7.1 audio codec. The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra VE [RTPE: Chaintech VNF4 Ultra VE] continues to be our recommendation for the value Ultra board at $82.00 this week.
Another alternative is the DFI nF4 Infinity [RTPE: DFI Infinity]. It costs a few dollars more, but the overclocking options are better than most of the other boards in this price range. Take out the rounded cables, UV reactive motherboard colors, and a few other tweaks, and you turn the LanParty into the Infinity. We have some articles using the board due in the next week or two, and for under $90 we've been impressed with the stability and overclocking options.
Although VIA doesn't have the same presence they used to in the AMD chipset market, there are still a few deals to be found. The Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 [RTPE: GA-K8VT90-9] remains the best value this week at $84.17. We do prefer the options on the nForce4 Ultra over the KT890 for the same price, however.
As we mentioned earlier, this week we started seeing the first board with ULi's M1695 chipset finally start to ship. The Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 [RTPE: 939Dual-SATA2] we recently reviewed has shown up at a few retailers for under $75. The great thing about this board is that it features both PCIe and AGP 8x making it a perfect board for those who've invested in a high end AGP card looking to upgrade.
Finally in the AMD Socket 939 segment we have the "legacy" nForce3 motherboards with AGP slots. As we've stated numerous times in the past, we don't recommend purchasing boards without PCIe unless you have no intention of upgrading your system in the future. If you've spent a pretty penny on a high end AGP card then we'd recommend looking at the new ULi M1695 motherboards we talked about above. For AGP-only, the MSI Neo2-F [RTPE: MS-7025-020] still represents a good value for a nForce3 motherboard.
More AMD Motherboards
Over the past few months we've seen a flood of Socket 939 motherboards and CPUs come to the market. Prices of these parts have dropped close to their Socket 754 counterparts now. For mid to high range systems, we strongly recommend purchasing the Socket 939 combo. The only reasong to go with Socket 754 is for Sempron based budget systems, and the price difference is only about $50 at most.
For those looking to breathe new life into their Socket 754 rig, you can look at the MSI K8N Neo3-F [RTPE: MS-7135-010]. It features both AGP and PCIe slots, giving you the option to migrate to new components when they come out. Note that you must use an MSI-approved video card like the GeForce4 Ti4400 in its AGP slot. The AGP-like slot is actually called "AGR" (Advanced Graphics Riser) by MSI, and it runs off a tweaked PCI bus. Performance with high-end cards like a 6800GT will suffer, so unless we start to see ULi M1695 for socket 754, AGP owners are in a difficult situation as far as upgrades go.
Those looking for better overclocking options - maybe take one of the 90nm Sempron-64 parts and shoot for 2.50+ GHz - would be better off with either the DFI Infinity 754 or the ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe. EPoX 8NPAJ is another option.
If NVIDIA isn't your brand, there are other PCIe players in the market now. MSI will once again be our pick in a category this week for the ATI RS480 based Xpress 200 RS480M-IL [RTPE: MS-7145-020]. This board offers a lot of features like SATA RAID and IEEE 1394 for under $80.
Lastly, we have the nForce3 based 754 boards. If you already have a socket 754 system, there's not much reason to buy a different AGP-only motherboard, short of your current motherboard failing. The $90 DFI LanParty UT remains the best socket 754 AGP overclocking platform that we've seen, and it even supports the 90nm Sempron and Turion chips with an updated BIOS. It's still difficult to recommend, as it's a dead end purchase. EPoX, Biostar, ASUS, and Abit all make lower-cost nForce3 boards, so if you're looking for a simple replacement they may be the better choice.
Intel Motherboards
Intel's biggest advantage in the dual core battle is its cheaper CPU cost. However, that gap is narrowed greatly when you take into account the price of Intel chipsets like the 955X and the 945P. If you do decide to go Intel, however, we suggest the 945P over the 955X as the only significant difference between the two is Intel's Memory Pipeline Technology - a feature that doesn't warrant an $80+ price hike.
The 945P arena continues to remain active and competitive. Once again this week our value picks are the Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G [RTPE: GA-8I945P-G], MSI Neo-F [RTPE: MS-7176-020], and D945PSNLK [RTPE: D945PSNLK]. The price gap between the MSI and Gigabyte has narrowed to only $2 so go with your favorite brand.
For those looking for a fast, stable workstation without the need for a high end graphics solution, the 945G might be the board for you. The onboard graphics aren't great for gamers, but are more than adequate for most business apps. Intel offers a variety of its own boards, although if you want a few more tweaking options we would go with the MSI 945G Neo-F i945G [RTPE: MS-7176-040] which has dropped down to $127 this week.
More PCIe Intel
NVIDIA's nForce4 Intel boards are your only option if you're looking to do SLI on an Intel setup - at least until 975X ships. Enthusiasts trying to decide between AMD and Intel will have tough choice given that these boards also support the Pentium D dual core CPUs.
Since our last guide we've see some decent price drops on Intel nForce4 boards. MSI's P4N SLI-FI [RTPE: MS-7160-020] is the price leader this week at $111.99 after a $25 MIR. Even without the rebate this board has a very low price point compared to other tier 1 boards. The Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Pro [RTPE: GA-8N-SLI] is also a great value at $135.99 without a rebate.
We're still waiting on motherboards based off ATI's Crossfire chipset to start shipping. The Intel motherboard segment is in dire need of more chipset competition to help bring the prices down.
Wrapping things up, we have the 915P and 915G based motherboards. There are numerous boards in this category still, though they represent the low end of Intel's chipset lineup. As these boards are nearing end-of-life, we'd recommend spending the same cash on a 945P or AMD setup instead. For a cheap Celeron D setup, though, 915G and 915P may be worth a look.