Roundup tests of motherboards aimed at Intel Core 2 Duo processors
Performance
In our test setup, we used the following hardware:
| Test setup |
| CPU |
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Socket LGA775 2.66 GHz (Conroe core, stepping B1) |
| Cooler |
Gigabyte 3D Cooler GP Edition
|
| Video Card |
MSI NX7900 GT (GeForce 7900GT; PCI Express x16)
Driver version: 93.71 WHQL |
| Sound card |
- |
| HDD |
IBM DTLA 307030 30 GB |
| Memory |
2x512 MB DDR2-667 SDRAM, made by Corsair (timings set by SPD) |
| Housing |
Inwin506 with the PowerMan 300W/550W PSU |
| OS |
Windows XP SP1 |
We used a customary set of application benchmarks.
Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.
These are exclusively synthetic benchmarks which demonstrate the theoretical performance.
Now, tests of real-world applications.
We are not dwelling on the performance, because all the boards showed approximately the same performance. And the difference in speed between the boards is small enough, and any slight update to the BIOS can turn everything upside down. Therefore, we'll be making the choice of a motherboard following different criteria such as operational stability, expansion options, package bundle, compatibility to various components, compatibility to memory modules, and the price of the boards.
It is much more interesting to look at the graph of overclocking results:
Final Words
First of all, a few words on the "Republic of Gamers" series motherboards made by ASUS. It includes the two models: Commando (P965) and Striker (NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI).
ASUS Commando
ASUS Striker
In the technical viewpoint, both the boards have nothing to complain about. While we were testing the Striker version, we had no well-polished BIOS version. Now this problem has gone, and the motherboard easily coped with 500 MHz for the bus (let alone the Commando version, which took 520 MHz at the first attempt).
The complaints to this series was in very high retail prices which are not substantiated by anything. Especially indicative is Striker: for the game Ghost Recon, licensed version of 3DMark 06 Advanced Edition, external thermal sensors, clamps, additional fan, a leather keychain and SoundMAX microphone all put in the package bundle), as well as for the massive cooling system onboard, additional SerialATAII Sil3132 controller, diagnostic LCD-screen, the buttons Power, Reset, and clear the BIOS settings the buyer is charged $120!
But that is a view on the situation from the viewpoint of practice and economy. There are a lot of buyers who don't treat this $120 as an essential amount, and the ownership of an exclusive motherboard is a weighty argument. It's just for these purposes motherboards of the Republic of Gamers series is the best choice, so both of them are granted the "Tycoon's Choice" award.
By the way, ASUS is the first and only company to create exclusive products for its premium sector, and the first motherboard was ASUS Black Perl (i815EP) which was tested at our test lab over 6 years ago.
We now coming back to the real world and choose a motherboard for the uncompromising overclocker and the PC enthusiast. The definition of this user category implies using two high-end video cards (and a physics accelerator in future). The final selection is simple enough - that is a motherboard with support for the SLI (ATI/AMD Crossfire has failed to win popularity among users). These motherboards are based on NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI, and the most powerful and functional one is the model ASUS P5N32-E SLI (one of the Striker modifications).
ASUS P5N32-E SLI
The price for it is surprisingly reasonable: $200-230 as of mid-June 2007! That is even cheaper than some motherboards based on NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI!
In the end, the board is granted the "Editor's Choice" award.
In this case, I mean MSI P6N SLI Platinum whose only specimen was found at the workshop of a retailer (price.ru). That is, we see a simple situation of unadjusted price. That happens quite often: look at the prices of motherboards for Gigabyte 965G-DS3 and Gigabyte 965P-DS3. They are practically identical motherboards, but the model with integrated video core costs cheaper!
Note that ASUS itself developed the design of the board based on 680i SLI. The remaining motherboards are available in the retail - these are of NVIDIA's reference design made under various trade marks. Their "price/functionality" ratio prevents us from recommending them for purchase.
Now let's look at cheaper motherboards with support for SLI which are based on nForce 650i SLI. In this case, these are ASUS P5N-E SLI and ECS NF650SLIT-A which sell at the same price ($120-$130). Even if we ignore the company names, the ASUS product is better anyway: it offers more SerialATA links, there is support for Firewire, a wide selection of proprietary technologies, the BIOS features and overclocking tools have been developed better. At the latter point, I'd like to note that ASUS P5N-E SLI has overcome the "FSB = 500 MHz" bar.
Awards - "Best Buy" and "Overclocker's Choice"!
As regards ECS, its produce is competitive in the sector under $100. That is, at $80-$90 the user can get ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A which, albeit based on the chipset of the previous generation, is the only of the 30 reviewed which is priced below $100.
The "Best Buy" award!
Now let's see what can the user preferring a single video card choose. The number of such users is much more than those who own SLI systems, partly because a single video card is cheaper than two, and also because the number of nice-looking games requiring at least a single high-end video card is very small (2-3, at best). That is, the choice will be among motherboards based on Intel 975X and P965.
The we divide the users (unless they mind it) into those who need functionality and those who need the maximum overclocking (i.e. maximum performance).
The motherboards of most functionality are abit AB9 Pro (~$130), abit AW9D-MAX (~$206), ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe (~$210-225), ASUS P5B Premium Vista Edition (~$230-245), ASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi (~$200), ASUS P5B-E (140-$150), Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 (~$200-220), Gigabyte 965P-DS4 (~$165-180), MSI P965 Platinum (~$135-140), and Intel D975XBX2 (~$225). We immediately rule out the abit motherboard: perfect products, we liked them very much, but unfortunately they don't sell in Russia. Then - in the range >$200 the best positions are taken by ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe (AI Remote, but there are reducing memory multipliers),
The "Recommended" award!
ASUS P5B Premium Vista Edition (a very rich package bundle),
The "Best Buy" award!
ASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi (rich package bundle, support for Wi-Fi).
The "Overclocker's Choice" award!
However, all the three motherboards are different from one another, so you simply can't choose the best among them!
Note that ASUS P5W64-WS Pro stands alone among the others: only this motherboard has 4 PCI Express x16 slots onboard, so we grant it the "Innovation Design" award.
In the 150$-$200 range, the best motherboard is Gigabyte 965P-DS4 rev3.3. As we already noted, it's an almost complete replica of Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 - it has the same functionality.
Besides, this motherboard showed the best overclocking results. Therefore, two awards at a time - - "Best Buy" and "Overclocker's Choice"!
Then, in the range within $125 to $150 the choice is evident enough: merely two motherboards (ASUS P5B-E and MSI P965 Platinum) offer the close "price/attraction" ratio. At the same time, ASUS P5B-E is the most expensive but is best optimized for overclocking.
The "Overclocker's Choice" award!
MSI P965 Platinum is $10 cheaper, but it allows two PCI-E video cards!
The "Recommended" award!
Within the $100-125 range, there are a few motherboards: Foxconn P9657AA ($100-120), Gigabyte 965P-DS3(~$120-130), Gigabyte 965G-DS3($110-130), MSI P965 Neo(~$100-110), MSI P965 Neo2(~$105), Intel DG965RYCK(~$105-115), and ECS P965T-A(~$100-110). Two of them deserve the most attention: Foxconn P9657AA which at functionality can complete versus more expensive boards,
The "Best Buy" award!
and Gigabyte 965G-DS3 which at the same specifications as Gigabyte 965P-DS3 costs cheaper and offers the integrated video core.
The "Best Buy" award!
However, we can't fully rule out Gigabyte 965P-DS3 since it showed the best overclocking results in this group.
The "Overclocker's Choice" award!
We should also mention MSI P965 Neo2 and ECS P965T-A, which allow installing two video cards. Therefore, the user can choose just the product which best suits the requirements.
Both the boards have been granted the "Recommended" award.
Here are the overall conclusions for all the motherboards: among all the reviewed motherboards, we have not found any evidently poor product. Even those motherboards which we don't recommend to buy are quite suitable for use from the technical viewpoint. But the problem is that they cost much higher than their direct competitors - i.e. the problem is not in terms of stability or functionality but in the mispricing.
Another important point to note: almost half the reviewed motherboards are made by ASUS. This manufacturer takes a leading position on the Russian market (according to our polls) and takes the lion's share of all the awards. Its competitors are some products by Gigabyte, MSI, and ECS. At the same time, during our tests there have been no product manufactured by a tier two company. These companies are experiencing not the best times, and some (like EpoX) have left the field of motherboards manufacture at all. That is, the picture appears to be rather sad: if in the nearest future the competition among manufacturers goes down, then we (users) are in for a stagnation (unless Intel breaks out with another revolution, the way it was with LGA775 or with the release of Core 2 Duo processors).
On the other hand, leading manufacturers are continuously expanding their assortment: never before we have seen such a number of various motherboards on a single chipset. Even within one and the same pricing range some companies offer three or more equally good motherboards which differ in only fine points: some offer a bit better package bundle, others - a better package bundle, or a higher overclocking capability. In the end, with a complete lack of tier two manufacturers the buyers' task is increasingly getting difficult.
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Content: |
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Page 1 - Chipsets
Page 2 - Roundup table of motherboards
Page 3 - abit AW9D-MAX, abit AB9 Pro
Page 4 - ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe, ASUS P5W64-WS Pro
Page 5 - ASUS Commando, ASUS P5B Premium Vista Edition
Page - ASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi, ASUS P5B-E
Page 7 - P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe, Striker, P5N32-E SLI, and P5N32-E SLI PLUS
Page 8 - ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium, ASUS P5N-E SLI
Page 9 - Gigabyte 965P-DQ6, Gigabyte 965P-DS4
Page 10 - Gigabyte 965P-DS3, Gigabyte 965G-DS3
Page 11 - Foxconn 975X7AB, Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H
Page 12 - MSI P6N SLI Platinum, MSI P965 Platinum
Page 13 - MSI P965 Neo, MSI P965 Neo2
Page 14 - Intel D975XBX2 (i975X), Intel DG965RYCK
Page 15 - ECS NF650SLIT-A, ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A
Page 16 - ECS PN2 SLI2+, ECS P965T-A
Page 17 - Performance, conclusions
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