Intel P35 Motherboards Roundup Review
Although the P35 chipset in combination with the south bridge ICH9(R) is a little bit better than the previous generation (P965 + ICH8(R)), by the end of 2007 it has taken a firm position in the middle-end and partly in the high-end sector. Intrusion into the high-end sector was quite short-lived, up to the release of the top-end Intel X38 chipset. That is a logical and consistent process, and we can expect its repetition in the new generation of Intel chipsets P45 and X48 which are to be released in the second quarter of 2008.
But until the summer of 2008, P35 and X38 will be the major products. We note it straight off that, because of the novelty and the high price of X38, motherboards on its base seriously lose to products based on P35 in terms of attraction to users. The exception is only those users who need top-end compromise-free systems with two AMD video cards in the Crossfire mode, with a 4-core CPU and DDR3 memory. Therefore, we leave a review of X38-based motherboard for a later time and focus on P35-based products.
A few words on NVIDIA chipsets. Recently, this chip maker has not presented anything new, and among its best products are nForce 680i SLI and 650i SLI. Recently, we found out that motherboards based on 650i SLI are not so attractive as it used to be on the moment of release. Now we are making the same conclusion regarding the nForce 680i SLI as well: the motherboards are not fully compatible to the new generation of 45-nm Intel processors but fully support the PCI Express v2.0 bus. However, one day to the next NVIDIA is going to present the improved version of 680i SLI named 780i SLI. Using an additional chip, motherboards based on 780i SLI will offer support for the PCI-E v2.0, and while developing motherboards the manufacturers will take account of the requirements for operability of Yorkfield and Wolfdale. However, we should not think that fist products will appear on sale before the New Year eve, which is not very good from the financial viewpoint: manufacturers normally omit the peak of Christmas sales. So, we forget about NVIDIA products with one reservation though: if support for SLI is needed right now, the only motherboards are those based on nForce 680i SLI and 650i SLI. The thing is, although P35 and X38 technologically can provide the SLI functioning, NVIDIA disables this feature in its drivers.
Chipsets
Let's talk about Intel P35 and X38 chipsets in a bit more detail. To start with, look at the comparative specifications table.
| |
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI |
NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI IE |
NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI |
NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra |
Intel 975X |
Intel P965 |
Intel P35 |
Intel X38 |
| Market sector |
high-end + SLI |
high-end + SLI |
middle-end + SLI |
middle-end |
high-end + Crossfire |
high-end/ middle-end + Crossfire |
high-end/ middle-end + Crossfire |
high-end + Crossfire |
| Socket |
Intel Socket 775 |
| Supported processors |
Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core), Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Celeron D, Pentium 4, Pentium D 9XX, Pentium D 8XX
|
the same + support for Yorkfield, Wolfdale |
the same + support for Yorkfield, Wolfdale |
| FSB speed (MHz) |
1333 |
1066 |
1333 |
1066 MHz |
1066/ 1333* |
1066/ 1333* |
1333 |
1333/ 1600* |
| Overclocking capability (3dnews.ru) |
Good |
Poor |
n/a |
n/a |
Good |
Very Good |
Excellent |
Excellent* |
| Support for NVIDIA SLI/ AMD-ATI Crossfire |
SLI (2 x16) |
SLI (2 x16) |
SLI (2 x 8) |
- |
Crossfire (2 x 8) |
Crossfire (16 + 4) |
Crossfire (16 + 4) |
Crossfire (16 + 16) |
| Support for the third PCI Express x16 slot |
+ (8 lanes) |
+ (8 lanes) |
- |
- |
+ (2/4 lanes) |
- |
- |
+ (4 lanes) |
| Support for SLI-Ready Memory (MHz) with EPP |
1200 MHz |
n/a |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Support for Intel XMP (Extended Memory Profiles) |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
+ |
| Support for DDR2 memory (MHz) |
800 |
667 |
800 |
800 |
667 |
800 |
1066 |
1066/1200* |
| Support for DDR3 memory (MHz) |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1333 |
1333/1600* |
| Support for PCI Express |
No. of lanes |
46 |
48 |
18 |
18 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
40 |
Q-ty of links |
9 |
11 |
4 |
3 |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
PCI Express configuration |
16, 16, 8, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
16, 16, 8, 1, 1, 1,1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
8, 8, 1, 1
or
16, 1, 1 |
16, 1, 1 |
8, 8, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
16, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
16, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
16, 16, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
| Q-ty of SATA/PATA links |
6/1 |
6/1 |
4/2 |
4/2 |
4/1 |
6/0 |
6/0 |
6/0 |
| Support for RAID |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
| Integrated support for Gigabit Ethernet |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Support for USB |
10 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
10 |
12 |
12 |
| PCI |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
| Sound |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA |
HDA |
HDA |
HDA |
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