Price Guides, February 2005: Motherboards

PCIe Intel

Intel users, unfortunately, don't get as many options in motherboards like the AMD guys this month. VIA's PT894 launch a few days ago indicated the chipset performed fairly similarly to Intel's 915P with the additional feature of SLI, but it might be too little, too late. Don't be surprised if Intel announces their next generation chipset before VIA's solution even hits shelves. However, with evidence suggesting that Intel might weigh more of its focus on Tier 1 motherboard manufacturers in 2005, PTxxx might be the only chipset that we see on motherboards from some of the better overclocking and feature manufacturers.

Prices being what they are, you are certainly much better off buying a Socket 775 solution over a Socket 478 solution these days. The older 865/875 motherboards are approaching their two-year anniversary – and unless you really need AGP support, you will pay more for a Socket 478 processor. Even this argument is somewhat flawed as Abit and MSI both have reasonably inexpensive Socket 775 motherboards with 865PE northbridges (and AGP).

Several manufacturers are still pursuing the lost cause that is 925X/E, so they are at least worth mentioning this time around. The cheapest 925X boards start at $160, which really doesn't make any sense, considering the nearly identical performance of so many 915P boards.

If you really need a Pentium 4 motherboard, there are a few options that we recommend highly. The EPoX EP-5EPA+ [RTPE: EP-5EPA+] won a silver award in our 915P motherboard roundup several months ago, but it still packs the mightiest performance per dollar today. However, the excellent ASUS P5GD1 (non-deluxe) also has some great features plus the flexibility of DDR1 memory.

If we look at the P5GD1 trend over the last few months, we see that the motherboard has clearly made some progress in dipping to an affordable level. Most other 915 motherboards have varied very little since September – which is unfortunate for the consumer. MSI's Neo2 Platinum [RTPE: MS-7028-030] also offers a solid feature set albeit at a higher price than the alternatives.