Price Guides April 2005: Motherboards
by Kristopher Kubicki on April 10, 2005 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
PCIe Intel
We were a little disappointed that VIA's PT894 launch still hasn't produced a retail motherboard. An alternative to Tumwater for Intel SLI would be a neat novelty, but as Intel preps to launch 945/955 in the next couple of weeks (days?), we will surely see some interesting motherboards very soon. Let's also not forget ATI's upcoming Intel SLI motherboard nor NVIDIA's (in)famous nForce4 Intel Edition. We will have some words on Intel nForce4 boards in the very near future, but from some of our preliminary trials, it seems that NVIDIA has a "nowhere near shipping" chipset. If we follow the evolutionary chain of paper launches over the last few years, maybe by this time next year, we will be introducing products shipping in 2007.Of course, Intel surprised us with a launch of Pentium 4 6xx where we could actually buy processors the day that the NDA lifted. This would be a very welcomed surprise for 945/955, and may not be too unrealistic. The second generation Intel DDR motherboards (865/875) shipped before the NDA lift dates. We have already seen the second generation 955X motherboards in some of our testing too. It only makes sense; if Intel starts pouring their dual core processors into the retail channel, the boards had better be there first.
Until then, however, we are still stuck with i915 and i925. 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.
Last month, we highlighted some of the advantages of buying an 865PE motherboard with a Socket 775 adaptor. Since then, the price disparity between PCIe and AGP video cards opened up even more. The 865PE upgrade sounds like another novel idea, but unless you have a really nice AGP video card, we don't recommend it.
Once again, the cheapest 925X boards start at $160, which really doesn't make any sense considering the nearly identical performance of so many 915P boards. With a probable early ship date on Intel's next generation motherboards, if you're going to splurge on such an expensive Intel motherboard, at least get one that is dual core capable. 955X motherboard also support the faster DDR2-667 bus, which just hurts the case for 925X even more.
The Pentium M "saga" continued last month with the unveiling of ASUS's Pentium M to Pentium 4 socket adaptor. Although Anand has heralded Pentium M for years, even he was a little unconvinced as to whether or not Pentium M really has a role on the desktop, even considering the new hack to get the chip to work on cheap desktop motherboards. However, one thing is clear - buying an 855GME board at this point would be a very silly idea. Quoting Anand: "there's no reason to even consider an 855GME motherboard from AOpen or DFI; the ASUS solution is cheaper, better performing and is even a much more stable overclocker."
Of course, we still have the prices on these motherboards for your viewing enjoyment.
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arfan - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
#10 i am agree with u, i don't know why anandtech doesn't review all NF4 Ultra vs VIA K8T890. why we must wait so long ??? Please your comment anand....knitecrow - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
Forget VIA, I am waiting for the ATI athlon64 chipsets myself.Those should be good.
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
I have a few comments... :)"The ASUS A8N-E comes with one of the better feature sets available and also throws in some very good overclocking features for modest overclockers. "
a few words later...
"The Chaintech (VNF4 Ultra) board won’t set any speed records and leaves a little bit to the imagination as far as features, but if you just need a rock solid Socket 939 board, this is the one to have."
These two boards have the exact same featureset: what the nForce4 Ultra provides and nothing more (no Firewire, extra disk controllers, extra network controllers, etc). They also share similar overclocking options.
They're very similar but were described very differently. The ASUS has a better bundle (more cables) and is $30 more expensive.
"We feel that the NVIDIA based boards are a little more stable and readily available at this point"
More readily available, yes. More stable, what?
I haven't seen any problems (and definataly no drivers/BIOS issues) on the few K8T890 available, so I don't know what makes the nForce more stable.
Perhaps AnandTech has some results from in-house reviews, but now comes my final comment...
how come there's so little coverage of AMD PCI-E boards here at AnandTech? No review of the ATI, VIA or SiS chipsets... basically no nForce4 Ultra production boards (only DFI). I have no idea what the problem is, but I have to say I'm disapointed.
One minor correction: "Abit nForce4 Ultra (939) AN8"; the AN8 is an nForce4 non-Ultra board. The only ABIT nForce4 Ultra is the Fatal1ty, so far (they may release an AN8 Ultra).
arfan - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
In Indonesia DFI NF4 Ultra sell $200 and DFI NF4 SLI $220 :((flatblastard - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
I agree #7....better to ditch AGP now, rather than put up with the hassle of instability at the end of a technology lifecycle.PrinceGaz - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
The problem with AGP was that it was a quck fix for a specific problem, which then had extra features bolted onto it along with doubling the speed a few times whenever it needed to be updated, making for a very picky and potentially unstable solution.Remember all those problems with crashed systems and drivers complaining of infinite-loops? If so you'll be glad AGP is on its way out and being replaced with a much better designed and future-proofed replacement.
mongoosesRawesome - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
What was so terrible about AGP? I've never felt there anything inherently wrong with AGP, especially seeing as video cards never even got close to using up its bandwidth.bupkus - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
I'm training myself to both skip the 1st post and to skip anything that begins with "In Sov....."I'm getting better at it.
I do believe it's unfortunate that these Comment posts have become so adolescent. It wastes the time of adults who have a genuine interest in the topic.
For those "first post" addicts, try doing a first post in the forums. You can always be the first poster there. Of course there you'd probably get a vacation from the forums.
AnandThenMan - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
In Soviet Russia, when first person post "first post" he get last request.I can't believe how far VIA has fallen out of favour. Wonder what their market share numbers are lately.
screech - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
@#1:First intelligent poster! (other then #2 of course)