Price Guides April 2004: CPU and Motherboards

NVIDIA Motherboards

Ever since AMD started making its push into 64-bit, the market for Athlon XP motherboards has become more lethargic than we have seen in the last year. Just about everything has been seen on motherboard configurations that there is to be seen and manufacturers have to work hard to stand out from the crowd anymore. Two of those manufacturers, in particular, have our attention and interest right now.

The top pick motherboard for nForce chipsets would have to be the DFI nForce2 Ultra 400 NFII Ultra Infinity. With NVIDIA's SoundStorm (optical/digital outputs), and a plethora of bundled accessories such as a customizable front panel (audio, firewire, USB) this package delivers great value and all of the small touches you might look for an overclocking board like power and reset momentary switches right on the board. Our personal favorite, the motherboard also comes with an integrated SI3114 4-Port SATA controller. For added good measure, the board currently goes for less than $94, shipped.

The second favorite is an oldie but goodie. The Abit NF7-S Rev. 2 has been around for about a year in one form or another and still holds solid value for overclocking and stability. Paired with a Barton 2500+ or a Mobile Athlon you can't go wrong for a $90 motherboard. Not to mention it has just about every feature as the NFII Infinity and great design features (In fact the NFII Infinity and the NF7-S were designed by the same guy).

Both boards mentioned here are able to take advantage of the unlocked multiplier of the Mobile Bartons, boost core voltage, and tweak the FSB to get the most out of your chip so the decision really comes down to your personal preferences and wether or not a $3 difference is really a difference at all to you.

What everyone really wants to know is "do I wait for Socket 939 on June 1st?" Socket 939 will be a great performer, but with prices as cheap as they are now waiting another 5 weeks for first revision boards is probably not the best idea. If you feel you need the PCI Express option on a first generation 939 motherboard then the wait might be worth it. Just consider Radeon X800 and GeForce 6800 both have some life left in AGP for the time being.

Concerning nForce3 250: do not wait for it unless you feel you need the feature set (extra SATA, gigE PHY, PCI Lock). Wesley's preview of the latest nForce3 board from MSI was very favorable, but performance wise not much better than nForce3 150 (check out this week's price delta on the awesome Chaintech ZNF3-150!). Paying the premium for new technology does not make sense just yet.