Price Guides September 2004: CPU and Motherboards

Intel Motherboards

When a single manufacturer produces a matching processor and chipset, compatibility and performance are two keywords that come to mind. Intel has been in this position for quite some time and has continued to do a great job in this area.

With Socket 775 boards hitting the market in full force, many sporting PCIe and DDR2 in addition to all the regular bells and whistles, it's easy to jump right on board without much thought. While these features will definitely become the standard in the near future, they do not present any compelling reasons to change your motherboard, processor and RAM all in one shot. Unless you are building a new system, socket 478 is more than enough, along with DDR1, to make for a very nice upgrade. Even in the case of building a new system, it's not entirely necessary to make the jump just yet, since overall system performance does not change much between the two "generations" of technology.

In the meantime, Abit's IC7-G 875P motherboard continues to hold the lead for Intel motherboard choices. At a relatively low price-point, the IC7-G comes fully loaded with optical SPDIF connections, SATA, GB lan, firewire, and a nice board layout that should prevent many cable routing issues that enthusiasts and system builders have come to despise. Of course, being an Abit board, the IC7-G is one of the best FSB overclockers that Anandtech has ever tested for the Intel platform.