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Motherboards for All Budgets
May 2006 Loaded Asus boards take top honors on our chart, but low-cost models like Gigabyte's GA-K8N Pro-SLI perform just as well. more
Edited by Eric Dahl
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Rank AMD Motherboard Comments
1
BEST
BUY
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Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
• nVidia nForce4 SLIx16 chip set
• SLI dual-graphics support (16X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, two SATA-150 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support
• Price when ranked: $215
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 83 Very Good
This model packs pretty much every feature you'd ever want into one place, with plenty of options for overclocking. But it ain't cheap.
Test Report
2
COMPARE
Asus A8R-MVP
• ATI Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire chip set
• CrossFire dual-graphics support (8X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, two SATA-150 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support
• Price when ranked: $99
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 83 Very Good
The A8R-MVP is a very solid motherboard for building basic systems. Though it lacks some of the features of other boards, it's also significantly cheaper.
Test Report
3
COMPARE
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
• nVidia nForce4 SLI chip set
• SLI dual-graphics support (8X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support
• Price when ranked: $105
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 81 Very Good
The GA-K8N Pro-SLI has a few quirks (such as the poor placement of the SATA sockets), but it is a fully-featured motherboard with a number of features that can make life easier if you like to tweak your system for maximum performance.
Test Report
4
COMPARE
DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR
• ATI Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire chip set
• CrossFire dual-graphics support (8X)
• Eight SATA-150 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support
• Price when ranked: $169
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 79 Good
A funky motherboard with a number of nice touches, the UT RDX200 CF-DR could form the core of a cool gaming system, but it lacks a number of important features.
Test Report
5
COMPARE
EVGA nForce4 SLI-AMD
• nVidia nForce4 SLI chip set
• SLI dual-graphics support (8X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support
• Price when ranked: $129
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 79 Good
The nForce4 SLI-AMD is a solid, reasonably priced motherboard, but regrettably it omits some features found as standard on others (such as FireWire and digital audio)
Test Report
Rank Intel Motherboard Comments
1
BEST
BUY
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Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe
• nVidia nForce4 SLIx16 chip set
• SLI dual-graphics support (16X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, two SATA-150 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 support
• Price when ranked: $200
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 83 Very Good
The P5N32-SLI includes an innovative heat-pipe cooling system. The placement of the SATA ports right behind the second graphics card port may be a problem if you want to build a power system containing several graphics cards and hard drives.
Test Report
2
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Gigabyte GA-G1975X
• Intel 975X Express chip set
• CrossFire dual-graphics support (8X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, two PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10 support
• Price when ranked: $229
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 81 Very Good
The unusual four-fan cooling system of the GA-G1975X is an interesting approach to the problem of getting heat away from the motherboard, but it's only partly successful: It is a little noisy, and the bright blue LEDs that illuminate it may not appeal to all.
Test Report
3
COMPARE
Abit AW8-Max
• Intel 955X Express chip set
• No dual-graphics support
• Six SATA-300 ports, one PATA port
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10 support
• Price when ranked: $230
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 80 Very Good
The AW8-Max has plenty of features, and the Guru software and optional Guru clock help to keep an eye on what's going on inside the case. But all these features add up to one of the most expensive motherboards we looked at.
Test Report
4
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Intel D975XBX
• Intel 975X Express chip set
• CrossFire dual-graphics support (8X)
• Four SATA-300 ports, one PATA port
• RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support
• Price when ranked: $250
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 80 Very Good
Not surprisingly, Intel knows how to design a clean, easy to configure motherboard. But this model had slightly lower performance scores than did others that used the same CPU and memory.
Test Report
5
COMPARE
Foxconn 955X7AA
• Intel 955X Express chip set
• No dual-graphics support
• Four SATA-300 ports, four SATA-150 ports, three PATA ports
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10 support
• Price when ranked: $179
• Full Specs
• Check latest prices PCW Rating: 79 Good
The three RAID controllers, dual gigabit ethernet adapters and three PCI and PCI Express X1 slots would make this a good choice for the foundations of a server or video editing system.
Test Report