ExtremeTech Video
SLIDESHOW (11)
Today, we're looking at four mainstream motherboards. While some are suitable for overclocking, that's not the focus of this article. We're taking a look at these with an eye towards the majority of users who may never tweak a clock multiplier or a voltage setting. Note that all these boards—even the ones really not well suited for overclocking—allow you to tweak a variety of settings. But what seemed more interesting to me was how these went into a case, where the connectors were located, and how it all hangs together in a normal system build.
Of course, I also took a look at performance, running a subset of our standard benchmark suite. But in reality, the performance differences are so minor as to not be a major differentiator.
Of the four boards, three use the Intel P965 chipset, while one uses the G965 (with integrated graphics). Two are RAID capable, shipping with Intel's ICH8R I/O controller hub, while two ship with the standard ICH8 and leave out RAID support. All but one of the boards support the latest Intel quad-core desktop processors, while the lowest-cost board only supports Core 2 Duo (and earlier CPUs.) Prices range from $110 to over $200, with the priciest board offering the richest set of features. Interestingly, even the cheapest board now offers eSATA capability, for fast external storage, plus integrated multichannel HD audio. Let's take a look at our contenders. Continued...
