March Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Motherboard

Intel Motherboard: ASUS P4G8X Deluxe

Current Cost: $227
Months on list: 2
Price Change: +$2

The much anticipated dual-channel DDR solution for the Intel half of the Extreme Guide arrived in time for last month's guide, and there is very little reason not to recommend it again this time around. The Intel E7205 is one powerful desktop platform, and although it's not as mainstream as the upcoming Springdale, its AGP 8X/dual-DDR architecture is a tad faster than even the venerable I850E/PC1066 combo.

ASUS has been a longtime favorite motherboard vendor for Sharky Extreme, and has almost always made its presence felt in the Extreme Guide, The ASUS P4G8X Deluxe is a socket-478 motherboard powered by the Intel E7205 Chipset. The key feature is obviously the dual channel DDR capability, which essentially doubles the memory bandwidth over previous single channel DDR solutions. The increased memory bandwidth helps to satisfy the bandwidth hungry Intel Pentium 4-3.06 GHz CPU.

Certainly a motherboard capable of dual channel DDR isn't enough, so ASUS has packed in a few more features that will enhance the value and performance of the P4G8X Deluxe. It features onboard Serial ATA-RAID, LAN, firewire ports, AGP 8X, and has full support for 400MHz and 533MHz front side bus. Here is a quick rundown of the specs on the motherboard:

Four DIMM sockets supporting up to 4GB of DDR (ECC or non-ECC) memory, two Ultra DMA 100/66/33 ports, two Serial ATA ports, two IEEE 1394 ports (firewire), onboard LAN, and a host of overclocking features from within the BIOS.

There are also some very nice convenience features on the motherboard, including ASUS EZ Flash, which enables you to update your BIOS without having to resort to the old method of using a DOS based utility and a bootable floppy disk. The motherboard also comes with the Post Reporter feature that quite literally tells you about problems and solutions via an onboard IC voice chip. Additionally ASUS includes their Q-fan technology which adjusts fans speeds according to system load to ensure quiet operation. All in all, with this set of features, and reciprocal performance, it's obvious why the ASUS P4G8X Deluxe is the motherboard of choice in the Intel Extreme guide.

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 Motherboard

Current Cost: $155
Months on list: 4
Price Change: +$10

The NVIDIA nForce2 has been the AMD performance leader for months now, and this chipset is once again in the spotlight for this month's Extreme Guide. With very few compelling reasons to drop the previous Extreme pick, we've once again gone back to the Asus A7N8X Deluxe. ASUS has always been one of the first to market with new motherboards, with high performance levels, and with a high standard for quality as well. The dual channel DDR feature of this motherboard increases the available memory bandwidth significantly over previous motherboards that lacked this feature, and to top it all off, this motherboard supports both 266 MHz and 333 MHz FSB Athlon XP processors.

Starting off with the NVIDIA nForce2 chipset, the A7N8X comes with an AGP 8X port, 3 DIMM sockets (for up to 3GB of DDR), and it also has support for DDR400 DIMM. To run in dual channel DDR mode, you must install two sticks of memory into the different colored DIMM sockets. The A7N8X has onboard LAN capability, Serial ATA RAID support, and on-board sound with 5.1 audio support. Additionally, the board has a dual IEEE 1394 port for a pair of firewire devices and for increased connectivity, there is a USB 2.0 controller that allows up to four external USB 2.0 devices to be attached. Flexibility is the key with this motherboard, and it can run RAID mode 0, or 1 with the Serial ATA interface.

System Memory

Corsair XMS 1GB PC-3200 TWINX1024-3200LL (2x512-MB)

Current Cost: $176 X 2 = $352
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

Since both the Intel and AMD Extreme Gaming Systems are using dual-channel DDR motherboards, it is only logical to go for a pair of high quality 512-MB DDR modules. 512MB is sufficient for most users, and although we feel that 1-GB could be slightly overkill, it will benefit the user in the long run, as memory upgrades will never be an issue.

Not surprisingly, we've decided to stand pat with the Corsair brand of memory. It has never let us down, and Corsair memory modules are renowned for quality and performance. To take advantage of the dual channel DDR feature on the motherboards, we're including a pair of Corsair's Low Latency 512MB DDR400 DIMMs (2-2-2-6 timings) with pre-attached heat spreaders in each system.

Understandably, some readers may question why we use DDR-400 modules, especially for the Intel board. The DDR400 modules are generally of higher quality than lower rated modules, and will allow much tighter memory timings at lower-than 400 MHz speeds, and the extra headroom should eliminate the memory as a potential issue while over clocking. Plus, when you're talking top-of-the-line, name brand memory, DDR400 really isn't that much more expensive than similar DDR333 or even DDR266, and we're building a high-end system where achieving ultra-low memory timings is held in high regard.