January 2003 High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Pentium 4 Motherboard: ASUS P4PE/L

Current Cost: $120
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$1

For our Pentium 4 motherboard, we're looking at a combination of stability, performance, features, and finding a stable home for our AGP 8X 3D video card. Basically, we're sticking with an Intel AGP 4X chipset instead of some of the newer AGP 8X Pentium 4 motherboards, as there have been isolated issues, and even a single dissatisfied reader is one too many. This doesn't mean we're scrimping in the performance, overclocking or features department, as our selection of the Intel 845PE should attest. This is the fastest single-channel DDR chipset Intel has ever produced, and along with the support for DDR333 memory and Hyperthreading, there have been other memory timing enhancements as well. Our selection this month is the ASUS P4PE/L, an extremely impressive i845PE motherboard with all the fixings.

The ASUS P4PE/L is a near-perfect motherboard for performance users. It starts with a superb physical design, with literally no issues to be found during installation or while adding peripherals. The board also performs right up there with the best, and is one of the fastest DDR333 boards we've reviewed. The system BIOS is a pleasure to use, and along with full access to FSB overclocking, CPU core voltage, DDR voltage and AGP voltage, there is also an option to lock the AGP/PCI dividers at standard 66/33 MHz levels. This gives it the final nod as a true overclocker's board and we highly recommend this product for new system buys. We are choosing the basic model with standard integrated features, but for a few bucks more, you can get Serial ATA RAID and Firewire options as well.

Athlon XP Motherboard: A7N8X nForce2 Motherboard

Current Cost: $119
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

For our AMD motherboard selection, the NVIDIA nForce2 is the natural choice, and the ASUS A7N8X is one of the best in the business. The A7N8X features an AGP 8X port, 3 DIMM sockets (for up to 3GB of DDR), with support for dual-channel DDR400. The A7N8X basic model includes onboard LAN and audio, along with optional (if you want to pay more for the Deluxe) Serial ATA RAID and Firewire support. Performance is definitely on the high-end, and the ASUS quality and included features (Q-Fan, CPU Protection) make the A7N8X a real winner.