December High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Pentium 4 Motherboard: ASUS P4C800 Deluxe

Current Cost: $166
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

The Intel motherboard side is a tough nut to crack, as the price of high-end i875P boards had us recommending an i865PE solution to fit our budgetary and feature requirements. This month we're taking the bull by the horns, and nabbing the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe. This motherboard includes all the basic i875P features such as dual-channel DDR400, Hyper-Threading, an 800 MHz FSB, and PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology), thus giving overall performance a boost and providing a superb base for our Pentium 4-3.2 GHz processor.

The ASUS P4C800 Deluxe also adds in a few onboard extras, such as GigaBit LAN, Multi-RAID for ATA133 & Serial ATA (max 2 ATA-133 and 2 SATA HD ports), 6-channel digital audio, Firewire, and a super overclocking BIOS. The P4C800 Deluxe is a definite high-end piece of hardware, and although it looks similar to the ASUS P4P800 Deluxe (i865PE), we're going top-end this time out, and paying the extra for the highest performance and to make the best use of our 3.2 GHz processor and dual-channel DDR400.

Athlon XP Motherboard: ASUS K8V Deluxe

Current Cost: $135
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$7

Despite a relative dearth of options for Athlon 64 motherboards currently on the market, there are a few worthy of inclusion in our guide. The ASUS K8V Deluxe is one of them, and is a top pick for AMD's new 754-pin configuration. The K8V Deluxe remains our top pick again this month, and its excellent price and rich feature set put it ahead of the high-end motherboard competition.

The K8V Deluxe uses the VIA K8T800 chipset and has a wealth of onboard features. The board supports AMD's new HyperTransport link between integrated circuits, as well as dual SATA RAID, Firewire, 6-channel audio, USB 2.0, and a built-in 3COM Gigabit LAN. As usual, ASUS includes a number of BIOS tweaks and overclocking options to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of your system.