February 2004 High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Intel Motherboard: ASUS P4C800 Deluxe

Current Cost: $167
Months on list: 3
Price Change: +$7

The Intel i875P chipset is the cream of the crop for high-performance Pentium 4 motherboards, so it's no surprise we've included one for the third guide in a row. The ASUS P4C800 Deluxe is a killer high-end board, and includes all the basic i875P amenities such as Hyper-Threading, 800MHz FSB support, PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology), and dual-channel DDR400 memory, making it the perfect companion to the Pentium 4-3.4GHz processor.

The Deluxe version of the P4C800 includes additional onboard features 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, just to name a few. It is quite similar to the i865PE-based P4P800 Deluxe, but the P4C800 Deluxe features the performance enhanced i875P chipset, and with a slightly higher price tag. However, this is the high end guide and getting every last once of performance is the name of the game, even if it means spending a few extra dollars. Even with a slight price increase this month, the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe is quite affordable for a high-end i875P board, and gives us a bit of elbow room with our budget.

AMD Motherboard: ASUS K8V Deluxe

Current Cost: $139
Months on list: 4
Price Change: +$4

New AMD Athlon 64 motherboards are springing up across the price/performance spectrum, but we're sticking with the same board we have been recommending since the Athlon 64's inception. The ASUS K8V Deluxe is one high-performance, feature rich motherboard, and with a super price to boot, is one of the top buys currently on the market. The ASUS K8V Deluxe includes many of the same extras that you would expect to find on an ASUS high-end board, but the low retail price continues to amaze.

The K8V Deluxe uses the VIA K8T800 chipset, which is currently the fastest Socket 754 platform, and gives a nice performance boost with its fully 16-bit, 1.6 GHz Hyper8 HyperTransport link. The board supports dual Multi-RAID for ATA133 & Serial ATA (max 2 ATA-133 and 2 SATA HD ports), 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.