July 2005 High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Intel Motherboard: ASUS P5ND2-SLI Deluxe

Current Cost: $210
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

Following the lead of the Extreme Guide, we decided to move our Intel platform over to the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset this month. While the nForce4 has been a favorite among AMD enthusiasts for quite some time now, it has only recently become available for Intel processors. Aside from impressive support for dual PCI Express video cards, the nForce4 chipset also supports dual-channel DDR2, PCI Express graphics and peripheral support, a 1066MHz FSB, dual core processor compatibility, SATA2, and EM64T, among other things. From a host of Intel nForce4 SLI boards, we chose to go with the ASUS P5ND2-SLI Deluxe due to its wealth of high-end features and quality construction.

ASUS is a longtime favorite among enthusiasts, and with good reason; their commitment to quality and performance is virtually unmatched in this industry. The P5ND2-SLI Deluxe maintains this level of quality, and is one of the most feature rich and highest performing nForce4-based motherboards currently on the market. In addition to all the regular nForce4 SLI features, the board also has support for SATA2, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and 8-channel audio, not to mention all the peripheral ports you could ever need. Currently priced at $210, this motherboard certainly doesn't come cheap, but with support for dual PCI Express video cards, dual core processors, and SATA2 support, it makes a worthwhile addition to our Intel system.

AMD Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR

Current Cost: $175
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$4

The nForce4 SLI chipset from NVIDIA is arguably the most powerful and feature rich chipset currently available for AMD motherboards. The nForce4 SLI chipset has support for the latest and greatest technologies including SATA2/NCQ, PCI Express, Gigabit LAN, dual-channel DDR, NVIDIA Firewall, and Socket 939 processors, but the single most compelling feature is its ability to handle dual PCI Express graphics cards.

This month we are sticking with the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR motherboard as it is top-of-the-line in terms of performance, features and overclocking. DFI has been releasing some impressive products of late, with some of the most interesting color schemes and layouts out of all nForce4 boards we've seen. In fact, we like the DFI board so much that it also makes an appearance in our Extreme Buyer's Guide. This board also has support for dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual-channel DDR, and 8-channel audio, SATA2, not to mention a wide range of peripheral ports.

Like the ASUS P5ND2-SLI Deluxe we included on the Intel side of the fence this month, the most impressive feature of this board is its support for dual PCI Express 16x video cards. While it is unfortunate that our budget does not allow two PCIe cards in an SLI configuration this month, having the extra slot available means that there is a quick and easy upgrade path should the need ever arise. The motherboard is priced at approximately $175, so we have no qualms about including it from a budgetary standpoint either. Additional goodies such as rounded IDE cables, a FrontX panel, a PC Transpo carrying strap, and component and cable UV sensitivity are just a few of the items that are simply icing on the cake for an excellent board.