April 2004 Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Motherboards

When selecting a motherboard for our Value Gaming System, the main goal is to find the best overall value, while ensuring you get the most future-proof and high-performance hardware possible. Naturally, these goals are often at odds with each other, and the sticker price is usually the main stumbling block. To find that right mix, we need to ensure that the motherboard is affordable, and includes a nice mix of performance, overclocking and features. Whether you're buying a low-cost gaming system or an ultra high-end powerhouse, the motherboard is still one of the most important components, as it provides the backbone for your entire computer and determines your potential upgrade path.

Athlon XP Motherboard: MSI K7N2 Delta-L (nForce2 Ultra 400)

Current Cost: $73
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

Last month we switched over to the ASUS A7N8X, but due to higher memory prices and some availability issues with the ASUS board (in favor of the single-channel ASUS A7N8X-X) we're back to the MSI K7N2 Delta-L. Money is even tighter than last month, and MSI continues to deliver a product with high-end performance and an excellent feature set, and its retail price simply can't be beat.

The MSI K7N2 Delta-L features the latest NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset revision, which fully supports the 400 MHz front-side bus. Our Athlon XP 2800+ runs on the 333 MHz FSB, but the ability to hit 400 MHz can pay serious overclocking dividends, along with providing a wider upgrade path. Top end Athlon XP models may seem expensive today, but the MSI K7N2 Delta-L's support for the 400 MHz front-side bus ensures that a potential Athlon XP 3200+ upgrade will be a smooth transition.

The MSI K7N2 Delta-L supports 200/266/333/400 MHz AMD processors, and features dual-channel DDR266/333/400 memory support, AGP 8X, ATA133, USB 2.0, 6-channel audio and integrated LAN. MSI has also included a ton of overclocking options on the MSI K7N2 Delta-L, including full FSB selections, DDR memory speed ratios, CPU, DDR and AGP voltage options, and even AGP bus locking. These are options that rival more expensive motherboards, and the MSI K7N2 Delta-L offers a ton of high-end features for those with a slightly lower budget. MSI always provides an excellent combination of low cost and features, and the MSI K7N2 Delta-L is yet another value winner.

* One potential issue with this model is the potential to confuse it with the MSI K7N2-V motherboard, which features an nForce2 400 chipset, but it is not the Ultra 400 revision, and does not support dual-channel DDR. The K7N2-V board is significantly less expensive than the more powerful MSI K7N2 Delta-L, so care should be taken when finding an online deal that looks too good to be true.

Pentium 4 Motherboard: MSI 865PE NEO2-PLS (i865PE)

Current Cost: $77
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

If the AMD budget is tight this month, then by comparison, we're being crushed on the Intel side. Due to this, we're moving to the MSI 865PE NEO2-PLS, which not only saves us a few dollars, but doesn't lose us anything on the performance or features side. This board supports up to 800 MHz Celeron and Pentium 4 (Northwood and Prescott) CPUs, and has an extremely attractive price-performance ratio. MSI naturally leaves out more expensive features such as RAID or Firewire (available in the 865PE NEO2-FIS2R) but it still has the performance, overclocking and onboard features that we need.

The 865PE NEO2-PLS includes the basics of an i865PE motherboard, such as dual-channel DDR266/333/400 and support for up to the 800 MHz front-side bus. This board is a bit higher on the scale than an entry-level product, and includes both Parallel and Serial ATA support (no RAID), 8xUSB 2.0 ports, integrated RealTek 10/100 LAN, and 6-channel audio. The MSI 865PE NEO2-PLS features an excellent overclocking BIOS, complete with frequency in 1 MHz steps, and some pretty hefty CPU, memory and AGP voltage selections. MSI can always be counted on to provide a super deal for our Value Guide, and the 865PE NEO2-PLS helps us squeeze a high-performance i865PE motherboard into a $1K budget.