November 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 insure that the motherboard is affordable, but also includes a nice mix of performance, overclocking, and onboard 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 64 Motherboard: MSI K8T Neo-FSR (K8T800)

Current Cost: $79
Months on list: 3
Price Change: -$3

The upgrade to the Athlon 64 3200+ may have bought us 200 MHz in extra performance, but the platform stayed the same. When we moved to Socket 754, MSI came to the rescue with their excellent K8T Neo-FSR and we're not looking a gift horse in the mouth. This motherboard offers the nice combination of price and performance, and makes a great home for our 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 processor. The K8T Neo-FSR is the little brother to the high-end K8T Neo-FIS2R, but maintains many of the features and is a perfect match for our value system. Going this route was the natural choice, as MSI continues to deliver motherboards with high-end performance, an excellent feature set, and at a retail price that fits our budget.

The MSI K8T Neo-FSR is powered by the VIA K8T800 chipset, which is a top choice for Socket 754 performance and features. This chipset offers a full 16-bit, 800 MHz HyperTransport connection and really keeps the CPU and system bus performance levels humming along. The System BIOS is another high point of this MSI board, and overclockers will be pleased with the features and options present. The MSI K8T Neo-FSR also offers a wide upgrade path, with CPU support up to the Athlon 64 3700+.

The MSI K8T Neo-FSR is designed for Socket 754 AMD processors, and features single-channel DDR266/333/400 memory support through the Athlon 64's integrated memory controller. Other onboard features include AGP 8X, Parallel ATA133, 8 x USB 2.0, 6-channel audio, integrated Gigabit LAN, and 2 x SATA. This is also a CoreCell board, and supports Speedster (overclocking), PowerPro (powersaving), LifePro (constant temp control, smart FAN) and BuzzFree (noise management) features.

MSI has also included a lot of overclocking options on the MSI K8T Neo-FSR, including full FSB selections, and CPU, DDR and AGP voltage options. There is also a Dynamic Overclocking feature, which offers a military like progression (Captain-Colonel-General) up the chart from nominal to higher-end overclocks. With the K8T Neo-FSR, MSI has created a motherboard that rivals more expensive models, with a ton of high-end features for those on a slightly lower budget.

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

Current Cost: $80
Months on list: 3
Price Change: +$1

The Pentium 4-3.0E GHz remains the same as last month, so it's not really useful to switch the motherboard, especially for one that is as good a deal. The i865PE chipset is the obvious choice for a value system, as it has the necessary high-end performance and features for the class. The MSI 865PE NEO2-PFS Platinum is a great example, and is a newer revision of their 865PE line, offering higher compatibility with Pentium 4 Prescott CPUs. This board supports up to 800 MHz Celeron and Pentium 4 (Northwood and Prescott) processors, and maintains an extremely nice price-performance ratio. MSI naturally leaves out more expensive features such as RAID or Firewire (available in the 865PE NEO2-PFISR) but it still has the performance, overclocking and onboard features our value system needs.

The 865PE NEO2-PFS Platinum has all of the base features of an i865PE motherboard, including dual-channel DDR266/333/400 and support for up to 800 MHz Pentium 4 Northwood and Prescott processors. This MSI motherboard ranks a bit higher on the scale than a basic entry-level product, and features both 4 x Parallel and 2 x Serial ATA support (no RAID), 8xUSB 2.0 ports, integrated RealTek Gigabit LAN, and 6-channel audio.

The MSI 865PE NEO2-PFS Platinum also includes an excellent overclocking BIOS, complete with frequency control 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-PFS Platinum simply improves on the success of the 865PE NEO2-PLS before it.