April Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Motherboards

When selecting a motherboard for our Value Gaming System, it is important 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 combination, the motherboard needs to be affordable, but also have 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 future upgrade path.

Athlon 64 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8NS (nForce3 250)

Current Cost: $69
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

The Athlon 64 3400+ did not require a change to our platform, but this time we're looking to upgrade motherboards to an nForce3 250 base. Retail prices have really come down over the past few months, and at only $69, the Gigabyte GA-K8NS offers a lot of value and performance for the Socket 754 market. The Gigabyte GA-K8NS motherboard offers a great combination of price and performance, and the presence of bus clock limiters makes it a better overclocking choice than the K8T800 we used last month. This motherboard is the little brother to the higher-end Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro, but keeps many of the same features and onboard options.

The Gigabyte GA-K8NS features the powerful nForce3 250 chipset, which is one of the best chipsets for Socket 754 systems, and the very top choice in our price range. This chipset offers a full 16-bit, 800 MHz HyperTransport up/down connection, which is a noted upgrade over the older nForce3 150 chipset, and easily on par with the K8T800. The System BIOS is also very nice for this range, and overclockers will be happy with the clock speed, voltage and bus speed/locking options.

The Gigabyte GA-K8NS is designed for Socket 754 AMD processors, and features single-channel DDR266/333/400 memory support (3x1-GB max) through the Athlon 64's integrated memory controller. Other onboard features include AGP 8X, 2 x PATA, 2 x SATA, SATA RAID 0/1, 6 x USB 2.0, 8-channel audio, and integrated 10/100 LAN. This board also supports NVIDIA Firewall, which protects your PC from intruders by filtering unauthorized traffic.

Gigabyte also hasn't skimped on the overclocking options, as the GA-K8NS includes a full range of FSB selections, along with CPU, DDR, AGP, and HT/chipset voltage options. This is supplemented with an AGP bus clock setting, which can either lock the bus at 66 MHz, or jack it up for faster game framerates. The Gigabyte GA-K8NS allows us to include a high-end nForce3 250 motherboard in the guide, without losing anything on the overclocking or performance ends.

Pentium 4 Motherboard: ASUS P5GPL (i915PL)

Current Cost: $92 + $4 for 24-pin Cable
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

When we moved to the LGA 775 platform, we not only upgraded the processor, but chose a new motherboard as well. The Intel 915 chipset line is the best option for our system, especially as the 925X/XE boards are very expensive and rely on higher-priced DDR2 memory. Many i915-based motherboards can be found with either DDR or DDR2 memory support, and the i915/DDR combination is actually quite affordable, especially when taking into consideration the lower prices of the LGA775 Pentium 4 processors. This remains a key element in our overall strategy for the Intel system, as the motherboard is slightly more expensive than an equivalent i865PE model, but the LGA775 and PCI Express format allows us to get more value out of the processor and video card components.

The ASUS P5GPL motherboard is based on the new i915PL chipset, which is essentially a 915P with some limitations. One of them is the absence of HD audio, which is an option you won't find on low-cost motherboards anyway. The other important difference is the limit of one DDR module per channel, which means than we can really only use one set of dual-channel DDR400 modules. For our purposes and price range, the i915PL is really no different than the i915P, and we're able to get a quality ASUS motherboard into the bargain. The ASUS P5GPL is based on the 915PL/ICH6 chipset, which supports Intel LGA775 processors (533/800 MHz), and features 4 DDR sockets with dual-channel DDR333/400 support (2GB max). To counter the inherent limits of the 915PL chipset, ASUS includes their Hyper Path2 feature, which shortens the latency time between the CPU and memory and improves memory performance.

The ASUS P5GPL has a 1x PCI-Ex16, 3x PCI-Ex1, 3x PCI layout, without any sort of AGP video option at all. As with the newer Intel-based products, the ASUS P5GPL is a Serial ATA board, with four SATA ports and only a single PATA connector. The remaining onboard options are also high-end, with 8 x USB 2.0, Realtek ALC850 8-channel audio and Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LAN (with ASUS AI Net 2).

ASUS is the name in system overclocking and the P5GPL has a very robust System BIOS, complete with a range of processor frequency selections (AI Overclocking, CPU Lock Free, full FSB selections) and a variety of voltage controls (CPU, DDR & PCIe). This is supplemented with some nice features such as adjustable FSB/DDR ratios and fixed/lockable PCI/PCI-E frequencies.

* Note - The new LGA 775 motherboards utilize a 24-pin power connector, and although these can be run safely with a standard 20-pin unit, we recommend purchasing a basic 20-pin to 24-pin adapter cable ($4) for the PSU. We have used these in system testing with no problems whatsoever, and many 24-pin compatible PSU units ship with them.