May 2006 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 good 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 64 939-pin Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4-F (nForce4)

Current Cost: $72 + $4 for 24-pin Cable
Months on list: 3
Price Change: -$3

Now that we've finally moved to Socket 939 for good, there is really no reason to play "musical motherboards" as we have in the past. The Athlon 64 3500+ may represent a clock speed increase, but the nForce4 still provides an excellent value platform for our 2.2 GHz processor. The nForce4 chipset has support for the newest technologies like PCI Express, and is a high-performance, feature-rich platform. This is especially true, since the Ultra and SLI models are a bit out of our price range, and the standard model does not lose you much in terms of performance or features, with lack of SATA 3.0 Gb/sec. being the main difference. The MSI K8N Neo4-F is a great fit for our guide, and at only $72, it offers a low-cost method of incorporating Socket 939 into our AMD value rig.

The MSI K8N Neo4-F offers a lot for its low price tag, and is actually less expensive than many Socket 754 PCI Express motherboards. This MSI motherboard features the nForce4 chipset and has support for all AMD Athlon 64-based 939-pin processors, including the high-end Athlon 64 FX and X2 models. PCI Express is platform's main advantage, as well as a full 16-bit, 1 GHz HyperTransport up/down connection, and virtually equivalent performance to the nForce4 Ultra. Overclockers are also well represented, as MSI is one of the top board manufacturers, and includes all the standard CPU, Memory, Graphics, and Front Side Bus speed/voltage selections in the system BIOS.

The MSI K8N Neo4-F may be an entry-level board in terms of price, but the selection of onboard hardware is equivalent to many higher priced motherboards. The K8N Neo4-F supports Socket 939 AMD processors, and features dual-channel DDR266/333/400 memory support (4 DIMM sockets - 4GB max) through the Athlon 64's integrated memory controller. Other onboard features include PCIe x16 graphics, 1 x PCIe x4, 1 x PCIe x1, 4 x PCI, 2 x PATA with RAID, 4 x SATA with NVRAID, 1 x Floppy, 10 x USB 2.0, 7.1-channel audio, and integrated Gigabit LAN. This is certainly a nice hardware mix for a "value" gaming system, and the MSI K8N Neo4-F gives us the price, performance and features necessary for our AMD system.

Pentium D Motherboard: MSI 945PL Neo-F

Current Cost: $76 + $4 for 24-pin Cable
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

Now that we have moved to the land of dual core processors, a change of motherboard is required. The previous i915P chipset does not support the Pentium D, and we were forced to move to the Intel 945 or higher range. Unfortunately, there are very few motherboards at this level we would class as "value-oriented", while still having the features and performance we need. Thankfully Intel is determined to get their dual core offerings out to the masses, and the i945PL is the just the vehicle. Like the older i915PL, this is a slightly stripped-down version of the i945P, with the main difference being a maximum 2GB of memory using 2 DIMMs. Otherwise, the high-end features like PCI Express graphics, Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s, and dual channel DDR2 are all present and accounted for.

Basically, the MSI 945PL Neo-F offers everything we need in a motherboard, and even saves us a few dollars compared to many i915P models. It features the Intel 945PL/ICH7 Express chipset, and a full complement of four DDR2 sockets, although only two can be used. The board also supports up an 800 MHz bus and DDR2-400/533 memory. The DDR2 requirement might have been an issue in the past, but with current memory prices, we might actually save some cash going this route. The MSI 945PL Neo-F has a 1 x PCI-Ex16, 1 x PCI-Ex1, 4 x PCI layout, and offers 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s and 1 x PATA for storage requirements. The remaining onboard options include 6 x USB 2.0, AC'97 8-channel audio and Gigabit LAN.

* Note - The i945PL and nForce4 motherboards both utilize a 24-pin power connector, and although these can be run 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.