Motherboard Products:
Intel mATX
The Intel mATX motherboard suppliers have been slow to ramp up production of boards supporting the Core 2 Duo processors. We just recently received several motherboards in this category based upon the new Intel G965/Q965 chipsets that are now in testing. We are also expecting a few Intel 946GZ based boards early next year that will offer full support for the upcoming Intel E4xx series of Core 2 Duo processors with an 800MHz front side bus. We also hope to see SIS chipsets in this sector by early next year that will provide some additional competition to the VIA chipsets in the budget market.
The Biostar P4M890-M7 PCI-E motherboard is based on the VIA P4M890 and VT8237R+ chipsets featuring the UniChrome Pro onboard graphics capability. The board offers support for 4GB of DDR2-400/533 memory, two Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s ports, a single ATA133 IDE connector, Realtek ALC658 audio, and Fast Ethernet 10/100 support via the Realtek RTL 8201CL. This uATX based motherboard offers good performance and is value priced at $49.
The Foxconn G9657MA motherboard is a full featured product that is based on the Intel G965 and ICH8 chipsets. The board features a single x16 PCI Express slot, one x1 PCI-Express slot, and two PCI slots. There are four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, a single ATA133 IDE connector, and one e-SATA 3Gb/s port via a J-Micron chipset. HD Audio is provided courtesy of the Realtek ALC883, and Gigabit Ethernet supplied by the Marvell 88E8056 chipset. So far, just about all of the G965 motherboards perform the same and we are awaiting a major video driver update from Intel before publishing results. The current X3000 video performance is on par with the GMA-950 engine used in the 945G chipsets, but this should change for the better with the next driver release.
AMD Mini-ITX
One of the most interesting motherboards we have seen in the labs recently is the Albatron KI51PV-754 motherboard. We found the performance of this motherboard to be very good overall. The potential market for this system spans from vehicle installations to HTPC to medical/industrial systems. If you are looking for a Mini-ITX board we suggest you seriously consider this offering from Albatron.
The board is based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 and nForce 430 chipsets. It supports current socket 754 processors and has a single memory slot for DDR333/400 memory. Audio is provided by the Realtek ALC655 and the board features a Marvell 88E3016 10/100 Fast Ethernet PHY and a Marvel 88E8055 Gigabit LAN chipset. There are four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, two ATA133 ports, and a single PCI slot. The board has both a DVI and D-SUB output ports and can support HDTV (component video) output capability via an optional cable for the onboard header.
Power Supplies
We have not looked at power supplies in awhile but have recently received several interesting and high quality units from OCZ Technology, Corsair, and Ultra Products among others. Hopefully, we will be able provide some interesting impressions of these units after we complete our motherboard roundups this month.
One unit that caught our eye was the Ultra Products X-Finity 800 Watt power supply. The unit has a very nice black anodized aluminum finish and is based on the Andyson server line. The unit is heavy, well constructed, features Ultra's After Spin Technology and is supplied with their FlexForce cable design. We found the cable design to be an immense help in ridding our test bed unit of power supply cable clutter. The cables were easily routed under the motherboard and along the drive bays. While we are not fans of the titanium color, we are fans of the cabling system. Hopefully the unit's performance and quality lives up to its appearance.
Final Remarks
In the upcoming weeks we will also have a workstation motherboard roundup featuring the AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590SLI and Intel 975X chipsets, HTPC motherboard roundup, and some interesting new product reviews. This concludes our final article in this series, and we will take a look at some interesting memory technologies and provide an update of various new product releases shortly.
Intel mATX
The Intel mATX motherboard suppliers have been slow to ramp up production of boards supporting the Core 2 Duo processors. We just recently received several motherboards in this category based upon the new Intel G965/Q965 chipsets that are now in testing. We are also expecting a few Intel 946GZ based boards early next year that will offer full support for the upcoming Intel E4xx series of Core 2 Duo processors with an 800MHz front side bus. We also hope to see SIS chipsets in this sector by early next year that will provide some additional competition to the VIA chipsets in the budget market.
The Biostar P4M890-M7 PCI-E motherboard is based on the VIA P4M890 and VT8237R+ chipsets featuring the UniChrome Pro onboard graphics capability. The board offers support for 4GB of DDR2-400/533 memory, two Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s ports, a single ATA133 IDE connector, Realtek ALC658 audio, and Fast Ethernet 10/100 support via the Realtek RTL 8201CL. This uATX based motherboard offers good performance and is value priced at $49.
The Foxconn G9657MA motherboard is a full featured product that is based on the Intel G965 and ICH8 chipsets. The board features a single x16 PCI Express slot, one x1 PCI-Express slot, and two PCI slots. There are four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, a single ATA133 IDE connector, and one e-SATA 3Gb/s port via a J-Micron chipset. HD Audio is provided courtesy of the Realtek ALC883, and Gigabit Ethernet supplied by the Marvell 88E8056 chipset. So far, just about all of the G965 motherboards perform the same and we are awaiting a major video driver update from Intel before publishing results. The current X3000 video performance is on par with the GMA-950 engine used in the 945G chipsets, but this should change for the better with the next driver release.
AMD Mini-ITX
One of the most interesting motherboards we have seen in the labs recently is the Albatron KI51PV-754 motherboard. We found the performance of this motherboard to be very good overall. The potential market for this system spans from vehicle installations to HTPC to medical/industrial systems. If you are looking for a Mini-ITX board we suggest you seriously consider this offering from Albatron.
The board is based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 and nForce 430 chipsets. It supports current socket 754 processors and has a single memory slot for DDR333/400 memory. Audio is provided by the Realtek ALC655 and the board features a Marvell 88E3016 10/100 Fast Ethernet PHY and a Marvel 88E8055 Gigabit LAN chipset. There are four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, two ATA133 ports, and a single PCI slot. The board has both a DVI and D-SUB output ports and can support HDTV (component video) output capability via an optional cable for the onboard header.
Power Supplies
We have not looked at power supplies in awhile but have recently received several interesting and high quality units from OCZ Technology, Corsair, and Ultra Products among others. Hopefully, we will be able provide some interesting impressions of these units after we complete our motherboard roundups this month.
One unit that caught our eye was the Ultra Products X-Finity 800 Watt power supply. The unit has a very nice black anodized aluminum finish and is based on the Andyson server line. The unit is heavy, well constructed, features Ultra's After Spin Technology and is supplied with their FlexForce cable design. We found the cable design to be an immense help in ridding our test bed unit of power supply cable clutter. The cables were easily routed under the motherboard and along the drive bays. While we are not fans of the titanium color, we are fans of the cabling system. Hopefully the unit's performance and quality lives up to its appearance.
Final Remarks
In the upcoming weeks we will also have a workstation motherboard roundup featuring the AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590SLI and Intel 975X chipsets, HTPC motherboard roundup, and some interesting new product reviews. This concludes our final article in this series, and we will take a look at some interesting memory technologies and provide an update of various new product releases shortly.
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19 Comments
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LoneWolf15 - Monday, December 4, 2006 - link
...and not a single one of them with an onboard DVI port. The Biostar NF61S MicroAM2 certainly has enough space to have one right above the serial/VGA ports.Is there a limitation of nForce 6100/6150 that I don't know of? I thought one of the primary uses for an mATX system was for HTPC use. A DVI port ought to be standard now, and an HDMI port should be considered. Too bad; the miniITX board was the only one that did DVI.
SignalPST - Monday, December 4, 2006 - link
Great Preview! I'm eagerly looking forward to the motherboard and powersupply reviews in the upcomming weeks. Exciting news indeed, thanks AnandTech, keep up the good work!ikjadoon - Sunday, December 3, 2006 - link
You have AMD mATX boards and don't have any 6150/430 boards??? It's like having a 570 Ultra instead of the 590 SLi. Come on, what about the Abit NF-M2 nView?~Ibrahim~
jonp - Sunday, December 3, 2006 - link
Have you seen the price for this motherboard? Price must be the inverse of size.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...170-012&CMP=OTC-Froogle">Newegg page.
$309.99! When less truly is MORE!!! I think you can skip the review.
mino - Sunday, December 3, 2006 - link
Maybe you should take into account the low-volume of ITX market and the uniques position this board has in it. That borad is prety much the most ultimate solution for ITX freaks. Consider it competes with VIA C3!!! boards at $200 prices...MadAd - Monday, December 4, 2006 - link
Not really the same comparison, C3 boards have the CPU embedded and included in the price.mino - Monday, December 4, 2006 - link
Those CPU's are of $20 price and -$50 worth (compared to $40 Semprons..), to NOT have C3 included is worth paying for IMHO...yyrkoon - Sunday, December 3, 2006 - link
Well, as the last reviewr said on newegg, this is a specialty board, made for cars, and travel trailers etc. However, this board would also fill the bill, on making a small form factor storage box as seen http://www.mashie.org/casemods/udat1.html">here (udat mod, by mashie).However, I'd also have to agree with the first reviewer on newegg, in that, this board would have been better suited with a s939 CPU (or better). Also, it would have been much nicer if they replaced the PCI slot, with a PCI-E 4x physical slot (or greater), and added another DDR slot. Using a PCI bus system on this system is very limited, in that, IF you do use this board for a storage system, you would be limited to around 123MB/s (and if I remember correctly this system has a fast ethernet, and GbE interface), running RAID in a system with this board would give terrible results.
As far as the price, most Mini-ITX boards have been more expencive than PC based boards, however, they also included a CPU soldered onto the board, but some "specialty" boards simular to this also existed.
MadAd - Monday, December 4, 2006 - link
I agree that an s939 would have been better since theres not a lot of 754 inventory left in channels however there is no choice when choosing PCI over PCIe, carpc modders are using the slot for either a decent sound card (most mITX sound is AC97), wi-fi cards or occasionally pci graphics.Only gfx is in great supply on PCIe currently so that would be a problem if we couldnt use our old pci with little or no availability of pcie parts.
yyrkoon - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
You can find PCI-E RAID controllers, and GbE controllers in abundance. Wi-Fi, perhaps not, but it should not be long before they start becoming available. As for the sound, why anyone would choose to use a computer for a sound system, over a good car audio solution is beyond me.