Motherboard Products: Intel uATX
The Intel uATX motherboard suppliers have been slow to ramp up production of boards supporting the Core 2 Duo processor but we have several in for testing now based on the Intel G965/Q965 chipsets along with new performance enhancing graphics drivers. We are also expecting a few 946GZ based boards shortly that make a perfect match for the Intel E4xx series of Core 2 Duo processors with an 800MHz front side bus.
The abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD motherboard is based on the ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 and SB600 chipsets featuring the ATI X1250 onboard graphics capability. The board offers support for 16GB of DDR2-533/667/800 memory, four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, a single ATA133 IDE connector, Realtek ALC885 Audio, and Gigabit LAN. The board has VGA and HDMI outputs along with support for 10 USB 2.0 ports. This motherboard offers excellent performance for a uATX board with our E6320 CPU reaching 7x366 in the overclocking tests.
One of the more interesting Intel uATX motherboards to show up is the Gigabyte GA-965QM-DS2 that is a full featured product based on the Intel Q965 and ICH8D0 chipsets. The board features a single X16 PCI Express slot, one x1 PCI-Express slot, and two PCI 2.2 slots. There are six Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support, and a single ATA133 IDE connector via a J-Micron chipset. HD Audio is courtesy of the Realtek ALC888, and Gigabit Ethernet supplied by the Nineveh 82566DM chipset. We just received a performance BIOS update and will have overclocking results shortly, but the overall performance of the board has been very good to date.
ASRock has actually supplied us with a few boards for review with the ConRoe1333-DVI/H being the latest board to arrive for testing. The board is based on the venerable Intel 945G and ICH7 chipsets and features a single x16 PCI Express slot, one x1 PCI-Express slot, and two PCI 2.2 slots. There are four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports and a single ATA133 IDE connector. HD Audio comes from the Realtek ALC888 and Gigabit Ethernet via the Realtek RTL8111B chipset. The board ships with a DVI/HDCP compliant daughter card that utilizes the single x16 PCI Express slot to provide DVI output via the 945G chipset. The board also has a standard VGA port.
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 highly suggest you seriously consider this offering from Albatron.
The board is based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 and nForce 430 chipsets. The board 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 output capability via an optional cable for the onboard header.
Final Remarks
Although we just briefly went over a few motherboard products, rest assured we have a significant amount of boards that will be reviewed shortly along with some exciting storage, networking, and USB flash drive roundups. We will also be introducing our Vista and Linux benchmarks for our mainstream motherboard reviews.
The Intel uATX motherboard suppliers have been slow to ramp up production of boards supporting the Core 2 Duo processor but we have several in for testing now based on the Intel G965/Q965 chipsets along with new performance enhancing graphics drivers. We are also expecting a few 946GZ based boards shortly that make a perfect match for the Intel E4xx series of Core 2 Duo processors with an 800MHz front side bus.
The abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD motherboard is based on the ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 and SB600 chipsets featuring the ATI X1250 onboard graphics capability. The board offers support for 16GB of DDR2-533/667/800 memory, four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports, a single ATA133 IDE connector, Realtek ALC885 Audio, and Gigabit LAN. The board has VGA and HDMI outputs along with support for 10 USB 2.0 ports. This motherboard offers excellent performance for a uATX board with our E6320 CPU reaching 7x366 in the overclocking tests.
One of the more interesting Intel uATX motherboards to show up is the Gigabyte GA-965QM-DS2 that is a full featured product based on the Intel Q965 and ICH8D0 chipsets. The board features a single X16 PCI Express slot, one x1 PCI-Express slot, and two PCI 2.2 slots. There are six Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support, and a single ATA133 IDE connector via a J-Micron chipset. HD Audio is courtesy of the Realtek ALC888, and Gigabit Ethernet supplied by the Nineveh 82566DM chipset. We just received a performance BIOS update and will have overclocking results shortly, but the overall performance of the board has been very good to date.
ASRock has actually supplied us with a few boards for review with the ConRoe1333-DVI/H being the latest board to arrive for testing. The board is based on the venerable Intel 945G and ICH7 chipsets and features a single x16 PCI Express slot, one x1 PCI-Express slot, and two PCI 2.2 slots. There are four Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports and a single ATA133 IDE connector. HD Audio comes from the Realtek ALC888 and Gigabit Ethernet via the Realtek RTL8111B chipset. The board ships with a DVI/HDCP compliant daughter card that utilizes the single x16 PCI Express slot to provide DVI output via the 945G chipset. The board also has a standard VGA port.
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 highly suggest you seriously consider this offering from Albatron.
The board is based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 and nForce 430 chipsets. The board 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 output capability via an optional cable for the onboard header.
Final Remarks
Although we just briefly went over a few motherboard products, rest assured we have a significant amount of boards that will be reviewed shortly along with some exciting storage, networking, and USB flash drive roundups. We will also be introducing our Vista and Linux benchmarks for our mainstream motherboard reviews.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
33 Comments
View All Comments
DigitalFreak - Friday, May 4, 2007 - link
Where was the board with the Via chipset? I needed a good laugh.danielackerman - Friday, May 4, 2007 - link
I dont understan why anand hasnt done any good reviews on amd based mobos. I dont own intel, ive never owned intel, i will never own intel. there are many like me. there are many who love this website.PLEASE BE A BIT MORE FAIR AND BALANCED. less monopoly of intel board reviews and more skinny on amd based boards please.
thnax
strikeback03 - Friday, May 4, 2007 - link
umm, not much has happened on that front since the launch of AM2. They had a review of the new AMD integrated graphics, I'd expect more with the uATX review whenever it comes. Otherwise I'd expect more motherboard tests after the Barcelona launch.kilkennycat - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
As for many others not wishing to upgrade to a new motherboard every year - in spite of the money that activity makes for the MB manufacturers and the chip-set suppliers, grrrr... --- compatibility with upcoming processor-families becomes a most important decision-making parameter. In the case of the Intel motherboards, the obvious candidate is the desktop version of Penryn. Considering the motherboard voltage-regulator fiasco with the move from P4 to Conroe, it seems that there could be a repeat of that fiasco, or a chip-set incompatibility fiasco (as with the 715/725 and dual-cores) with the move to Penryn.For example, I expect to build a new PC in the Fall this year. I would like to buy a motherboard with a few months of production and BIOS-updates "under its belt". I will probably initally invest in a fast dual-core Intel Conroe system ( if AMD does not pull a rabbit out of the hat in a month or two ) and potentially later upgrade to a Penyrn quad-core when the "price is right". Replacement of my just-purchased motherboard to address that latter contingency is just "not on the cards"..... However, for me, a BIOS update to an existing MB is perfectly acceptable in the case of a Penryn upgrade.
I'm sure that Anandtech has sufficient clout to spring free a beta-phase quad-core Penryn or two and some MB Alpha-BIOS updates to verify Penryn-compatibility in your formal reviews of the Intel-compatible versions of these new-generation motherboards.
Of course, if you could also spring loose some desktop K10 AMD CPUs to verify AMD motherboard compatibility for their upcoming desktop-CPU family, I am sure that you will make some more of your readers eternally grateful.
kilkennycat - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
... sorry line #4, 915/925, not 715/725....mattt79 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
Finally! Could you also mention possible compatability problems... such as the JMicron EIDE controller issues that almost all of the 965 boards have?
Thanks,
Matt
strikeback03 - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
the JMicron controller is supposed to work with Linux kernel 2.6.18 and up. I can't give any firsthand experience though, as Ubuntu 7.04 does not like my card reader or wireless card and I have not gotten time to actually install and try the JMicron.Any tests on whether those heatpipe chipset coolers have issues when using a good CPU cooler, such as an Ultra-120 or Tuniq, that move some airflow away from right at board level?
yacoub - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
The cooling on the MSi P35 board looks like a friggin' rollercoaster! :Dsprockkets - Thursday, May 3, 2007 - link
That Albatron board has been replaced by a newer version, but good luck finding it.Also, someone made a point elsewhere that again, Intel just made the current chipset obsolete in 6 months, again. Not a big deal for the end user though.
That Sapphire board? Uses Teapo caps and like 2 mosfets per a channel, that's absurd for a near $100 board. Take a look at the abit nview and see how it has Rubycon caps all over the board, bearing much higher quality.
yyrkoon - Friday, May 4, 2007 - link
Yeah, I was about to write a post saying that the Saphire board looks to be a knockoff of the MF-M2 nView, which we have two here on premisis (I own one, and I love it)Good looking out on the caps/mosfets, I did not notice that myself :/
On a side note, someone needs to inform mini-ITX makers, that socket 754 is pretty dated, and time to move to more availible/inexpencive CPUs . . .