Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1912
Price Guide, January 2006: Motherboards
by Haider Farhan on January 1, 2006 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Introduction
Welcome to the latest edition of our motherboard price guide, where you can always depend on us to find you the best deals on the products you're interested in purchasing. We are still awaiting the new i975X based motherboards to hit the retail market, which by the way, we are expecting to occur within the coming week.
We have noticed that much of the computer hardware market has been at quite a standstill. And we're hoping that possibly the start of the New Year will get the ball rolling once again.
And as always, do not forget to drop a quick search in our legendary RTPE, http://labs.anandtech.com, for your up-to-the-minute pricing needs. There are many ways you can search for the products you are looking for, so be sure to fully explore our RTPE as we can guarantee it won't be a waste of time.
Before we get into our guide, we would like to wish all our astute readers a Happy New Year with all the health and happiness.
Athlon 64 - Socket 939
Most of the NForce 4 SLi boards have been fairly steady with their prices over the course of the last month. You can see in the pricing chart that a few have gone up in price, while not a single one has seen a decrease. The price increases are not what we would call significant, just a miniscule increase. A decent mid-range motherboard we suggest you look into is the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI [RTPE: MS-7100-020] on sale for just under $190.
Two other great boards we would suggest are the ASUS A8N-SLI [RTPE: A8N-SLI] going for $125 and the DFI Infinity [RTPE: Infinity] for $120. If you're looking for a SLi board and are trying to stick to a really tight budget, then you can't forget about the Gigabyte GA-K8N-SLI [RTPE: GA-K8N-SLI] going for a mere $94.
As with the SLi board, the NF4 Ultra boards are basically in the same boat. A few boards have seen some insignificant price increases, but other than that, most of which have remained roughly the same. A couple of boards we would recommend for the budget minded folks are the DFI nForce4 Ultra Infinity [RTPE: DFI Infinity] for $98 and the EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra [RTPE: EP-9NPA+Ultra] for about $105 shipped.
Another great board we suggest is the MSI nForce4 Ultra K8N Neo4 Platinum [RTPE: MS-7125-010] on sale for about $124.
Even though this time around the VIA K8T890 chipset wasn't as great of a hit as the nForce 4 chipset, the VIA is still competitively price. You can see the Gigabyte K8T890 (939) GA-K8VT890-9 [RTPE: GA-K8VT890-9] going for $87. The Abit K8T890 (939) AX8 [RTPE: AX8] is also going for a $80 after a $30 mail-in rebate (MIR). We have yet to see the new K8T900 boards hit the retail market, which was recently announced by VIA.
To be able to fully support either an AGP or PCIe card, you would want the Asrock M1695 939Dual-SATA2 [RTPE: 939Dual-SATA2] which is on sale for $73 shipped.
More AMD Motherboards
We aren't noticing much of any change in the socket 754 front. Prices are ranging anywhere from $70 to $80 and, as you can see below, have been quite stationary. It seems as though the Socket 754 motherboards are nearing their EOL as the number of boards are gradually diminishing. A quick look and you can see the MSI nForce4 4X (754) K8N Neo3-F [RTPE: MS-7135-010] is on sale for $73.
For $80 shipped, the MSI Xpress 200 (754) RS482M-IL [RTPE: MS-7145-060] is an excellent board if you are looking for something with integrated graphics.
If you have a socket 939 CPU and are looking for a board with integrated graphics, then one of the following boards may suit you well. The MSI Xpress 200 (939) RX480 Neo2-F [RTPE: MS-7151-010] appears to be a feature-filled board at a well established price point of about $73.
Fairly recently, the ASUS Xpress 200 CrossFire (939) A8R-MVP [RTPE: A8R-MVP] was released and is going for $109 shipped. Not at all a bad price considering how well this motherboard performed. If you missed that article by Wesley Fink, you can catch up on the rave reviews it got here.
NVIDIA's integrated graphics motherboards have been fairing very nicely, just as well. The Biostar nForce 410 GeForce 6100 (939) TFORCE 6100-939 does very well against the other two 6100 boards while only being slightly higher priced than the other two, going for $77 shipped.
Since our last price guide, the Gigabyte nForce 430 GeForce 6100 (939) GA-K8N51GMF-9 [RTPE: GA-K8N51GMF-9] has increased about $10 bringing its total price to about $78.
The ASUS nForce 430 GeForce 6150 (939) A8N-VM CSM [RTPE: A8N-VM CSM] is a solid option for a full-featured integrated graphics board. At the moment, it is available for about $88 shipped.
Intel Motherboards
We are expecting to see motherboards featuring the i975X chipset due out sometime early next week. One thing we would suggest is you wait out until we can get some decent comparative tests/benchmarks before you splurge for one of these new boards.
The i975X chipset is here to replace the unsuccessful i955X while remaining at roughly the same price point. Do not expect the i975X to support the Yonah or Conroe processors. The support for those two will be taken care of by the 945GM due out sometime in Q1 '06.
The boards featuring the i955X chipset are pretty much at the same price point since our last analysis. Since none of the boards here have had any significant price reductions, we still suggest you hold off until the i975X chipset is in full swing and pick one of those up.
The i945P and i955X chipsets both support the Presler and CeadarMill cores, but not the Presler Extreme Edition processors. The i945P chipset is a decent option for one of the cheaper dual-core processors.
While much of the i945P based motherboards have remained at the same price point, the MSI 945P Neo-F [RTPE: MS-7176-020] is on sale for $113. That certainly is not too bad of a price for a decent board to go along with a lower-end dual-core processor.
The i945G based motherboards have adequate integrated graphics and are fine for basic home office use. The ASUS 945G P5LD2-VM [RTPE: P5LD2-VM] is a respectable board and is on sale for approximately $109.
More Intel Motherboards
Next up are the nForce 4 SLi socket 775 motherboards. At the moment, we are not seeing any price fluctuations since our last motherboard price guide. Leading the pack this week is the Gigabyte nForce4 SLI (775) GA-8N-SLI Pro [RTPE: GA-8N-SLI Pro] going for $117 shipped.
Motherboards featuring the i915G chipset are now at very reasonable prices and perform decently. With one of these, we suggest you opt for the cheapest one as the higher priced options are not worthy.
We would like to thank you once again for taking a look at our latest motherboard price guide. Come back next weekend for an inside look at video card happenings.