Introduction

Welcome to the latest edition of our price guides, where this week, we'll take a look at the current trends in the motherboard marketplace. As always, we like to start by quickly mentioning our Real-Time Pricing Engine. Speaking of which, we have some stellar news about the RTPE. About a week ago, we had all of our databases updated, including the RTPE's. So for now, those who had stated that the RTPE was just so slow making it unbearable to use will have no excuse to not give it another shot. A few tweaks here and there have made using the RTPE much more user friendly and enjoyable.

There hasn't been too much action with motherboard pricing; although, we are noticing that the i975X chipset based boards are becoming more common and the latest offering for Intel CPU users is the nForce 4 Ultra for the socket 775, which has recently dropped into the market. We are also noticing that many of the socket 754 motherboards are gradually decreasing in number and at this rate, it appears as though they will be phased out soon enough.

Beginning this week's motherboard price guide, we will first take a look at the Athlon 64 socket 939 motherboards.



Athlon 64 - Socket 939

While there is a large selection of motherboards for the Athlon 64 socket 939 processors, and so many are excellent choices, we would like to mention only a few of the ones that we would recommend. We'll start our recommendations with the ASUS nForce4 SLI (939) A8N-SLI Premium [RTPE: A8N-SLI Premium]. This is a great board and deserves some serious consideration. It features SATA 3.0Gbps, integrated dual Gigabit LAN, 8-channel audio with the Realtek ALC850 chipset, up to 10 USB 2.0 ports, IEEE 1394, a multi-language BIOS and a Sony-Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF-out) jack. This is one of the many feature-filled boards at a reasonable mid to high range price of about $170 shipped.

Although the A8N-SLI Premium is an excellent board, its overclocking potential is about average. If you're looking to overclock your setup to its full potential, we suggest going with the DFI nForce4 SLI (939) LanParty SLI-DR [RTPE: LanParty SLI-DR], which is going for approximately $193 shipped.



The DFI that we mentioned above is an excellent choice, but you also have the option of going with the ASUS nForce4 SLI X16 (939) A8N32-SLI Deluxe [RTPE: A8N32-SLI Deluxe], which is arguably one of the best gaming and overclocking boards available today. This board is currently being sold for $197 shipped.



The nForce 4 Ultra motherboards have remained at essentially the same price. Not much in the way of changes is happening here. Just as in the case of the nForce 4 SLI boards, there are many great nForce 4 Ultra boards from which to choose. Priced about mid-way, the ASUS nForce4 Ultra (939) A8N-E [RTPE: A8N-E] is a popular choice, going for about $105. DFI brand motherboards are known for their overclocking abilities; the DFI nForce4 Ultra (939) LanParty UT Ultra-D [RTPE: LanParty UT Ultra-D] is currently the most expensive board in the nForce 4 Ultra category, going for $132 shipped.



For those who are looking for a cheap alternative for a socket 939 motherboard, the nForce 4 4X boards are what you'd like to take a gander at. We suggest that you stick to the low end of this spectrum because if you decide to spend more, you might as well go with an nForce 4 Ultra based board.





Unless you're looking to replace a failed 939 board, there's little point in purchasing a new 939 AGP-only board. The ASRock ULi board is your best bet for AGP 939 at this point, as it has both AGP and PCIe X16. We won't be mentioning any of the other AGP-only boards anymore, as we feel it's really time to move on.





More AMD Motherboards

The Xpress 200 boards feature decent onboard graphic capabilities. They obviously aren't intended for gaming enthusiasts, although they're perfect for people who don't need or want to purchase an add-on card. For approximately $77 shipped, the MSI Xpress 200 (939) RS482M4-ILD [RTPE: RS482M4-ILD] is a great option. There are others that are a few dollars cheaper or more expensive, but we feel that this is a decent all-around option.



Slowly, we're seeing an increase in the number of CrossFire motherboards in the market. The Sapphire Xpress 200 CrossFire (939) PC-A9RD480Adv [RTPE: PC-A9RD480Adv] is near the top of the niche, priced at about $140. These CrossFire boards are all priced at $100+, although you do have one option that's just under $100. Going for about $90, the MSI Xpress 200 CrossFire (939) RD480 Neo2-FI [RTPE: RD480 Neo2-FI] would be your cheapest CrossFire enabled motherboard.



Moving back to NVIDIA, this time with integrated graphics, the 61x0 line of boards compete well with the ATI Xpress 200 boards. They tend to cost slightly more, but they're also slightly faster in many benchmarks. Honestly, though, comparing gaming benchmarks on these IGP solutions doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as both are underpowered compared to just about any discrete graphics card.





On to the Athlon 64 socket 754 boards, we can see that these boards are gradually decreasing in number every time we emerge with an updated motherboard price guide. Could it be that the socket 754 platform is being phased out sooner than later?



The Xpress 200 socket 754 boards are fairly competitively-priced to the nForce 4 4X based boards, although the Xpress 200 socket 939 boards are priced about the same, if not cheaper than some of the Xpress 200 socket 754 boards. Our suggestion is to go with the socket 939 board, since the difference between a mid-range 939 processor and a mid-range 754 processor is quite miniscule and sometimes, the price of the board can be the deciding factor. Just not this time around.







Intel Motherboards

Here, we are now at the new nForce 4 Ultra boards for the Intel processors. At the moment, there is only one board from Biostar and our very own Gary Key recently had the opportunity to take an in-depth look at the Biostar TForce4 U-775 [RTPE: TForce4U-775]. This board is based on the nForce 4 Ultra SPP and the nForce 4 Ultra Intel Edition MCP. If gaming is your thing, then you'll want to look into this board as it's very competitive with the i975X and surpasses the i945P in performance. For more information about this board, be sure to read Mr. Key's latest findings. Currently, this board is going for about $100, although we can see that supply on this board is very limited. It has only been in the market for the past two to three weeks, and it's already out of stock.



Our i975X channel has been slowly increasing in strength, which means that we are seeing more of i975X based motherboards appear in our RTPE. The i975X motherboards were brought into the market to replace the disastrous i955X motherboards while roughly remaining at the same price point. The i975X motherboards are able to support the Conroe processor, although not the Yonah due to it being based on the socket 479 platform. While some time in Q1 of this year, we are expecting the release of the 945GM, which will offer support for both the Yonah and Merom cores.





Ideally, we would suggest one to go for the i945P based boards if they're going for a low-end, dual-core setup. The i945P is still a stellar performer, but currently there are, although a bit more expensive, better options. There are quite a few motherboards from which to choose in this niche. For the overclocking enthusiast, the Abit 945P AL8-V [RTPE: AL8-V] appears to be a great option. It is roughly priced at about $120. While the Abit is a great choice for overclocking, the Gigabyte 945P GA-8I945P Pro [RTPE: GA-8I945P Pro] is an excellent feature-filled board, on sale for $127 shipped.



If you're not looking to do any gaming, the i945G motherboards offer adequate onboard graphics capabilities. Motherboards with onboard video can save you the hassle and expense of having to purchase a video card, and is completely unnecessary for one who doesn't need any fancy video capabilities. For your basic home/office setup, any of these motherboards should prove to be sufficient.





More Intel Motherboards

Just as seen in much of the retail sector of the motherboard market, the nForce 4 SLI – socket 775 boards have remained at quite a standstill. Although coming in with a hefty price tag, the ASUS nForce4 SLI (775) P5ND2-SLI Deluxe [RTPE: P5ND2-SLI Deluxe] is one of the motherboards offering the most features available. The P5ND2-SLI Deluxe is coming in at about $179 shipped. For the more budget-minded folks, there are a few boards available at much more reasonable prices, ranging between about $115 to $130.



If you’re looking to go with an i915G based board, we suggest that you stick with the lower priced options, as we don’t deem the higher-priced motherboards worthy. Anything at about $100 or under is acceptable.



This concludes this weekend's motherboard price guide. Join us again next week and thanks for reading!