Holiday Motherboard Guide

Entry-Level Motherboards

We'll start at the bottom, with motherboards priced at around $50 or less. Obviously features are going to be cut at this price point, and quality/support might suffer as well, but you can still get some very reasonable options without breaking the bank.

Intel

If you only have $50 to spend, then we suggest the ZOTAC N73PV-Supreme based on the GeForce 7100. This uATX motherboard features HDMI output, Gigabit LAN, four 3Gb/s SATA ports, 10 USB ports, HD audio, one PCI-E x16 slot, one PCI-E x1 slot, two PCI slots, and support for 4GB. This board is offers excellent stability and performance for the money. Pair it up with an E5200 and 4GB of DDR2-800 and you have a solid SOHO system or base HTPC, although H.264 hardware acceleration is not featured on this chipset.

Our other under $50 choice is the ASRock G31M-S motherboard based on the Intel G31 and ICH7 chipsets. This uATX board features 10/100 LAN, four 3Gb/s SATA ports, 8 USB ports, 5.1 HD audio, one PCI-E x16 slot, one PCI-E x1 slot, two PCI slots, and support for 8GB. ASRock also worked their magic on the BIOS so it supports the full range of Core 2 processors. Also included is ASRock's excellent Instant Boot technology; yes, it really works as advertised.

An honorable mention goes to the Foxconn G31MV-K that can be had for around $43. Performance is equal to the ASRock board but we gave the nod to ASRock based on features and BIOS support.

AMD

On the AMD side we have a couple of interesting choices. The $48 ASRock N61P-S has been a solid, no frills, uATX SOHO board for us and features the GeForce 6150SE and nForce 430 chipsets. The board supports 8GB of memory and provides 10/100 Ethernet, 5.1 HD Audio, four 3Gb/s SATA ports with RAID 0/1/0+1/5, VGA output, one PCI-E x16 slot, one PCI-E x1 slot, two PCI slots, and ASRock's excellent Instant Boot technology.

Our next board is the Foxconn A74MX-K 740G uATX board featuring the AMD 740G and SB700 chipsets. This board is a very good option for a basic SOHO build and provides Gigabit LAN, 5.1 HD Audio, 4GB memory support, DVI-D output, 12 USB ports, one PCI-E x16 slot, one PCI-E x1 slot, two PCI slots, four 3Gb/s SATA ports featuring RAID 0/1/10.