More AMD Motherboards
We're still not done with AMD motherboard offerings, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise as there are currently three shipping platforms for AMD processors. Let's take a look at some of the ATI chipset offerings for socket 939.
The Xpress 3200 CrossFire chipset and motherboards were launched fairly recently. Many manufacturers chose to skip socket 939 for the RD580 chipset, but unfortunately socket AM2 RD580 motherboards are still unavailable. Our RTPE is only picking up four Xpress 3200 boards, and we've reviewed the DFI CFX3200-DR as well as the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe. Although this is a rather expensive motherboard, you are getting a top-of-the-line, fully featured product. If you prefer ATI's CrossFire implementation over NVIDIA's SLI offerings and you don't want to wait for AM2 CrossFire boards to launch (or Intel's Core 2 Duo 975X boards with CrossFire support), you might pick up one of these motherboards.
If you're in the market for a CrossFire board and you don't want to spend money on one of the RD580 versions, there are a number of motherboards available to choose from, ranging from well under $100 to well over $100. At the top of the niche, you have the DFI Xpress 200 CrossFire LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR [RTPE: LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR] going for about $141. Looking at the bottom of the spectrum, you have the MSI Xpress 200 CrossFire RD480 Neo2-FI [RTPE: RD480 Neo2-FI] priced at an even $70 and also the ASUS Xpress 200 CrossFire (939) A8R-MVP [RTPE: A8R-MVP] on sale for approximately $100. We would stick with the lower-priced offerings here, as once you get above $130 you can get the superior RD580 chipset.
These Xpress 200 based motherboards aren't marketed toward gamers, although they do offer acceptable performance for users not needing or wanting any high-end graphic capabilities an add-on card would offer. About midway in the pricing scheme, the MSI Xpress 200 RS482M4-ILD [RTPE: RS482M4-ILD] is fairly priced at $75 for its offerings.
Making our way back to the NVIDIA based boards, here we are at the 61x0 lineup. You will find these boards are priced about the same, if not slightly cheaper than the ATI Xpress 200 boards. The NVIDIA 61x0 motherboards are slightly faster than their ATI counterparts in many benchmarks. Then again, comparing gaming benchmarks for these integrated graphics motherboards doesn't make much sense as both are underpowered compared to just about any discrete graphics card. You can see throughout the 61x0 boards that there hasn't been much in the way of price changes. Looking at the price charts for these motherboards, prices have been generally stagnant since launch, so we don't expect them to drop much further between now and when they disappear from the face of the market. If you need one of these boards, you might as well just buy it now.
Wrapping up the AMD platforms with the socket 754 motherboards, you can see these boards have dramatically decreased in number over the course of time. We really see no reason to go with a socket 754 platform now-a-days. Your single-core socket 939 CPUs are priced at about the same as the socket 754 processors. We suggest completely overlooking these motherboards and jumping right along with a socket 939 or AM2 coupled with a single-core 939 processor for your low-end setups.
The Xpress 200 socket 754 boards have also decreased in number. We're only displaying one motherboard from MSI - the Xpress 200 (754) RS482M-IL [RTPE: RS482M-IL] going for about $70. Unless you already have the CPU and memory and you're just looking for a replacement motherboard, you should look at some of the previously mentioned options.
If your heart is still set on socket 754, we hate to disappoint you but this will be the last Motherboard Price Guide where we bother looking at these offerings. We don't expect any new socket 754 motherboards to launch, so what we have said here and in the past will have to suffice. Of course, the price engine will continue to track these motherboards until supply dries up, so if you're ever in the market for a socket 754 motherboard you can still search them out.
We're still not done with AMD motherboard offerings, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise as there are currently three shipping platforms for AMD processors. Let's take a look at some of the ATI chipset offerings for socket 939.
The Xpress 3200 CrossFire chipset and motherboards were launched fairly recently. Many manufacturers chose to skip socket 939 for the RD580 chipset, but unfortunately socket AM2 RD580 motherboards are still unavailable. Our RTPE is only picking up four Xpress 3200 boards, and we've reviewed the DFI CFX3200-DR as well as the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe. Although this is a rather expensive motherboard, you are getting a top-of-the-line, fully featured product. If you prefer ATI's CrossFire implementation over NVIDIA's SLI offerings and you don't want to wait for AM2 CrossFire boards to launch (or Intel's Core 2 Duo 975X boards with CrossFire support), you might pick up one of these motherboards.
If you're in the market for a CrossFire board and you don't want to spend money on one of the RD580 versions, there are a number of motherboards available to choose from, ranging from well under $100 to well over $100. At the top of the niche, you have the DFI Xpress 200 CrossFire LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR [RTPE: LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR] going for about $141. Looking at the bottom of the spectrum, you have the MSI Xpress 200 CrossFire RD480 Neo2-FI [RTPE: RD480 Neo2-FI] priced at an even $70 and also the ASUS Xpress 200 CrossFire (939) A8R-MVP [RTPE: A8R-MVP] on sale for approximately $100. We would stick with the lower-priced offerings here, as once you get above $130 you can get the superior RD580 chipset.
These Xpress 200 based motherboards aren't marketed toward gamers, although they do offer acceptable performance for users not needing or wanting any high-end graphic capabilities an add-on card would offer. About midway in the pricing scheme, the MSI Xpress 200 RS482M4-ILD [RTPE: RS482M4-ILD] is fairly priced at $75 for its offerings.
Making our way back to the NVIDIA based boards, here we are at the 61x0 lineup. You will find these boards are priced about the same, if not slightly cheaper than the ATI Xpress 200 boards. The NVIDIA 61x0 motherboards are slightly faster than their ATI counterparts in many benchmarks. Then again, comparing gaming benchmarks for these integrated graphics motherboards doesn't make much sense as both are underpowered compared to just about any discrete graphics card. You can see throughout the 61x0 boards that there hasn't been much in the way of price changes. Looking at the price charts for these motherboards, prices have been generally stagnant since launch, so we don't expect them to drop much further between now and when they disappear from the face of the market. If you need one of these boards, you might as well just buy it now.
Wrapping up the AMD platforms with the socket 754 motherboards, you can see these boards have dramatically decreased in number over the course of time. We really see no reason to go with a socket 754 platform now-a-days. Your single-core socket 939 CPUs are priced at about the same as the socket 754 processors. We suggest completely overlooking these motherboards and jumping right along with a socket 939 or AM2 coupled with a single-core 939 processor for your low-end setups.
The Xpress 200 socket 754 boards have also decreased in number. We're only displaying one motherboard from MSI - the Xpress 200 (754) RS482M-IL [RTPE: RS482M-IL] going for about $70. Unless you already have the CPU and memory and you're just looking for a replacement motherboard, you should look at some of the previously mentioned options.
If your heart is still set on socket 754, we hate to disappoint you but this will be the last Motherboard Price Guide where we bother looking at these offerings. We don't expect any new socket 754 motherboards to launch, so what we have said here and in the past will have to suffice. Of course, the price engine will continue to track these motherboards until supply dries up, so if you're ever in the market for a socket 754 motherboard you can still search them out.
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Boushh - Monday, June 26, 2006 - link
Asus is offering the P5WDH Deluxe (based on the 975X chipset) and the P965 based P5B and P5B Deluxe. All offering Core 2 Duo/Extreme support. One Dutch etailer is offering the P5WDH for 211 Euro (including VAT, excluding shipping), delivery in 2-3 days.Your text is not clear about Core 2 Duo capable boards. On the one hand you say: 'If you need a replacement motherboard, however, there's no reason to wait.'. Suggesting that Core 2 Duo boards are available, but they are not listed in the price guide !! And on the otherhand you say: 'One big question that remains: which socket 775 motherboards will officially support Core 2 Duo once it becomes available?'. Saying that you actualy don't know which boards can support the Core 2.
It would have been nicer if you would list the boards that absolutely DO support the Core 2 (like the above mentioned Asus boards), and list the boards that MAY support the Core 2 (the list of 975X boards).
JarredWalton - Monday, June 26, 2006 - link
"One Dutch retailer..."That's the problem: we know there are some boards that are scheduled for retail availability very shortly, including the ASUS board you mentioned, but they're really not shipping in any reasonable fashion yet. It's also a little unnerving that no motherboard manufacturers are coming out beating the drum and saying how great their motherboards are because they offer Conroe support. We may see something like the 945/955 product launch where even though it was technically possible to run dual core chips on older chipsets, the only way to officially get such support was to buy one of the new motherboards.
Personally, there's no way I'm going to spend over $200 on an Intel motherboard right now unless I am absolutely certain it will support Core 2 Duo. The motherboard manufacturers all have test chips internally by now (and have for some time), so I'm a little curious as to why no one has been able to come forth stating which boards can support Conroe. Perhaps they are just under strict NDA from Intel and are not allowed to make such statements until the official launch has passed? If so, Intel certainly isn't doing any of the motherboard manufacturers any favors.
Boushh - Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - link
I see what you mean.Asus says that it supports: 'LGA775 socket for Intel Core2 Duo, Core2 Extreme and next generation Mulit-Core CPU'. But if you look at the CPU support, the list is empty. So that means that the Core 2 would fit in the socket, but without the CPU support list it's unclear if it will actualy work.
And with the Core 2 officially still a month away, I do understand your point for not adding these boards to the list (just yet) ;-)
JarredWalton - Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - link
They'd be added to the list if we could find them at US retailers. :) Probably another week or so....Quiksel - Monday, June 26, 2006 - link
This doesn't imply that C2Duo boards are out, it merely states that if you have a dead board, you probably need a replacement, hence, no reason to wait... Sure, some might not want to use their dead computer for a couple of months, but I know I would want it up and running.As for C2Duo support on existing mobo's goes, it is certainly fair to say that we aren't sure what will end up being supported since the procs aren't out and tested just yet. No reason not to be on the safe side, especially these guys when they are recommending products. Certainly they would not want to be on the receiving end of an angry customer finding out a board that Anandtech said would work with Conroe ends up being not compatible in the end. Let's just reserve judgment when the chips arrive, shall we?
shabby - Monday, June 26, 2006 - link
Why dont these charts ever appear correctly when you click on print this article?JarredWalton - Monday, June 26, 2006 - link
Probably an error in the code that generates the tables. I have passed it on to our website administrator to have him look at it.