ECS tries out extreme motherboarding

Subject: Motherboards | February 23, 2006 - 06:43 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ECS KA1 MVP Extreme is a Radeon Xpress based board, with quite a few features.  The Tech Report puts it to the test, to see if it deserves the title Extreme.

"The latest of ECS's Extreme offerings is the KA1 MVP, a Socket 939 motherboard that combines

ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition chipset with PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet and Serial ATA

RAID.

New and improved, or just new

Subject: Motherboards | February 15, 2006 - 04:49 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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t-break wanted to know what improvements came about when nVIDIA switched from it's original SLI to SLI X16.  They tested 4 games, and several benchmarking tools with a pair of 7800GTX's, and have came to a pretty solid conclusion.

"We initially started out by conducting tests at only 0X and 4X AA however we really didnt see any

difference at all. We contacted nVidia about this and they suggested doing tests using 8X and 16X

AA and thus we went back and benched all four games using that setting as well.

A mobo review of a different colour

Subject: Motherboards | February 10, 2006 - 05:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Silent PC Review has posted a review of the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe that strays a little from the norm, but is perfect for this unique heatpipe using mobo.  By focussing on heat and power, the review covers more than just performance, but helps to explain the 8 phase power the motherboard uses, and reveals a quirk about how it deals with SLI.

"Arguably the most full-featured single CPU desktop motherboard ever produced, this high

performance A64-939 board is also cooled with heatpipes and features a complex chi

Power in a puny package

Subject: Motherboards | February 9, 2006 - 06:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Built for Pentium "M"s, the AOpen i915GMm-HFS microATX that Hardware Zone reviews is a great starting place for an HTPC.  With built in audio, a 16x PCIe slot, DDR2 support and SATA with RAID capabilites, you can even get some good gaming out of it.

"Not just another desktop Pentium M motherboard, the AOpen i915GMm-HFS is a cleverly designed motherboard specifically targeted at those who are looking to get on the media center PC craze.

SLI and Sempron together

Subject: Motherboards | February 6, 2006 - 11:56 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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TweakTown reviews a sweet little s754 board from EPoX, the 8NPA-SLI.  Now you can get an SLI setup, without having to upgrade your CPU, memory and everything else at the same time.  You get to save some money on the CPU as well.

Also from EPox, the EP-5NVA is an LGA775 board, and our own Jon Hung has posted a fresh review of it.

"Socket 754 has now made a comeback for AMD in the form of the budget line of Sempron processors.

ASUS' hybrid Crossfire board

Subject: Motherboards | February 2, 2006 - 02:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Tech Report reviews the ASUS A8R-MVP, a very inexpensive motherboard that combines 2 chipsets, ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition and ULi's M1575 southbridge.  Head over to see what advantages that gains over a motherboard that uses ATI's SB450.

"Fortunately, the CrossFire Edition chipset has an ace up its sleeve. Its north bridge is capable

of interfacing with alternative south bridge chips, including those built by ULi.

EVGA's newest motherboard

Subject: Motherboards | January 19, 2006 - 02:18 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP reviews EVGA's latest s939 motherboard, the K8-NF41, a very feature rich board.  Give them a moment of your time, and see just what this board can do.

"The K8-NF41 is EVGA's latest motherboard for the Athlon 64 socket 939 line of processors.

Gigabyte gets the royal touch

Subject: Motherboards | January 17, 2006 - 02:06 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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As the review on Bjorn3D explains, the Gigabyte GA-8I955x qualifies as royalty because of the support for 888MHz DDR2, Gigabyte's patented Universal-Plus Dual Power System, dual gigabit LAN and IEEE 1394b.

Hi-tech with Vacuum Tubes

Subject: Motherboards | January 16, 2006 - 01:54 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The MSI K8N Diamond Plus Limited Edition that Hardware Zone has up for review is a blend of old and new technology.  It contains everything you would expect from an N4 board, with the addition of an OEM version of the Coolermaster Musketeer 3, an audio front panel with a vacuum tube. 

"Since we last reviewed the MSI K8N Diamond Plus, things have been going on behind the scenes.

Upgrading made easy by ASRock

Subject: Motherboards | January 10, 2006 - 04:11 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ASRock's 939NF4G-SATA2 motherboard does a lot of the work for you, if you are shopping for a value system.  On board 

nForce 410MCP audio, a built-in Geforce 6100 and ethernet as well means that just picking up a CPU and some memory is all you need to get an upgrade running.  You could also build a complete system from scratch just by adding a case with a PSU, a SATA harddrive, and a monitor to the list. 

Several nForce4 SLI Motherboard Tested

Subject: Motherboards | January 3, 2006 - 11:03 AM | Ryan Shrout
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Anandtech has put together a review of four nForce4 SLI motherboards that they consider to have "bargain" pricing. 

The Albatron K8SLI is a very interesting board as it offers good performance with a minimal feature set. The board layout is very compact while still providing SLI capability. If you want to set up a LAN party system with SLI, then this board will allow you to use the smaller ATX cases without issue.

Asus P5N32-SLI vs Gigabyte's 975X Board

Subject: Motherboards | December 28, 2005 - 05:51 PM | Ryan Shrout
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t-break has combined two Intel motherboards into a single article and some good old fashioned chipset-bashing. 

Performance-wise, both boards are good as we saw in the previous pages, however, gaming AMD's baby at the moment and we're a bit skeptical about using that term to promote Pentium4 boards at the moment. With overclocking, ASUS managed to take the lead providing a higher overclock.

Sapphire Pure CrossFire RD480 Board Review

Subject: Motherboards | December 23, 2005 - 04:04 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Lost Circuits has posted a review of the latest motherboard out of Sapphire, the RD480-based Pure CrossFire. 

That does not mean that even a homogenous platform is trouble free, on the contrary, there were initial problems with nVidia's SLI platform and there are certainly some issues with ATI's Crossfire. We got our hands on a sample of Sapphire's Pure Crossfire PC-A9RD480 board, based on ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire chipset, and the road to success was somewhat rocky.

Motherboards Under the Tree

Subject: Motherboards | December 22, 2005 - 10:30 AM | Jonathan Hung
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Hoping for a motherboard in your stocking or under the tree this Holiday? Bit-tech takes a look at the well-endowed Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. In typical Asus fashion, the A8N32-SLI Deluxe comes with a whole whack of accessories including a turbine style fan.

Not to be forgotten is EPoX and their latest Intel 945P offering.

Foxconn GeForce 6150 & DFI's Latest NF4 SLI

Subject: Motherboards | December 20, 2005 - 03:00 PM | Jonathan Hung
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Seems like a lot more GeForce 6100 reviews are hitting the web. Today TweakTown has a review of the Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS  (try saying that three times quickly!) which uses NVIDIA GeForce 6150 chipset and comes in a mATX form-factor. If you're looking for a budget HTPC, this Foxconn may be what you're looking for!

If that Foxconn is a bit "ghetto" for you, then maybe the DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert board reviewed at TBreak is more your style.

DFI's RDX200 CrossFire Motherboard

Subject: Motherboards | December 19, 2005 - 02:00 PM | Jonathan Hung
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Legit Reviews has an article on the DFI RDX200 CF-DR motherboard posted. This motherboard is probably one of the more important CrossFire motherboard releases since DFI has been consistently setting the standard for enthusiast features. How does it stack up against the venerable DFI NF4 SLI-DR?

"Dropping the memory divider to 166 and the CPU multiplier to x8 allowed me to push the board all the way to 309FSB, not too shabby at all. One issue I'd like to point out is the heat generated by the chipsets.

DFI delivers again

Subject: Motherboards | December 9, 2005 - 06:37 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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DFI has once again delivered a motherboard with more options and extras than most even knew existed.  If you can't stop playing with settings, head to PC Stats to get a look at all the features you can tweak on the LANParty UT NF4 SLI-DR.

"Like the previous model, the DFI LANPartyUT NF4 SLI-DR Expert motherboard is based on the nvidia nForce4 SLI chipset. It supports all Socket 939 AMD Athlon64/FX/X2 processors on the market, and is geared for gaming performance.

Mobo with a cool new idea

Subject: Motherboards | December 6, 2005 - 06:44 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HEXUS reviews the Gigabyte GA-Gi975X motherboard, an Intel motherboard with a nifty new idea.  This isn't just northbridge cooling, but fully integrated ducting and 40mm fans seperating the CPU from the rest of the mobo. 

"Gigabyte has decided that overclocking should play a large part in the GA-G1975X's makeup, and a

couple of plastic ducts are designed and implemented to cool the hot-running components in and

around the CPU socket area."

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