HEXUS captures the ASUS Commando

Subject: Motherboards | January 9, 2007 - 04:15 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HEXUS has managed to get a glimpse of the newest member of ASUS' Republic of Gamers motherboard.  The Commando is based around a P965 chipset, and includes some very nice features, like a reset CMOS button (not a jumper).  Tied in with these features is support for blazing fast bus speeds, in the neighbourhood of 2.28GHz!  Head over and take a long look at these pictures.

It looks pretty, but you can't push it too hard

Subject: Motherboards | January 4, 2007 - 03:34 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP reviews abit's AW9D-MAX for Core 2 Duo.  It is compatible with CrossFire, and the layout is very well thought out, including the cooling for the chipset.  However, they discovered one little flaw that may cause disinterest among hard core users.

abit Brings AB9 QuadGT Motherboard to CES

Subject: Motherboards | January 3, 2007 - 04:09 PM | Ryan Shrout
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What does the "quad" mean exactly?  Support for quad-core Intel processors, and, um.... stuff.

The AB9 QuadGT is geared towards extreme performance.

How to Make a Motherboard

Subject: Motherboards | January 2, 2007 - 01:51 PM | Ryan Shrout
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If you have ever wondered exactly how a motherboard is made, PC Stats has a good article that will show you how. 

Finally the motherboards undergo an 'in-circuit test' which involves testing each motherboard's circuit paths, electrical characteristics and the chips that have just been added by applying electrical current to certain specific test points on the board.

MSI P965 and 975X Motherboards Compared

Subject: Motherboards | January 2, 2007 - 01:44 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Tech Report has a review up that looks at the MSI P965 and 975X motherboards and how they compare with one another. 

Apparent overclocking potential is one of very few differences between MSI's P965 and 975X Platinum. Price is another, and given just how similar the boards are, I'm not sure the 975X is worth the extra $20—not unless you really want Viiv support. That's not a knock against the 975X Platinum, mind you; it's the cheapest enthusiast-oriented 975X board on the market.

Asus Shows Off the Goods at CES

Subject: Motherboards | January 2, 2007 - 01:43 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Speaking of Asus, Digitimes is reporting that Asus will be showcasing some new products at CES next week. 

Asustek Computer will showcase its XG Station, an audio-visual workstation for notebooks at the upcoming 2007 International CES in Las Vegas, according to the company.

The XG Station, equipped with discrete graphics chips, Dolby output and USB 2.0, give users better graphics and audio-visual effects when co

Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard Reviewed

Subject: Motherboards | January 2, 2007 - 01:41 PM | Ryan Shrout
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The guys at HardOCP have taken the new Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard for a test run. 

However, there are a few areas of improvement that became more apparent during the overclocking test runs. My biggest complaints center on the board cooling mechanisms, or lack thereof. The northbridge passive chipset cooler was barely adequate for stock running, but quickly became too hot to handle when any overclocking was attempted. This was easily remedied with a low speed fan.

New BIOS for BFG 680i Motherboards

Subject: Motherboards | December 29, 2006 - 02:10 PM | Ryan Shrout
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I got an email from BFG mentioning an updated BIOS for their 680i branded motherboard to help with the SATA disk problems users are reporting. 

Some BFG customers using the BFG nForce® 680i SLI motherboard have reported experiencing disconnect or write error issues with SATA disk drives. To address this, we have worked with NVIDIA to release a BIOS update for this motherboard that eliminates this bug.

Five nForce 590 SLI Motherboards Compared

Subject: Motherboards | December 28, 2006 - 03:59 PM | Ryan Shrout
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If you are on the prowl for a new AMD-based nForce 590 SLI motherboard, you should definitely check out Tech Report's round up.

Picking our Editor's Choice from this lot is tough, but we can prune a few options right away. The KN3 SLI2 is out of the running for obvious reasons, and while the M2N32 WS Pro is a great single-socket workstation board, it's too expensive for enthusiasts who don't need PCI-X.

NVIDIA Releases New BIOS for 680i Motherboards

Subject: Motherboards | December 22, 2006 - 02:28 PM | Ryan Shrout
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NVIDIA seems to have gotten an answer to those users that were complaining of problems with the first wave of 680i motherboards.

 This morning, NVIDIA and its partners released a new system BIOS for the NVIDIA nForce® 680i SLI "Designed by NVIDIA" motherboards. These are the motherboards designed by NVIDIA and sold by EVGA, BFG, Biostar, and ECS.

This BIOS update eliminates a bug related to the operation of SATA hard disk drives experienced by some customers.

MSI P965 Platinum Motherboard Review

Subject: Motherboards | December 21, 2006 - 05:43 PM | Ryan Shrout
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HardOCP has posted a review up today of the MSI P965 motherboard.

Essentially, the P965 is a great motherboard, especially at stock speeds, but unremarkable. Overclocking is mediocre, but not horrible. The layout is excellent, and the board has a solid feature set, and isn't over burdened with an excessive amount of features that most users will likely never touch. Some issues I experienced were annoying, but should easily be fixed with BIOS and driver updates.

Asus M2R32 MVP Motherboard Review

Subject: Motherboards | December 19, 2006 - 01:42 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Lost Circuits has sent over news of a new review they posted for the Asus M2R32-MVP motherboard that uses the AMD/ATI Radeon Xpress 3200 chipset. 

As the MVP moniker alludes to, the M2R32 MVP does not feature the most opulent bundle in the world, in fact, if ASUS had named it "Spartan" instead of MVP, it would have been just on target as well.

Asus Stryker 680i Motherboard Problems

Subject: Motherboards | December 18, 2006 - 12:33 AM | Ryan Shrout
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The gang at HardOCP has

Crossfire on a budget

Subject: Motherboards | December 13, 2006 - 05:36 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The majority of budget boards, if they support dual graphics cards, tend to have SLI.  Motherboards.org reviews the ABIT IL9, a budget board for ATI fans based on Intel's 945p.  Head over to find out how well this board can compete in it's target market.

If you are looking for more power, and want to stay with ABIT, consider Wes Patison's review of the AB9 Pro 965P.

Can VIA get back in the game

Subject: Motherboards | December 12, 2006 - 06:07 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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With the introduction of nForce2, VIA has an immense hurdle to overcome to position itself as attractive to gamers.  The Foxconn motherboard that TweakTown recently reviewed implies that they may be thinking in a different direction.  The board is as stable as it is inexpensive, and with an AM2 Sempron, you almost have most of a system built without breaking the $100 mark.

ASUS' new motherboard is up to bat

Subject: Motherboards | December 7, 2006 - 01:20 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP reviews the 680i based Striker Extreme from ASUS.  While it is based around a very good chipset, there is a lot of competition using the same setup.  Read on to find out if ASUS can compete with other Intel nForce boards.

Quiet, but not so cool

Subject: Motherboards | December 4, 2006 - 03:14 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HotHardware reviews MSI's K9N SLI board, and really liked the RAID solution, the high speed onboard NIC and the peace and quiet provided by the chipset cooling.  On the other hand, the heat that builds up on the chipset may be one of the things holding this board back for overclockers.

ECS and the 680i

Subject: Motherboards | November 28, 2006 - 05:54 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Motherboards.org looks at the very inexpensive KN3-SLI2 from ECS.  The performance is on par with other 680i motherboards, apart from one minor anomaly.  If you are looking to set up an inexpensive SLI system with an AM2 processor, this review may get you started.