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How to Choose the Right Gaming Motherboard
Continued from page: 1
Saturday, March 01, 2008
How we tested
We tested 14 motherboards between Rs 8k and 20k for performance and features
and categorized them into two main categories based on their price: one ranging
from 8k to 14k while the other from 14k to 20k. We used the Brown Gibson model
to arrive at the wightage for each parameter.
Performance benchmarks
The following eight benchmarks were chosen to check the performance of each
motherboard in gaming, 3D rendering and business productivity.
PCMark05: A benchmarking utility that tests different parameters of a
computer right from operating system boot up to hard disk drive usage.
Business Winstone: Business applications are getting popular with each
passing day. So, we used Business Winstone, which is a collection of various
applications such as MS Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage that are used
on a daily basis and tests the motherboard's performance when running these
applications.
POV-Ray: A synthetic benchmarking utility that checks out CPU's response to
render a given number of pixels. The catch for this benchmark is that lower the
score the better the performance.
CineBench 10: Today most of the motherboards that come have multi-core
capabilities. This feature is used to test the core efficiency of a CPU, ie, to
test the performance of CPU in single and multi core usages.
Si Soft 2003: Checks out the memory latency of a motherboard; here, lesser
the value, better the performance.
3DMark06: Is a utility designed to specifically test the graphics and gaming
capabilities, it stresses the motherboard for its overall graphics capabilities.
It also measures new and innovative developments in the graphics field, such as
DirectX and enhancements like Shader Model 3.0.
UT3: The most popular game filled with amazing blood, gore, and bullet firing
effects, a benchmark utilityspecifically designed to run on the UT3 engine to
measure the performance based on aspects such as lighting and visual effects.
Company of Heroes: Full of fog and smoke, this utility stresses on the pixel
shader engine to check out its performance.
Please refer to page no 138 for all benchmark results.
Features
Here, we compared all boards for ten features. These included a number of
PCIe 16x slots, and DIMM slots, number of USB ports, whether the board supports
over clocking or not. We also checked whether a board had Dual Bios, support for
45 nm CPUs, SATA, and audio support. In SATA, we checked the number of ports
both for SATA and for eSATA, whether they supported RAID, and whether there was
a second SATA controller chip as well. In audio support, we looked for the
number of channels supported as well as features like high-definition audio. But
the list doesn't end here as further we checked the board for coolness that
included dual Gigabit LAN ports, kind of cooling solution, presence of LED
lights to jazz up the looks, and the number of PCI slots it had onboard.
Pricing
As all of the boards came with a standard 3 yr carry-in warranty so it
cannot be considered as a criterion for selection, hence more emphasis was put
on the price for which it came.
Category 1 Rs 8k to 14k
The Winners
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
This is GIGABYTE's next generation, high performance motherboard
based on the new AMD 770 Chipset and also provides support for the new AMD
Phenom quad-core processors, with the latest AM2+ platform. It has 4 integrated
DDR2 memory DIMMS that support DDR2 1066 memory, which delivers superior
performance for the most demanding applications and can support up to 16 GB of
system memory. It also has Hyper Transport 3.0 technology, so this motherboard
is full of features. The motherboard performed brilliantly in all our tests. In
3D Mark06 it scored 7876 and in PCMark05 a score of 5366 was among the highest;
only P35 Platinum came close on performance. Though its performance in POV Ray
wasn't great but a Business Winstone score of 39 is good enough to handle most
applications. It has onboard support for high definition 6 channel audio with S/PDIF.
It comes with a single SATA chip with support for RAID 0, 1 and 01. It has 1 PCI
Express x16 slot and 2 PCI slots, and a single Gigabit LAN. The motherboard is
at par with ASUS P5KE WI-FI AP and MSI P6 N DIAMOND in terms of performance and
features but beat them for price. Overall its performance is at par with that of
other boards in this category but with the lowest price in the category, it
becomes a clear winner with a maximum score of 95/100.
MSI P-35 Platinum
The best performer in this category, this board performed well across all
the tests. With an overall score of 93/100, this one was the best performer. It
scored 7974 marks in 3D Mark 06 which is pretty high. Also in PCMark 05 a score
of 4710 was decent enough to make things work. It comes with a circular heat
pipe design that helps in enhancing performance. Its performance in POV Ray was
good and it showed 110 ns in memory latency when we tested it using Sisoft 2003
memory latency test. But in Business Winstone, it scored 39 marks whereas P 6N
Diamond scored 42. This shows that the board is good not only for graphical work
but also for business applications. It supports both Core 2 Duo and Quad Core
processor and comes with the Intel P35 chipset. It has 4 integrated DDR2 memory
DIMMS that support up to 8 GB of RAM. It has 6 channel audio output onboard and
also a FireWire 400 port. In addition to PCI x16 slots, the board offers SLI, so
you can slam in another graphics card and get better performance. Overall, a
motherboard that is high on performance and features.
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Other Contenders
Although the GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 and MSI P-35 Platinum won on the
basis of their overall scoring, there were others in this category that were
high on performance and features but lacked in either some important feature or
were a bit highly priced. The GIGABYTE G-33 D53RA performed exceptionally well
but lacked features that most enthusiasts would look for these days. In terms of
features and performance, both ASUS and MSI had good packages to offer but again
the price factor came into play. People would like to have the maximum number of
features even between 8-14k. In this regard, ASUS P5KE WI-FI AP offers what none
other does-onboard WiFi and wireless access point. Such kind of boards add a
little more value for money by giving a little extra at the same price. You may
also consider MSI K9A2 PLATINUM, ASUS P5KE WI-FI AP, MSI P6 N DIAMOND and MSI
G33M that offer 4 DIMM slots for RAM and SATA, and RAID support, 6 slots each
for USB and Audio, 2 LAN and PCI express slots.
Category 2 Rs 14k to 20k
The Winners
Asus P5K Deluxe
The best one from category 2, the Asus P5K Deluxe sports the latest
Intel P35 Express chipset and the LGA775 and socket that supports Intel Core 2
Quad, Core2 Extreme, Core2 Duo, Pentium D, and Pentium 4 Processors and also has
the support for the next generation 45 nm multi-core CPU technology. This
motherboard supports FSB 1333/1066/800, and its chipset officially supports
dual-channel DDR2 memory that features data transfer rates of 800/667/533 MHz to
meet the higher bandwidth requirement of the latest 3D graphics, multimedia, and
Internet applications. Apart from all the specs this motherboard also has on
offer some eye candy too: its shiny copper silent heat pipe design adds some
neat looks and performance to it. This motherboard has 2 PCI-E x16 which
supports SLI technology and 2 PCI- E x1 slots that can be used for further
expantion. This motherboard has Dual chip SATA and 2 External e-SATA 3.0 Gb/s
port which supports RAID 0, 1. The Asus P5K Deluxe has Dual Gigabit LAN
controller and if you like to be wirefree, then it also has onboard WiFi too
that supports 54 Mbps IEEE 802.11b and backwards compatible with 11 Mbps IEEEE
802.11b. In PCMark05 it scored 5659 PC marks that was the best score in this
category of boards. Asus P5K Delux gave an outstanding performance scoring 5570
in PCMark05, the second best score for this test and it scored 8181 3DMarks in
our 3DMark06 test which is impressive, also it performed really well in our
other tests too. So seeing the performance that it gave over all shows and
answers very well why this motherboard deserves to bet the top one for this
category.
XFX nForce 680i SLI
The XFX 680i SLI is one of the motherboards that is targeted toward high-end
PC users and gamers that want performance, in short a hardcore enthusiast board,
and the distinction falls only to the 680i SLI motherboard. The latest nForce
680i chipset has been included in this motherboard. This board features Quad
core support, 1333 fsb, 4800 MHz DDR2, 2 x16x PCIe slots for SLI configurations.
In other words support for the latest dual and quad core CPUs, faster memory and
latest graphics solutions. The XFX nForce 680i SLI motherboard has some nice
features including additional USB and Firewire headers apart from having six
onboard USB and a firewire slot for extra connections as well as the LED POST
indicator lights are also there to help with boot up troubleshooting. There are
dedicated power and reset buttons on the motherboard for users that have either
open cases or prefer to set up the hardware in an open environment for better
cooling and performance. In PCMark05 it scored 5659 PC marks that was the best
score in this category of boards. Asus P5K Delux also gave an outstanding
performance scoring 5570 in PCMark05, the second best score for this test but it
was clearly beaten by this XFX board.
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It scored 8207 3DMarks in our 3DMark06 test which is again, an impressive
score and is the top scorer in this test. XFX boards have been excellent
motherboards with excellent graphics capabilities, in the other test XFX 630i
performed decently well and that is why it as been considered as the one for
best performer award.
Other Contenders in this category
This category mainly focused on features and performance as the main criterion
for comparison, and then followed by the price. We saw different boards, some of
them were rich in features like the Asus P5K Premium or the Gigabyte MA 790 FX
DQ6 and some of them were very good in terms of performance like the XFX 780-I
SLI that did very well but was not able to score on a cumulative scale and that
is why these were not included in the list for the top ones. The motherboards in
this category offered 4 slots for DIMM and 6 ports for SATA with Raid,
Hi-Definition multi-channel audio, dual PCI, and gigabit LAN for expantion and
varied uses, multi PCI express slots for SLI and other configurations. Well, one
cannot ask for more, still there were some motherboards that had on offer
brilliant displays, wireless controllers, onboard LED to rev up the looks too
that came as an extra with some of the motherboards. In this category most of
the boards had 45 nm processor support, which means it's one of the most future
ready board while the overclocking feature that is the need for the gamer was
preset all across the line. So overall each one had something good or bad, but
the one that performed well, gave good features, and was good value for money
became the top choices.
Click for Table
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