Gigabyte 8IG1000MK

The Gigabyte 8IG1000MK, based on the Intel 865G chipset, is a good performer and very affordable as well. We tested the board using a P4 3.2 GHz and Gainward Geforce 5900FX card (8X AGP) having 128 MB RAM, Seagate 40 GB (2 MB cache) HDD and 512 MB DDR RAM. The board has two Serial ATA connectors, eight USB ports, one IrDA connector and support for up to 4 GB of DRAM. When compared with the comparable Gigabyte GA-8I865PE-TW that we reviewed last month (page 131), this one is much more economical and equally good in terms of performance. In the PCmark benchmark this board beat the 8I865PE-TW by a margin of 9%. In the Quake3 graphics benchmark, the PE-TW won by a margin of 10%. In all other tests the performance of both the boards was at the same level.

Most of the features of both the boards are quite similar, except for the fact that the PE-TW comes with a five-year warranty as against the three-year warranty being offered by this board. Since both are equal in terms of performance and also the 8IG1000MK is Rs 3,000 cheaper than the PE-TW, the 81G1000MK is definitely a better option, particularly if you are not looking for that extra bit of gaming performance.

The Bottom Line: The Gigabyte 8IG1000MK is an economical board which does not compromise on the performance front.

Ankit Kawatra