Whenever you plan to upgrade your system or purchase a new one, you often get confused with the technical jargon associated with a motherboard? Like the features it should support and the optimum price to pay for your requirements. In this story we provide information on the must-have features on a motherboard. We also tested 24 motherboards from Rs 2-8 k for price, performance and features to help you come up with the right choice
Within a family, a mother provides support to her children and facilitates
their growth and performance in the world outside. She is the one responsible
for her child's performance: good or bad. Ditto is the case with a PC
motherboard, ie mother of all boards. If your system is able to offer all the
features and performs well (it's stable and scalable), you would invariably end
up praising the motherboard and if it has limited features, and is poor on
performance, the poor board would be the first to receive flak. Though you can
never replace your mother in real life, thankfully, this is not the case with
PCs. So, in case you are planning to upgrade or buy a new motherboard, take out
a few minutes from your hectic routine and read through the following. You'll
find what's hot and what's not in the market. Here we go!
CPU support
A motherboard forms the base for any system. Each component is directly or
indirectly connected to it. Invariably it's the type of motherboard that
determines what CPU it can accommodate. The Intel-based motherboard will not
accommodate CPU from competing vendors. In fact, there is even a possibility
that it might not even accommodate a higher gigs CPU from the same vendor.
Generally, all entry-level or budget-range motherboards don't have support for
Quad cores; they only support single and dual core processors. Such is the need
of various applications today, that you at least need a motherboard that has
support for dual core processors. But the big question remains: what processor
to go for? With Intel and AMD dishing out so many options, it's always difficult
to pick the right one as per your need. Well, if your need is very basic and you
simply need a system to run office applications and connect to the Net, then any
budget range processor such as Intel Pentium IV, Intel Core Solo or AMD Sempron
would suffice. But it's still advisable to opt for a motherboard that has
support for dual core processors such as Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core,
and AMD Athlon, so that tomorrow when your needs increase you can upgrade the
processor rather than entirely changing your motherboard.
With the entry of Quad Core in the desktop segment, we even have motherboards
with support for Quad Core processors. In case, you are a professional gamer or
a high-end power user, then going for motherboards having support for a Quad
Core processor makes sense. Also, there is a move towards the 45 nm technology,
so checking whether your motherboard has support for that or not is also an
intelligent move. We already have a quad core processor based on this technology
from Intel, AMD will be joining the bandwagon soon, and we also believe that
processors based on 45nm technology will rule the market in near future. So,
this surely is an important criterion when we think in terms of upgradability.
Which chipset?
A chipset is basically a group of ICs or several chips designed to work
together. Since, the chipset controls communication amongst the processor and
external devices, it plays a crucial role in determining the system's
performance. We have two types of chipsets on the motherboard: Northbridge and
Southbridge. The Northbridge links the CPU to high-speed devices, especially
main memory and graphics controller while the Southbridge connects it to
low-speed peripheral buses such as PCI. The chipset limits the CPU types and
speeds that the board can take, the type of RAM you can install, and also limits
the extras such as integrated graphics, sound and USB 2.0 ports that can be
included on the board.
While opting for an entry level motherboard it's always advisable to go for
the one with in-built graphics chipset, otherwise you might have to bear the
additional cost of a graphics card. Chipset also allows you to configure RAID on
your motherboard, but that's common across only high-end motherboards.
It you are planning for a high-end board and will insert your own gaming
cards, then choose a board having the latest NVIDIA, Intel or ATI chipsets. This
will improve the overall performance. Intel P35 and ATI 790FX are new chipsets
that support Quad Core processors and are quite popular these days.
It's always an advantage to have all three display output options |
RAM support
Not so long ago DDR2 replaced the DDR, which in turn replaced the SDRAM from the
market. Now DDR3 is a threat to DDR2, which is slowly but surely finding its
stake in the market. The move towards DDR3 is mainly a step towards Green IT.
DDR3 promises to reduce power consumption by nearly 30% as compared to DDR2. It
also offers higher bandwidth compared to DDR2, hence power users and gamers will
go for DDR3. You will not find support for DDR3 in entry-level motherboards, it
is mainly available in the high-end versions. For entry-level DDR2 is good
enough.
It is always important to check how many DIMM slots are there in your
motherboard. This could be a restricting factor in terms of expandability. Go
for boards having at least 2 DIMM slots; they will provide you an economical
expandability option. Usually 4 DIMM slots are common across medium and high-
end motherboards, which enables them to have more expandability options in terms
of total RAM.
Graphics support
You won't need a graphics card if you choose a motherboard with an onboard
graphics chipset and when gaming is not your major requirement. But in case you
don't have built-in graphics chipset, you will need a graphics card to get
display on your monitor. Entry-level or budget range motherboards won't support
high-end graphics cards, so you can opt for either NVIDIA GeForce 8400 series,
ATI Radeon 2400 series or the 3000 series. They won't be heavy on your pocket
and will give you good Vista performance along with Direct X capability.
For medium range or high-end cards, it is beneficial to go for a motherboard
that supports SLI or CrossFire, 'coz invariably with more and more challenging
games being developed, you'll feel the need to have more than one card. So, look
for the board which has SLI and CrossFire support. Also remember, if you are
opting for the card having high capability, then invariably you would need a
higher power supply. Do check how much power supply your motherboard can bear
before buying an expensive card.
Expansion slots
Expansion slots are generally referred to as PCI and PCIe slots via which
you can add an additional RAID card (if your chipset has support for it),
graphics card, audio Card, LAN card, etc. So, it's important to have more
onboard slots, so that your motherboard has more expansion options. We have seen
motherboards with just single PCI and PCIe slots, and they are decent enough
when it comes to entry-level boards, but for high-end motherboards you'll surely
need more than that. For SLI and CrossFire to work you need at least two PCIe
slots. So, if expandability is there on your mind, opt for a motherboard that
has maximum expandability options.
Apart from the regular SATA port, some boards have additional SATA ports operated through a different chipset |
Storage and IDE
SATA has replaced PATA completely across the entire range of motherboards. What
matters is how many SATA connectors does the motherboard support? That will
determine how many HDDs you can actually use with the board. Four is generally
the norm, but we have seen boards supporting six as well, which is pretty cool.
RAID is common across the entire range of motherboards and ensures an extra
layer of stability. So while buying a motherboard it's important to consider
whether your motherboard has support for RAID or not, as it ensures data safety
and enhances performance.
One important thing that we noticed recently was the inability to load OS via
your CD ROM drive which is connected to an IDE. Some IDEs don't allow you to
boot up your system; you would need to connect an external drive via USB for
being able to load your OS on to the HDD. This is a big demerit and should be
avoided at all costs. Read the specifications carefully and check whether the
motherboard's IDE supports booting or not.
Connectivity options
All motherboards come with a LAN port and some USB ports. See how many USB
ports does the board supports? Does it support USB 2.0 connectivity? We have
seen boards with about two to six USB ports. The more they have, the better it
is, as most of the external peripherals can easily be connected via a USB.
In the high-end boards we have also seen support for WiFi which is a welcome
change brought about by Asus. Even HDMI, DVI has become a common feature in the
current motherboards, allowing you the opportunity to watch digitally enhanced
displays. Just connect your LCDs and enjoy watching a superior digital display.
FireWire and e-SATA are some of the other key features that are increasingly
being incorporated across motherboards. They provide additional benefits and are
a big plus to have in terms of future expandability and scalability.
How We Tested
This month we checked out motherboards that were priced between 2k to 8k. We
divided these boards into two categories-those below 4k, we called them
entry-level; and those between 4-8k, we called them as the budget boards. We
checked out these boards for their performance, features, and pricing. Next
month, we'll be featuring high-end motherboards.
Performance
To judge the performance of each board, we ran the following five
benchmarks:
PCMark05: A synthetic benchmark that tests 11 different parameters right
from OS boot up to 2D tests, HDD tests, etc.
3D Mark 2006: A highly intensive graphics and gaming benchmark,
designed to stress the board for its overall graphics capabilities.
POV Ray: To check how good was the CPU's response to render a
particular numbers of pixels. Here, the lesser the CPU time, the better.
Cine Bench10: Checks multi-core functionality of boards, since all
boards we received supported dual or Quad core.
Business Winston 2002: Runs several office productivity apps like
Office suites, browsing, antivirus, etc.
Features
Here, we compared all boards for ten features. These included the number of
PCI, and DIMM slots, number of USB ports, whether a board had onboard video or
not, and whether it had additional video options like HDMI, and DVI, in addition
to the standard VGA port. We also checked whether a board had a Gigabit LAN
port, support for 45 nm CPUs, SATA, and audio
support. In SATA, we checked the number of ports, 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 featured like
high-definition audio, etc.
Pricing
Here, we simply considered the cost and warranty of each board. Lastly, we
used the Brown Gibson model to arrive at the weightages for each aspect of
performance, features, and price. The overall weightages assigned to these
parameters have been given in the box above.
We feel that even at the entry-level today, price is not the most important
criterion for selection. Performance and features are also equally important,
which is why you will find that in our weightage we have taken into
consideration the importance of performance and features almost equal to that of
price.
Hardware Specs
We used an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz processor to test Intel-based boards,
while an AMD Athlon 64 X2 1.6 GHz CPU was used to test AMD-based boards. The
remaining configuration remained the same and comprised of 1 GB DDRII RAM (533
MHZ), 120 Seagate HDD (7200 RPM), LG Combo Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT/ 8800GT,
and WinXP SP2.
Sub-4k Boards
The Winners
JIN73 M2-VS
When it came to deciding the winner, it was a closely fought battle between
Jetway JIN73 M2 — VS and XFX 6230i-7100 boards. The Jetway claimed the top spot
largely due to its price; it costs around Rs 1,400 lower than the runner up
board-the XFX 6301. The Jetway JIN73 M2-VS supports Intel Core 2 Duo/ Quad and
also supports previous generation Intel Pentium 4. It comes with an NVIDIA
GeForce 7050/nForce 610i chipset and has 2 DIMM slots for DDRII RAM. The best
part about it is that it has all 3 video options available and comes with 6 USB
slots, which is the maximum you can get in this range.
In performance, its score in PC Mark05 and 3D Mark06 was just decent. In fact
its score of 4682 in PCMark05 was lower than what we have achieved from all
three MSI motherboards or XFX 630i-7100. Even in 3D Mark06 its score was lower
than the likes of MSI P35 Neo Combo and XFX 630i-7100. Nevertheless, these
scores were decent for a board of this class, fetching it a score of 79/100 in
performance.
In features, though it had almost everything one can ask for, where it
actually lost to XFX was the lack of onboard RAID support. But even then, at
this price, you can't expect to get anything better than this.
It's also priced cheaper than most of the other motherboards.
Overall, it's a clear cut winner because it doesn't compromise on features
despite such a low price.
XFX 630i-7100
With an overall performance score of 95/100, this board was the top
performer in its range. It scored a mammoth 8304 in 3D Mark06, which is pretty
high for an entry-level board. Even in PCMark05, a score of 5624 was the
highest, with only the MSI Neo Combo coming anywhere close to it. Though its
performance in POV Ray wasn't that great, its Business Winston score of 42 was
the highest in the category, ensuring that it's good for bothgraphics and
business productivity apps.
The board has support for Core 2 Duo and even Quad core processors. It's
based on NVIDIA's MCP73U/PVV/D chipset. Though it has only 2 DIMM slots, it
offers all three on board video options of VGA, HDMI, and DVI, which is a major
plus. It has support for 6 channel audio output and RAID. Probably an additional
x16 PCIe slot would have enabled it to offer SLI but then for an entry-level
board that's something which is of least importance.
Overall, if you need a board that's a top performer and has all the features
you could ask for in an entry-level board, then this board is definitely worth
the deal.
Other Contenders
This segment is primarily targeted at users who are on a shoestring
budget and aspire for satisfactory performance from a motherboard. While Jetway
JIN73 M2 — VS won hands down scoring handsomely on all parameters, we put
forward to you the 'also rans' who could not quite make it, but scored pretty
well in a specified category. The top runner-up honour goes to our highly
recommended test piece, the XFX 630i — 7100 which grabbed the top position in
the performance category, scoring highly in PCMark and 3DMark benchmark tests.
PC enthusiasts looking for a motherboard, which is actually worth its price,
then they may well have a look at Jetway JM2A 690 — VP. It scored a perfect 100
in the price parameter in our tests. Featuring 4 DIMM slots and USB ports each,
with onboard support for audio channels (3), LAN and VGA; this may be a good
deal. However, if features are your primary concern, then, at least in the entry
level nobody can compete with the MSI P35 Neo Combo. It features 4 slots each
for USB, SATA and DIMM. Additionally, it supports 6 audio channels, 2 LAN ports,
1 PCI express and 2 PCI slots. As far as performance is concerned, it returned
impressive figures of 5228 and 7897 on PCMark and 3DMark respectively.
Priced at only Rs 2,250, the Jetway J945 GCD MS-A2 is another option you may
consider if you are in a budget constraint and still demands good performance
with basic features. It scored 3387 on PCMark and 3389 on 3DMark, which is
decent enough for an entry- level board. Features are pretty basic with 4 ports
for USB and 2 each for DIMM, LAN, SATA and PCI. One PCI express slot also finds
a mention here and audio is supported onboard with 3 channels. The lone player
from Asus, the M2N-VM DVI was going strong, but still could not perform well
enough on all the parameters to claim the top spot. And two of the test boards
from ECS lost out mainly due to lack of features and high pricing. If you
compare the asked price v/s the features offered, you would inadvertently think
it didn't interest you enough as its competitors did. However, performance wise
it was at par with Jetway JIN73 M2-PHG-VT which is our overall winner in this
category. In fact, it fared pretty well when compared to MSI 945GC M5-FV2 in
terms of performance. MSI P35 Neo was the only board in this range which came
with the support for 45nm processor, making it one of the most future ready
board. So as soon as 45nm comes in this board will have support for it, whereas
other might need an upgrade.
As stated earlier, the entry level is for the price conscious consumers who
ask for maximum value for money with the least cost involved. We saw some boards
like XFX 630i — 7100 which went ahead and offered all the three video ports, and
some like the Jetway JM 26 GT3 — SVP which offered just a single SATA port, and
the JHA-02 GTE which had absolutely no onboard support for video. In some cases,
it may mean that you will have to shell out some extra cash to get an onboard
video card. It was good to see RAID support in majority of the board with only
some of the Jetway boards been the exception in this regard.
Overall, lots have changed in this segment and all these are welcome change.
Rs 4-8k Boards
The Winners
XFX 630i—7150
While testing this board, somehow intuitively we knew it was going to
win. Promising robust performance and features to kill for and yet being easy on
your pocket is what the 630i—7150 is all about. It supports Intel's Core 2
Extreme (both quad and dual core) and Core 2 Duo processors. It is compatible
with nVIDIA MCP73U/PV/V/D chipset. In features, it supports 4 USB ports, 6 Audio
channels, 1 PCI-Express slot and 2 PCI slots, 2 slots each for DIMM and LAN and
3 slots for SATA. Video outlets are provided on board with HDMI, VGA and DVI. An
added advantage of having an HDMI port is that you can transfer both audio and
video signals to a desired device, and the XFX 630i — 7150 empowers you to do
just that.
In PCMark05, it scores 5624, which was second best in this range, with MSI
P6N SLI giving the best score of 6248. It scored 8304 3DMarks in 3DMark06
benchmark, which was the highest in this category. This goes to prove that XFX
boards have been excellent with graphics capabilities. In fact the only close
competitor to this board was MSI P965 Neo which scored 8288 3DMarks. In the
other tests, XFX 630i-7150 fared well and overall its performance score was in
close proximity to the MSI P6N SLI board.
MSI P965 Neo
The MSI P965 Neo supports Intel Dual Core and Pentium 4 processors,
whereas Intel ICH8 and Intel P965 chipsets are compatible on it. It features 4
DIMM slots, 1 PCI-Express and 3 PCI slots, 4 USB ports, 6 audio support channels
and 4 SATA and 2 LAN ports.
It scored 5088 in PCMark, which is slightly lower then XFX, but a good score
nevertheless. In 3DMark06, it was second highest with a score of 8288 3DMarks.
It performed better than the XFX board in the POV Ray benchmark, wherein its CPU
response time was around 4 as compared to XFX's 5. Apart from that both were
almost equal. It lost majorly due to a lack of features. Had it come with any
one of the video options, either DVI or HDMI or even VGA, it would have given a
tough fight for the top spot. Its pricing however is better than the XFX board,
but you'll have to shell out extra for a video card to use this board.
Other Contenders
Budget ranges includes the users who are ready to pay a bit extra,
but not very much and still want to enjoy almost all the features and blazing
performance from their motherboard. While in the entry level the first warrior
from the XFX family, the 630i — 7100 just missed the top slot by a whisker, its
sibling, the XFX 630i — 7150 manages to grab the honour of the overall best
performer in all categories in the budget range of motherboards.
If features are of prime importance to you, you may consider the MSI G33M
which offers 4 slots each for DIMM and SATA, 6 slots each for USB and Audio, 2
each for PCI and LAN, 1 PCI express slot and 1 VGA port for video output. Well,
you couldn't have asked for more, at least in the budget range and is the only
board which comes with 45nm processor support, which means its one of the most
future ready board. You won't need to upgrade your motherboard if you want to
migrate to 45nm processor.
There may still be some, who are unable to stretch their budget and demand
the best possible features and performance in the least possible amount. For
them, Simmtronics SIMM NV — 7050 would be the ideal choice as it costs a little
over Rs. 4000/- and offers 4 slots each for DIMM and USB, 2 each for PCI, LAN
and SATA, 3 video ports (HDMI, VGA and DVI), 6 audio channels and 1 PCI express
slot.
The budget range starts from Rs. 4000 onwards. Hence people investing such
amount of money would obviously expect performance and features a notch higher
than the entry level range. However, we were quite disappointed to see some
features synonymous with the sub 4K range like one or no PCI/video ports, 3
audio channels even in a budget range. All the three entrants from Gigabyte did
manage to perform well in our score but where lacking in features in that price
bracket. We have seen other boards offering more features at that price range.
Asus M2A-VM DVI was a strong contender in the competition. As it was priced
brilliantly but again due to lack of features it was hit badly, but it should
not be counted out simple coz of it's pricing. You get almost all features and
decent performance at an attractive price, making it a board worth a look. Even
the other Asus board M2R32-MVP scored very high in performance but eventually
lack of features and higher price led to its downfall.
Ankush Sharma and Saurangshu Kanunjna with help from Vijay Chauhan