PCs are phenomenally flexible, configurable devices. That's kinda why we love to 'em a great deal. But you can find limits to what you can achieve. And a lot of these are based on your choice of motherboard, all of which means clarity of purpose is paramount. Identify what you want from the PC and ensure there is a motherboard to match.
This month we've selected a trio of motherboard pairings to suit three popular usage models: small-form factor systems with HTPC capability, overclocking rigs and high-end multi-GPU gaming monsters.
Before we arrived at the boards under consideration, what from the seminal AMD or Intel question? Actually, at the moment it's often very little of a quandary because of the feebleness on most of AMD's processor selection. We've said it before, however it is seriously not so good news for the entire PC industry to possess AMD struggling to keep Intel honest.
If the much needed 45nm die shrink with the AMD Phenom family of processors doesn't narrow the gap significantly, anticipate seeing Intel pushup the costs. For now, if performance is a priority, AMD chips are frankly uncompetitive, even at the less expensive end of the spectrum. But throw issues for example power consumption, form factor and HTPC considerations into the mix and it's really an extremely different story.
For the HTPC-centric category, we've therefore turned to a set of completely new AMD-compatible boards using the latest and a lot sophisticated integrated chipsets, the GeForce 8200M from NVIDIA and AMD's 780G. Should there be an Intel-powered alternative links near to those two for small-form factor media PC prowess, we've yet to see it.
Palit's N78S as well as the Gigabyte GA-MA780GM-S2H are both micro-ATX boards effortlessly passive cooling and fancy new DirextX 10 capable integrated CPUs. Indeed, they both represent our first taste of your new accept multi-GPU graphics rendering from NVIDIA and AMD, dubbed 'Hybrid SLI' and 'Hybrid CrossFire' respectively.
The fundamental idea behind both will be the pairing from the motherboard's integrated GPU with a discrete graphics card. However the details diverge enough to make them substantially different propositions.
Pairing Up
Both solutions allow users to boost the performance of the add-in graphics card by running it in multi-GPU mode using the integrated graphics chip. In accordance with claims from both NVIDIA and AMD, it's wise a huge increase in performance for low-end graphics cards. In practice, it is really an overly complex and inefficient way of achieving barely acceptable 3D performance, but more on that later. Hybrid CrossFire's abilities more or less end there. The greater attractive of these two definitely is Hybrid SLI, represented by Palit's N78S and its NVIDIA GeForce 8200M chipset. Like Hybrid SLI cap also behave as a power-saving measure for high performance PCs. On this scenario, users can switch between a powerful but noisy and glutinous graphics board and also the onboard integrated GPU from the inside Windows.
You don't need to reboot or swap monitor cables around. Connect your monitor to the motherboard's video-out port and enable the NVIDIA driver software to accomplish the others. That features completely powering down the add-in GPU and it is cooling fan. Clever, eh? Hybrid graphics with DirectX 10 support isn't the only common feature. These boards also share the consideration of sporting the very first integrated chipsets to boast full hardware acceleration of three from the important video codecs, VC-1, AVC and MPEG2. In the asus laptops two caser, this comes due to the newest 2D video engines from NVIDIA and AMD, referred to as PureVideo HD and UVD. That's just what you need, obviously, to guarantee smooth playback of full 1080p Blu-ray discs.
Home HD Motherboards
If both of these home cinema-centric boards are remarkably similar, additionally, there are very little between the P35 pairing we've selected for the overclocking showdown. The reality is, Intel's P35 continues to be the weapon of choice, if it's pure CPU speed you're seeking. Remarkably, that continues to be the truth despite the appearance of NVIDIA's swanky new 790i, a chipset we suspected could topple the P35 chipset from its position of king of the overclockers.
It is not uncommon to find out P35 hit bus speeds in excess of 500MHz without the need for hit and miss tweaking of northbridge voltages. Even Intel's latest X48 chipset typically tends to run out of puff around 475MHz. For the reason that context, awareness of detail and execution will separate MSI P35 Platinum from Asus's trusty P5K3 Deluxe.
But what of high-end motherboard design to form the cornerstone of multi-GPU performance PCs? Until recently, the pickings were a little thin. Intel's X38 and X48 chipsets are fine things indeed, with regards to performance. But because of NVIDIA's decision to lock SLI technology down to its own chipsets (unnecessarily in our opinion), the X38 and X48 only support AMD's competing CrossFire platform. That meant SLI fans were instructed to go with the somewhat substandard NVIDIA 680i or 780i option. But not anymore. NVIDIA has returned on form with the 790i. It will be an extremely tight contest for top honors. If that's the theory behind every one of these boards, how can they perform in the silicon?
Perhaps the most intriguing motherboards listed here are the AMD-compatible micro-ATX pair. In concert with a minimal voltage dual-core Athlon 64 processor they deliver truly spectacular power efficiency. Each of the boards are within spitting distance of 100 watts running at full CPU load and idle across the 50 watt mark.
That's for a full system with 2GB of RAM, hard disk and optical drive. That is representative of as little as one fourth of the consumption of a high-end quad-core rig. It also results in extremely unobtrusive operation this is a perfect match for any home cinema installation Less impressive may be the performance of its much-touted DX10 integrated GPUs, in 3D mode no less than. Neither can handle anything remotely resembling a pleasing gaming experience. And admittedly neither pack enough grunt to really make the Hybrid dual-GPU option at all attractive.
Where things acquire more interesting is the contest for home cinema prowess. Which must go to the Gigabyte due to its HDMI port and fully driver-supported 2D acceleration core. Add a low-voltage AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor plus you've got a motherboard and CPU combo with full HD capabilities just for $l80.
As for the P35 overclocker's boards, it really is mostly one-way traffic. Due to 520MHz is an impressive bus speed hitting for almost any Intel-compatible motherboard. The fact the Asus P5K3 Deluxe can perform it with no voltage tweaks produces an incredibly user-friendly overclocking platform. You can be confident you'll receive the most from any CPU with this particular motherboard.
Our only doubt involves the undeniable fact that it's really a DDR3 motherboard. In theory the bigger clockspeeds of DDR3 memory should be a benefit for overclocking. In practice, a pair of quality DD2 memory DIMMs do the job just tine. Element in the current utterly ludicrous cost of DDR3 memory sticks and also the benefits just don't mount up.
Performance per Pound
All of these just leaves exactly the high price X48 and 790i pairing from MSI and Asus respectively. There isn't any doubting the new Striker II Extreme from Asus is a sickeningly desirable thing. Anything from its feature-packed BIOS, towards the hardware power and reset buttons as well as the northbridge heatsink pre-plumbed for water cooling, reek of quality, class and many of most expense.
The 790i chipset also brings NVIDIA's SLI platform bang current with DDR3 and proper PCI Express support, as well as decent overclocking headroom. Just like it's, however, it simply can not be worth nearly $450. Particularly when it offers less overclocking oomph than Asus's own sub-$l50 Intel P35 board. The performance good thing about the 790i chipset is far too slender to make any real world difference, too.
The spoils must therefore go to MSI's X48 platinum. It's really a lean, mean enthusiast board with a sensible price. Yes, it will lock you into AMD's CrossFire platform with regards to multi-GPU support. But until NVIDIA puts the interests of buyers ahead of its own selfish desires to maximize revenues from SLI chipsets, the right multi-GPU platform just is not possible.