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Who makes the best-value motherboard for under $100? It really depends on what features you’re looking for. The Asus P5QL Pro offered the best performance and lowest price, but its performance leadership was too small to make us forget about the motherboard’s cramped layout. In fact, the MSI P43 Neo3-F tied for lowest price, and its relatively good layout makes it a similarly good choice in spite of its 0.52% slower performance.
Anyone trying to put off buying a graphics card will, of course, prefer a motherboard that has onboard graphics, and the good news for these buyers is that the ECS G45T-M2 is relatively fast and stable. The only reason we couldn’t recommend it to a wider group of value-seekers is that it can’t be overclocked at all, and overclocking is where most of us get better value.
Our top two picks for overclockers are the ASRock P45XE and Jetway BI-500. The BI-500 allowed slightly better CPU stability, but the P45XE allowed much greater bus speeds to be used. Because the average low-budget overclocker will be limited to low-multiplier processors, the P45XE might be the better choice.
Finally there’s the gaming crowd who could find extra value by using a pair of low-cost Radeon HD 4830 graphics cards in CrossFire mode. The two motherboards in today’s comparison that had the best overclocking capability also featured the CrossFire-supporting P45 chipset, but only one of these is a true CrossFire-enhanced design—the ASRock P45XE supports automatic switching between a single graphics card in PCIe 2.0 x16 mode and dual cards in x8 mode, while the Jetway BI-500 forces the second graphics card to limp along using previous-generation PCIe technology {and} x4 pathways.
Good performance and excellent overclocking capability make ASRock’s motherboard look like a good performance value, but added features are where the P45XE really shines. These include proper CrossFire support, automatic PCIe switching for CrossFire mode, and the rarely-seen but much-appreciated ability to set AHCI drives as removable devices. This overwhelming combination of performance, overclocking capabilities, and mid-priced features leads us to select ASRock’s P45XE as the best overall value in a budget-enthusiast motherboard.
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interesting, although pretty much anyone building a P775 system these days would spend a bit more than $100... and somethings really weird with this commenting thing cos i can't read what i'm typing... it just ... doesnt fill the box? just when i type something it instantly goes to the left instead of filling the box... but anyway, interesting if a bit useless article.
FWIW, the issue with text disappearing from the commenting box as you're typing is something I've reported and m waiting for a fix still. Thanks for confirming that it's still an issue.
Yes - everyone has money shooting out of their pantless ass to buy more expensive motherboards. I use a gigabyte Ep35 DS3L and am very happy with it. What is a >$100 board going to give me? Is it just that you want to waste money? I'm guessing you are one of those people who carry a balance on your credit card and lease a Lexus - you debt-carrying phag.
"What is a >$100 board going to give me?
I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports.
I run the I.T. department for a couple small businesses, and the sub $100 motherboard is almost essential in today's economy. Sure I could use a $120-$150 motherboard, DDR3, 10000 RPM hard drive, and all kinds of other things, but I would end up with a system that is only marginal faster in business applications for 3+ times the price. Take one of the G3x or G4x motherboards, 2GB DDR2, Intel E7x00 CPU and 80GB+ HDD and you have a system that will meet the needs of a good majority of businesses and home users. I am personally a gamer and can see the value in the higher end components; but there are a lot of other market segments out there where this makes financial sense.
"I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports."
The DS3L has 4 Sata ports which could easily handle 3 terabytes and a DVD drive. You could have saved money by editing down your porn collection and deleting your stolen .iso's of the entire "Friday the 13th" collection. Then you would have had enough space to install "Mavis Beacon Teaches Touch Typing". That would give you something else to do with your hands during your "adult film" marathons.
Did you happen to notice that the comment box detects your errors and underlines them in red?
"I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports."
The DS3L has 4 Sata ports which could easily handle 3 terabytes and a DVD drive. You could have saved money by editing down your porn collection and deleting your stolen .iso's of the entire "Friday the 13th" collection. Then you would have had enough space to install "Mavis Beacon Teaches Touch Typing". That would give you something else to do with your hands during your "adult film" marathons.
Did you happen to notice that the comment box detects your errors and underlines them in red?
I got a Gigabyte UD3P for $99 during black friday... would that top this list?
I got a Gigabyte UD3P for $84.50 during Black Friday, pwned you ninja gaiden fag.
Wait, no AMD stuff?
lol @ rjcorrin's 1st comment.
In reply: Maybe he already had HDDs laying around of smaller size and thought it best to save money by spending a few more dollars on more SATA ports than hundreds on new 3 x 1TB HDDs. You're reasoning is asinine and self contradicting.
Did you happen to notice that the comment box detects your errors and underlines them in red?
Did you happen to notice you're using Firefox? It, not this comment box, does that.
"I have a DS3P becuae i need the exrta SATA ports."The DS3L has 4 Sata ports which could easily handle 3 terabytes and a DVD drive. You could have saved money by editing down your porn collection and deleting your stolen .iso's of the entire "Friday the 13th" collection.
And what about Raid? And all the PC's I've had in this Millennium have had 2 Removable Disk drives.
Not to mention I have multiple OSes installed, and an extra drive I use for storage (I reformat often). So I have plenty of drives.
Ummm, maybe I missed it but I didn't see anywhere that said what video/graphics card was used in these test. Anyone!?! I'm curious because of the power consumption numbers. Thanks.
Attention to detail alert... The MSI Neo3-f has eight SATA ports not, as the article claims, six.
lol @ rjcorrin's 1st comment.In reply: Maybe he already had HDDs laying around of smaller size and thought it best to save money by spending a few more dollars on more SATA ports than hundreds on new 3 x 1TB HDDs. You're reasoning is asinine and self contradicting.
I am suggesting he can reduce the bytes of crap he is retaining by legalizing his content. For all I know, he already has 8 terabyte SATA drives.
Seriously, running all 8 SATA ports is going to take a massive case and an equally massive power supply. This dude doesn't need more SATA ports, he needs a data center.
Attention to detail alert... The MSI Neo3-f has eight SATA ports not, as the article claims, six.
This is the exact number of ports on the DS3P. So, again, what does a >$100 board going to give me?
Though this does give you an what our Taiwan & Chinese friends have in the goodie bin at the local computer store.. you will still want to wait to bu
Though this does give you an what our Taiwan & Chinese friends have in the goodie bin at the local computer store.. you will still want to wait to bu
Ugh, got cut off..
Wait to build your system until Q1, Q2 processor price cuts of 2009.. especially if you have your heart set on $ inTEL $ 775 vs amd.
Did you happen to notice you're using Firefox? It, not this comment box, does that.And what about Raid? And all the PC's I've had in this Millennium have had 2 Removable Disk drives.Not to mention I have multiple OSes installed, and an extra drive I use for storage (I reformat often). So I have plenty of drives.
/Sarcasm
Maybe I should load up a few more OSes, Opera, IE (6 & 7) and Chrome to fully analyze the capabilities of this text box. I should probably hook up a raid array (mode 0+1 anyone?) to maximize my system performance and maintain the integrity of my porn collection prior to starting my full analysis of this text box.
/sarcasm
Do you get any real work done on that computer of yours? Seems like you're spending all your time loading operating systems, plugging in drives, reformatting, and flipping between your extensive collection of linux derivatives. Get a life dude!! You are a hacker-poser!
And...
Merry Christmas to EVERYONE!! (even the Jews)
Merry Christmas