11-Way P45 Motherboard Shootout

Conclusion

The P45 Express is Intel’s new mainstream chipset, but that didn’t mean the motherboards had to use it on mainstream products. A few of today’s samples were lower-cost alternatives to super-expensive X48 models, a few put a gamer-oriented twist on traditional budget parts, and the rest fell somewhere between the two extremes.

We even had a few winners, such as the Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 for the most onboard features and the ECS P45T-A for the lowest-priced CrossFireX performance model. Yet showing off in a few categories doesn’t automatically qualify a product for an award, and neither of these models stood out consistently throughout our tests.

The ASRock P45TS-R could become the motherboard enthusiasts love to hate, with its good performance, lack of features and haphazard connector layout. The fact that it has fewer features than any other part in today’s comparison makes it difficult to consider for a value award, and the lack of sellers quoting a retail price makes such an award impossible.

The second-best performer in today’s comparison, MSI’s P45D3 Platinum also reached the highest stable CPU speed. A generous feature set and good layout further increases its worth, but when it comes to value, we couldn’t find anyone selling it.

Third-place performer and second-place CPU overclocker, MSI’s P45 Platinum looks like a great product, and one that a person can actually buy. Having the same feature set as the P45D3 Platinum, its $175 starting price is completely acceptable. The only question left is whether or not the $25 difference between it and the better-featured P5Q Deluxe favors MSI or Asus. For us, the value competition is a draw between these two feature-laden products.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • nickchalk
    Where are the lower price P45 M/B ?
    Asus P5Q pro is out for €110 and P5Q deluxe for €165 the price difference is about 70$ in Greece.
    Reply
  • nihility
    51 pages... You won't be upset if I read just the last 3 pages right?
    Reply
  • Proximon
    I suppose I can get some good from having read this. Did you get paid by the word? Maybe next time you could just put together a complete features chart so that we can have some convenient comparison? You know, so someone could go to a chart and see at a glance which boards had eSATA or firewire, or 8 USB.

    Reply
  • JPForums
    I'd rather have the overabundance of information than a lack of information. Presentation could use a little refining (I.E. comparison charts and the likes), but having the relevant information available at least is a good thing.
    Reply
  • the introduction and specifics are nice, the comparision isn't. so, why don't you test with an 8500 or qx9650? 6850 are outdated... and a mobo handling a c2d doesn't mean it can handle a quad too, see P5K for example (it stinks when it comes to a q6600).
    Reply
  • Crashman
    procithe introduction and specifics are nice, the comparision isn't. so, why don't you test with an 8500 or qx9650? 6850 are outdated... and a mobo handling a c2d doesn't mean it can handle a quad too, see P5K for example (it stinks when it comes to a q6600).
    Tom's Hardware wants the performance of current articles to reflect that of recent articles, so a "standard test platform" was chosen a while ago. It will get updated, but probably not before the new socket becomes widely available.
    Reply
  • zenmaster
    I would have liked to see something such as a P35 and an X48 as controls to help analyze the P45 Performance.

    In otherwords, What is the P45 Gaining me over the older P35.
    What would I gain by going to the X48. (Or Lose)
    Reply
  • Crashman
    zenmasterI would have liked to see something such as a P35 and an X48 as controls to help analyze the P45 Performance.In otherwords, What is the P45 Gaining me over the older P35.What would I gain by going to the X48. (Or Lose)http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-p45-chipset,1961.html
    Reply
  • johnbilicki
    The first 17 pages were filled with nothing but junk from ASUS. Do us a favor: don't even bother featuring or *MENTIONING* anything for any reason from a company that refuses to RMA 200-400 dollar brand new motherboards with anything other then used and usually broken junk. It destroyed my enthusiasm for the article.
    Reply
  • dobby
    nickchalkWhere are the lower price P45 M/B ?Asus P5Q pro is out for €110 and P5Q deluxe for €165 the price difference is about 70$ in Greece.
    the p5q PRo is a p43 board, i should know i have one
    Reply