Feature Discussion
If you compare today's motherboards with the products that were around a couple of years ago, you will notice that several changes have taken place. First of all, users now have a clear choice between the Intel architecture (Celeron and Pentium families) and the offerings from AMD (Sempron, Athlon 64). Though AMD processors and platforms have been around for many years, they had not always been able to keep pace with their Intel counterparts.
Provided that we are talking about mature technology - not components that have only been around for two weeks - the differences between platforms is down to five percent or less for non-graphics system benchmarks. It is mostly similar with processors, because upgrading from a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz to a P4 3.4 GHz will make more of a difference in the user's mind than in real life.
Since performance is not much of an issue any more, motherboard makers have been focusing on hardware and software features in order to have their boards stand out from the crowd. Additional connectivity, higher-class components, overclocking features and numerous little details are intended to win the customer's favor.
Quality Components
The P4N Diamond is equipped with four transistor-based voltage regulators.
Leaking capacitors and poor voltage regulators caused severe problems in the past. Today, most companies are more careful about the electrical components they use, and generally deploy better quality capacitors - Japanese suppliers have a decent reputation - as well as multi-phase voltage regulators. The more MOSFET components are placed in parallel to share the load, the less electrical and thermal strain results. Four phases are considered adequate today; some manufacturers deploy solutions with even more components.
