Pipe Dreams: Six P35-DDR3 Motherboards Compared

Applications

MSI's low-cost P35 Neo Combo makes a startling rise to the top in 3D Studio Max.

Audio

Asus takes the lead in Lame audio encoding, but MSI gets both its boards into the spotlight for OGG. The actual performance difference in these tests normally comes down to the smallest of variations in CPU clock speed.

Video

Gigabyte's high-end board took the lead in DivX, and several retest proved its miniscule advantage to be consistent. The same is true of both MSI motherboards in XviD.

Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.