Stephen ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP @ ViperLair
“If you was to ask any PC hardware enthusiast who some of their favourite manufacturers are, I’d lay down money that one name that would keep popping up would be Asus. They do try to cater to everyone and for everything with their motherboards and other products. The motherboard I’m looking at here, the manual for it has 6 pages at the front describing the special features, both expected and extra.”
Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2H @ Bjorn3D
“Among enthusiasts this has become a four letter word never to be uttered in their presence. It has come to mean lacking, underpowered and weak. But there is another side to integrated. Efficient, flexible, and simple. If you are looking to put together a home theatre PC (HTPC) then finding the right motherboard with integrated components is crucial.”
ECS G31T-M @ TweakTown
“Our first G31 candidate is the ECS G31T-M motherboard. ECS has always produced the best low-end boards you will ever see, as they tend to add in features whilst keeping their prices down. Their boards usually have some overclocking potential as well, so let’s see just how well the G31T-M behaves today.”
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6580 @ TBreak
“Today we take a look at Intel’s mighty QX6850 CPU- their current top of the line CPU. Before the release of this CPU, Intel gave you a choice of either buying a faster dual core CPU or a slightly slower quad core CPU but with the QX6850, Intel throws all of its muscle behind it allowing you to get their fastest Core2 CPU with four cores.”
MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital @ PCStats
“MSI’s K9AG Neo2 Digital has an HDMI port right at the back. That means the K9AG Neo2 Digital is ready for HTPC use right out of the box – as opposed to a DVI-to-HDMI converter, the HDMI jack signifies it has audio as well as video signals. The former can only provide the HDMI video signal.”
abit AN-M2HD @ Virtual-Hideout
“Most motherboards are usually geared toward the enthusiast or the budget builder, but more and more manufacturers lately are creating specialty-type motherboards, like ones for home entertainment. abit has created a motherboard just for this niche of people: the AN-M2HD. As the days pass, HTPC’s continue to gain massive popularity with moviephiles with the advent of larger storage devices and HDMI.”
ECS G31T-M @ TechPowerUp!
“ECS has released the ECS G31T-M as affordable Core 2 Duo motherboard which supports the latest Quad-Core and 1333 FSB CPUs at an affordable price of less than $75. In our testing we saw that performance is on par with much more expensive high-end motherboards. The integrated Intel VGA is also a nice addition because you don’t have to buy a video card for your office machine or can use it to play back video in a Media PC.”
MSI K9A3 CF @ Trusted Reviews
“MSI has used the RD780 chipset in a very basic CrossFire motherboard that is satisfyingly cheap but we have our reservations about the memory and graphics performance of this pre-production sample.”
ASUS Blitz Formula @ ViperLair
“Asus have done a great job with the BIOS and it is one of the easiest we have ever used. Even the most inexperienced overclocker should be able to leave pretty much everything on automatic and achieve a very high overclock. Those who know what they are doing will have plenty to play with as the options are extensive to say the least.”
Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6 @ Trusted Reviews
“For the time being we’re unconvinced by Intel’s X38 chipset and DDR3 memory but Gigabyte has done a decent job with the GA-X38T-DQ6 and it looks like it could be future-resistant for a year or two which is pretty good going in this game.”