Motherboard Review Roundup - P45, X48, X58 & More

• Driverheaven: Gigabyte EP45-DS3R Motherboard Review:
  
  

  "The Gigabyte EP45-DS3R is an impressive board which offers great performance and features for under £90/$130. While the board’s performance isn’t groundbreaking, the overclocking capabilities should be more than enough for the general enthusiast and the rear panel has great connectivity as well as ATI Crossfire support. The lack of strong cooling on the board will restrict overclocking to some degree, but the P45 chipset is a great performer and has fairly cool running temperatures."

  
  Click here to read the full review.
  
  
  
• Hardware Secrets: Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H Motherboard:
  
  

  "Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H is a very well loaded motherboard for the usage it is targeted for: HTPC’s or PCs for editing audio and video. What makes this an spectacular motherboard for these applications are the presence of three video outputs (VGA, DVI and HDMI supporting digital audio; only two of them can be used at the same time), the presence of an optical SPDIF output, Firewire ports (excellent for connecting digital camcorders based on this standard) and the impressive Realtek ALC889A codec, a rarity even on high-end motherboards."

  
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• MadShrimps: DFI X48-T3RS review - redefining the high end?:
  
  

  "And so we come to the last page of this article. As you probably might have guessed by now, the DFI UT X48-T3RS was a very mixed bag for us. On the one hand it makes a lot of promises: the board uses only top quality components, has an excellent layout, sports the (arguably) best cooling solution of its time, and uses Intel's very best chipset: the X48. Above all, the board supports the very best memory products out there, up to 2Ghz in an OC'ed condition (or at least, that is what the specifications are telling us). Finally, this board carries the best enthusiast name in the business: DFI, and has the bios signature of the very best engineer that walks the earth: Oscar Wu."

  
  Click here to read the full review.
  
  
  
• t-break: ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe Motherboard:
  
  

  "The Asus M3A79-T Deluxe motherboard is perfect for all AM2+ users to achieve great results in overclocking with the new AMD SB750 southbridge chipset. As the HDD performance is raised because of it, it can be faster in a Raid 0 configuration to give the users what they want with other features like AMD overdrive.
  
  The performance of this board stacks up well against its counterparts. Thanks to the 790FX this board performs exceptionally well without having to shell out of the high end motherboard prices. One of the side effects while using an AMD 9850 CPU, we noticed the MOSFET temperatures rise slowly to hit a high 80C on our thermometer. This happens because the CPU is using the 140w power and the MOSFET heatsink has no fan on it. So we installed an 80mm fan on it to see the temperatures drop to a more acceptable 45C during full load."

  
  Click here to read the full review.
  
  
  
• t-break: Asus Rampage II Extreme:
  
  

  "As Intel marched on with the X58 featuring the new LGA1366 socket for the upcoming Core i7, Asus was quick to get their high end contender featuring the new chipset ready. Ready to be overclocked right out of the box and with extreme features like TweakIT and ProbeIT, the Asus Rampage II Extreme is taking high-end to a new high, just as they did with the Rampage Extreme.
  
  Performance wise, compared to the Intel DX58SO, it is no doubt better even when compared to the LGA775 boards. We did also try overclocking this beast, but using the 965EE CPU, we could only hit a BCLK of 168 MHz. We’re pretty sure Asus will do something about it with BIOS updates to get it to 200 MHz and beyond."

  
  Click here to read the full review.