Introduction

With the launch of the Core 2 Duo E6xxx series and Extreme X6800, readers are now spoilt for choice. Should they retain their old AMD S939 system or upgrade to AM2 or Intel Core 2 Duo?

The past weeks, we have posted at least 4 reviews of mainboards that support the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processor. So what should one look for when you are looking for a board ?

Are price factor more important? What about the features ? Does enthusiast board means you have to burn a hole in your pocket ? What about CrossFire support? These are just some of the questions one will ask.

Among the boards we have tested so far,  ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, ASRock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 and ASUS P5W Deluxe DH, Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6, the 2 first two boards are budget boards that are priced under a 100 USD. The other two are more expensive models that are priced much higher than the two budget boards. The ASUS board is priced at ~USD 269.99, the Gigabyte model is priced at ~ USD 279.99.

The two budget boards are priced at USD 58 for 775Dual-VSTA and USD 82.99 for the ASRock ConroeXFire-eSATA2.

Pricing of ASRock 775Dua-VSTA

Judging from the price itself, the difference between the 4 boards are quite substantial. Considering the performance factor, the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA based on the VIA PT880Pro chipset + 8237A is considered an old pair of chipsets. The North bridge supports only a PCIe x4. Results shows that 3D performance takes a dip in comparison with the 3 other boards. Although this board is slightly slower, it offers a native AGP implementation and supports both DDR and DDR2 modules (operated seperately). It gives budget users a chance who wants to tap the power of Core 2 Duo/Extreme CPU power without going through the hassle of upgrading to the more expensive DDR2 modules. The options opened for AGP also allow users to be able to use both the AGP and PCIe graphics card at the same time for surround display. The BIOS offers very minimum options for you to adjust other than the FSB. The board is also Windows Vista™ Premium Logo Hardware Ready.

Pricing of ASRock ConroeXfire-eSATA2

ASRock has another board - ConroeXFire-eSATA2. This board priced slightly higher than the 775Dual-VSTA has a better feature set. It includes Gigabit Ethernet, 1394, ATi CrossFire support. Surprisingly, this board is now based on the more expensive i965 or i975x chipset. It is actually based on the proven 945P chipset. Something to take note about this board is that it has a AGI Express port which is running in 4X mode. So, if you are running CrossFire, it is actually running in a 4x+4x mode. The 4 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5 and Intel^® Matrix Storage), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions. There are also 2 x eSerial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support "Hot Plug" function, HDMI_SPDIF header, providing SPDIF audio output to HDMI VGA card, allows the system to connect HDMI Digital TV/projector/LCD devices. 7.1 Channel with High Definition Audio. The board is also Windows Vista™ Premium Logo Hardware Ready.

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