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How to Choose A MotherBoard
Continued from page: 1
Friday, February 01, 2008
How We Tested
This month we checked out motherboards that were priced between 2k to 8k. We
divided these boards into two categories-those below 4k, we called them
entry-level; and those between 4-8k, we called them as the budget boards. We
checked out these boards for their performance, features, and pricing. Next
month, we'll be featuring high-end motherboards.
Performance
To judge the performance of each board, we ran the following five
benchmarks:
PCMark05: A synthetic benchmark that tests 11 different parameters right
from OS boot up to 2D tests, HDD tests, etc.
3D Mark 2006: A highly intensive graphics and gaming benchmark,
designed to stress the board for its overall graphics capabilities.
POV Ray: To check how good was the CPU's response to render a
particular numbers of pixels. Here, the lesser the CPU time, the better.
Cine Bench10: Checks multi-core functionality of boards, since all
boards we received supported dual or Quad core.
Business Winston 2002: Runs several office productivity apps like
Office suites, browsing, antivirus, etc.
Features
Here, we compared all boards for ten features. These included the number of
PCI, and DIMM slots, number of USB ports, whether a board had onboard video or
not, and whether it had additional video options like HDMI, and DVI, in addition
to the standard VGA port. We also checked whether a board had a Gigabit LAN
port, support for 45 nm CPUs, SATA, and audio
support. In SATA, we checked the number of ports, whether they supported RAID,
and whether there was a second SATA controller chip as well. In audio support,
we looked for the number of channels supported as well as featured like
high-definition audio, etc.
Pricing
Here, we simply considered the cost and warranty of each board. Lastly, we
used the Brown Gibson model to arrive at the weightages for each aspect of
performance, features, and price. The overall weightages assigned to these
parameters have been given in the box above.
We feel that even at the entry-level today, price is not the most important
criterion for selection. Performance and features are also equally important,
which is why you will find that in our weightage we have taken into
consideration the importance of performance and features almost equal to that of
price.
Hardware Specs
We used an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz processor to test Intel-based boards,
while an AMD Athlon 64 X2 1.6 GHz CPU was used to test AMD-based boards. The
remaining configuration remained the same and comprised of 1 GB DDRII RAM (533
MHZ), 120 Seagate HDD (7200 RPM), LG Combo Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT/ 8800GT,
and WinXP SP2.
Sub-4k Boards
The Winners
JIN73 M2-VS
When it came to deciding the winner, it was a closely fought battle between
Jetway JIN73 M2 – VS and XFX 6230i-7100 boards. The Jetway claimed the top spot
largely due to its price; it costs around Rs 1,400 lower than the runner up
board-the XFX 6301. The Jetway JIN73 M2-VS supports Intel Core 2 Duo/ Quad and
also supports previous generation Intel Pentium 4. It comes with an NVIDIA
GeForce 7050/nForce 610i chipset and has 2 DIMM slots for DDRII RAM. The best
part about it is that it has all 3 video options available and comes with 6 USB
slots, which is the maximum you can get in this range.
In performance, its score in PC Mark05 and 3D Mark06 was just decent. In fact
its score of 4682 in PCMark05 was lower than what we have achieved from all
three MSI motherboards or XFX 630i-7100. Even in 3D Mark06 its score was lower
than the likes of MSI P35 Neo Combo and XFX 630i-7100. Nevertheless, these
scores were decent for a board of this class, fetching it a score of 79/100 in
performance.
In features, though it had almost everything one can ask for, where it
actually lost to XFX was the lack of onboard RAID support. But even then, at
this price, you can't expect to get anything better than this.
It's also priced cheaper than most of the other motherboards.
Overall, it's a clear cut winner because it doesn't compromise on features
despite such a low price.
XFX 630i-7100
With an overall performance score of 95/100, this board was the top
performer in its range. It scored a mammoth 8304 in 3D Mark06, which is pretty
high for an entry-level board. Even in PCMark05, a score of 5624 was the
highest, with only the MSI Neo Combo coming anywhere close to it. Though its
performance in POV Ray wasn't that great, its Business Winston score of 42 was
the highest in the category, ensuring that it's good for bothgraphics and
business productivity apps.
The board has support for Core 2 Duo and even Quad core processors. It's
based on NVIDIA's MCP73U/PVV/D chipset. Though it has only 2 DIMM slots, it
offers all three on board video options of VGA, HDMI, and DVI, which is a major
plus. It has support for 6 channel audio output and RAID. Probably an additional
x16 PCIe slot would have enabled it to offer SLI but then for an entry-level
board that's something which is of least importance.
Overall, if you need a board that's a top performer and has all the features
you could ask for in an entry-level board, then this board is definitely worth
the deal.
Other Contenders
This segment is primarily targeted at users who are on a shoestring
budget and aspire for satisfactory performance from a motherboard. While Jetway
JIN73 M2 – VS won hands down scoring handsomely on all parameters, we put
forward to you the 'also rans' who could not quite make it, but scored pretty
well in a specified category. The top runner-up honour goes to our highly
recommended test piece, the XFX 630i – 7100 which grabbed the top position in
the performance category, scoring highly in PCMark and 3DMark benchmark tests.
PC enthusiasts looking for a motherboard, which is actually worth its price,
then they may well have a look at Jetway JM2A 690 – VP. It scored a perfect 100
in the price parameter in our tests. Featuring 4 DIMM slots and USB ports each,
with onboard support for audio channels (3), LAN and VGA; this may be a good
deal. However, if features are your primary concern, then, at least in the entry
level nobody can compete with the MSI P35 Neo Combo. It features 4 slots each
for USB, SATA and DIMM. Additionally, it supports 6 audio channels, 2 LAN ports,
1 PCI express and 2 PCI slots. As far as performance is concerned, it returned
impressive figures of 5228 and 7897 on PCMark and 3DMark respectively.
Priced at only Rs 2,250, the Jetway J945 GCD MS-A2 is another option you may
consider if you are in a budget constraint and still demands good performance
with basic features. It scored 3387 on PCMark and 3389 on 3DMark, which is
decent enough for an entry- level board. Features are pretty basic with 4 ports
for USB and 2 each for DIMM, LAN, SATA and PCI. One PCI express slot also finds
a mention here and audio is supported onboard with 3 channels. The lone player
from Asus, the M2N-VM DVI was going strong, but still could not perform well
enough on all the parameters to claim the top spot. And two of the test boards
from ECS lost out mainly due to lack of features and high pricing. If you
compare the asked price v/s the features offered, you would inadvertently think
it didn't interest you enough as its competitors did. However, performance wise
it was at par with Jetway JIN73 M2-PHG-VT which is our overall winner in this
category. In fact, it fared pretty well when compared to MSI 945GC M5-FV2 in
terms of performance. MSI P35 Neo was the only board in this range which came
with the support for 45nm processor, making it one of the most future ready
board. So as soon as 45nm comes in this board will have support for it, whereas
other might need an upgrade.
As stated earlier, the entry level is for the price conscious consumers who
ask for maximum value for money with the least cost involved. We saw some boards
like XFX 630i – 7100 which went ahead and offered all the three video ports, and
some like the Jetway JM 26 GT3 – SVP which offered just a single SATA port, and
the JHA-02 GTE which had absolutely no onboard support for video. In some cases,
it may mean that you will have to shell out some extra cash to get an onboard
video card. It was good to see RAID support in majority of the board with only
some of the Jetway boards been the exception in this regard.
Overall, lots have changed in this segment and all these are welcome change.
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