Maybe I'm the caveman here, but does anyone actually USE eSATA? I want all my SATA front and center, where I can use them, not pointed out the back of the case.

If I have normal SATA, I have brackets that run them out the PCI slot covers, making them eSATA. If I have eSATA, I can only loop it around and use it inside the case if I'm lucky.

It's not like USB, where it's easy to add on another dozen ports via a hub, either.

Anyone using them?

I wouldn't have minded a little graph or two to show the performance gap between p965 and p35, even though its covered in the previous article. (I have only read this article briefly as I don't have much time, so I may have missed some detail that explains this)

No NBCC strap lock on the IP35, not sure about the Gigabyte.

To hell w/ these compromises! Gimme a mobo system that lets me pick and choose what components are used. Fata1ty capacitors and what not! =D

Spelling error: third paragraph, first word.

The GA-P35-DQ6 is criticised for having only one GigE port; maybe it would be nice to have another for the price, true, but how many people actually use two? I can't say I've ever had a desire for more than one Ethernet port on a desktop computer.

That's strange. Contrary to your numbers, AnandTech did not find a difference in power consumption among the same models you tested: Asus P5K Deluxe, Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 and MSI P35 Platinum. They all came within 3W of each other at both idle and load, as one would expect.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2993&p=16

I wonder what could be the reason behind the major gap you were seeing. Maybe it's an issue with old vs. new chipset stepping, with the newer being a lot more power efficient?

I like the Gigabyte, I have an old GPS that uses serial port transfer, so the legacy ports are nice to have. But the ultra durable 2 components seem great for a long lasting system. They also do seem to have contributed to lower power usage as well.

Though I plan on getting the P35-DS3R which is much less expensive, I have zero interest in Crossfire/Firewire/Wifi etc.. so it is just a waste of money to get a more expensive MB that supports it.

Yay, one component of my next build picked out. Well that and an Antec Sonata 3 case. Processor, memory, Vidcard left to go. I am only planning a late fall/winter build, hoping there is a better midrange graphics card by then. The NV 8600/AMD 2600 only seem to be abuot 1/4 to 1/3 the top end and on 128 bit busses, 1/2 the top end with 256 bit bus would be more like it. Penryn would be nice, but that might be a bit further into the future.

Oi, The boards with the higher power requirements show that their signal integrity likely stinks. Where there is too much overshoot and undershoot in bus signals, that additional signal is converted to heat. I would shy away from those boards, period. Asus, shame on you.

You complain about the Abit's "pokey" PCI-based Ethernet, but the ICH9 only has 6 PCIe lanes going spare, so incorporating an add-on PCIe LAN controller would have meant sacrificing something else. In the Abit, you always have four lanes available to a second graphics card even if the JMicron and the 1x slot are in use.

On the other hand, if you put a second graphics card on the Gigabyte (using 4x electrical lanes), *all three* 1x slots are disabled (and yes, there are increasing numbers of 1x peripherals available, particularly TV tuner cards). And if you use either or both of the 1x slots on the Asuses, the second 16x slot drops from 4 to 2 (electrical) PCIe lanes.

I'm not saying any of these solutions are "right" or "wrong," just that each manufacturer has chosen to prioritise the limited available resources in a different way. Abit presumably felt that even PCI Ethernet was unlikely to be maxed out in practice anyway due to other network bottlenecks, so it wasn't worth possibly compromising the performance of a Crossfire GFX setup. It seems a bit unfair to accuse them of "cutting corners" when it's really down to limitations of the chipset itself.

What would be better of course is if they made use of the ICH9's own integrated LAN controller, which for some reason hasn't been done on any of the boards...

Yay, a review of a E6700 on a P5K deluxe board, just like we were asking for after the E6750 review yesterday.

By my reckoning, the E6750 is 6 watts higher at idle, but, 12 watts lower at load. Different HDs, but hopefully they are not showing up in either power test. Higher idle because of a higher multiplier, so is the difference at load due to process improvements / lower voltage?

Now, any chance of repeating the overclocking test with your shiny new E6750, and see if you can get it past 490 on any board? Or how about adding an extra entry in the E6750 review power page?

I'm so glad I got a P965 board when I did - all those crazy heat pipes all over those boards make it look less clean than i like my builds to look.

Does the loopy heatpipe in the first photo remind anyone else of Alien?

I wonder if we'll look back at this brief period of time when crazy, creative heatpipe designs were in fashion the same way we look back at tailfins on 50s cars?

Wow, what the heck is with that power consumtion on those Asus boards? Lost Circuits speculated that high power consumption on Asus's Quad FX mobo was from poorly designed voltage regulation and maybe that's also the case here?

Too bad that e6300 you've got is a lemon in the OC dept. That's really holding back your overclocking exercises from offering any real value.

Also, I really like the clean layout of the Abit board, but I don't agree that layouts have been one of Abit's strengths lately. They're usually providing mobo layouts for some futuristic world where none of use use PCI anymore and PCIE answers all of our needs. We're getting there and it's funny that now that we are finally getting there Abit decides to change their philosophy and offer up more PCI slots and basically turn a shoulder to PCIE.

Just in case I have unwittingly constructed an obscenely offensive post here: peace and love to all TR members.

Good article, however it would have been nice to see what these boards can really OC to, especially now that the newer C2Ds uses 1333 instead of 1066. Try other C2Ds as I've seen reviews of some of these boards hitting 550+

what's the deal with MSI's usb ports? it look like they've neglected to install a VGA port, and used that weird looking usb cluster anyway..
also, with the bios options page, did you mean to say "that's one less than abit and MSI.." as the GA-xxx is obviously a Gigabyte board?

not a fan of how Abit has the SATA connections on the side. highly annoying when you're actually building in a case without a lot of room on the edge..

http://www.dannyde.com/techreport/case/case18.jpg
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=499416#499416

at least with the SATA connections you dont have to push hard like with IDE.. they also have been mounting those horizontally for a while too.. and pushing your IDE cable in makes it feel like you're going to break the thing off. dumb.

http://www.dannyde.com/x2/x2-06.jpg

Woot! It's like a review-a-thon. Two in a row! Now off to reading.

Edit: Now that I've read, I wonder how long before people start breaking into computer cases just to steal the copper. Time to start using those locks on cases everyone thought were useless.