Price Guides November 2004: CPU and Motherboards

Intel Motherboards - 9xx

Intel chipset based motherboards have always had the advantage of very tight integration with the CPU, since the chip and chipset were made by the same company. This has always helped Intel keep everything running smoothly while controlling a few more variables. Unfortunately, even that level of granular control hasn't been enough to push buyers towards the new 915/925 based boards. Anand's recent trip to Taiwan reveals that economic conditions here in the US (and even worldwide), and more importantly, the costs of adopting DDR2 and PCI Express video cards, are all hurting the new platform's adoption rate. In the end, we still don't fully recommend making the switch to these new chipsets, and their accompanying costs, just yet. Until performance on the new platform can start to compete better with 865-based systems, as well as AMD's latest offerings, it's best to stick to the tried and true. PCI Express and DDR2 have yet to offer anything in the way of real benefit and until they do, 915/925 will continue to be more for show than for real substance.

On the other hand, show and bragging rights are a major reason why a lot of enthusiasts upgrade to the latest and greatest. So for those, we do recommend the Abit AA8-DuraMAX. For what it's worth, it's one of the best performers around for the 925 chipset and isn't priced badly at all, considering that it supports all of the newest technologies that Intel is pushing.