Intel P965: Roundup Recap and Awards

Award Ceremonies

Overall, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 performed the best in our benchmarks when not overclocked. This is an accomplishment and shows a level of consistency and fine tuning that was not usually matched by the other suppliers. The ASUS P5B-E competes directly against the DS3 and offers a similar level of performance and additional features like IEEE 1394 support. Considering the almost $20 difference in price we think the DS3 is the better value in the mid-range sector.

The overclocking capability of the ASUS P5B-Deluxe WiFi-AP was very impressive considering our E6300 retail unit is not exactly the best CPU in the labs when it comes to overclocking. If you are looking to get the highest possible overclocking results with an E6300 or E6400 processor then we would recommend the ASUS P5B-Deluxe at this time. Of course our preliminary results (which will be available shortly) with the Commando board will change this statement.

The Biostar TForce 965PT offered excellent overclocking ability for the price and proved to us that there is hope for an "inexpensive" Intel chipset based motherboard that can provide excellent performance and overclocking capability in a single package for the money. The Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 is basically the DS3 sans the 100% use of Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors on the board. With the latest BIOS release we found this board to offer overclocking performance near the Biostar board for about $10 more.

The Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H offered very good stock performance with some overclocking capability for less than $100. The overall quality of the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H was excellent and certainly equaled that of boards that cost significantly more. We also found the Foxconn board offered the best performance, quality, and stability of the under $100 products. The ECS P965T-A and MSI P965 Neo-F are basic yet solid P965 budget motherboards now, but we feel like the Foxconn is the better board overall for just a few more dollars.

In terms of features, we really liked the mid-range ASUS and abit boards as they provided just about every possible option on a motherboard in this price range that one could want. While the mid-range Gigabyte and Biostar boards are also feature rich, they both lack Firewire support, something that should be a given on boards in this price range. We have to give Biostar a gold star for overall layout design on their TForce boards, although the locations of the 24-pin and 4-pin ATX power connectors are a minor detraction.

The ASUS P5B-E and Gigabyte DS3/S3 motherboards have fairly standard layouts that we could live with on a daily basis, but we have to wonder what the layout design group at abit was thinking when they placed the IDE and two SATA connectors between the PCI Express x1 and PCI slots on the AB9 Pro. We will call it a creative design inspiration at this time to be nice as we still like the boards capability since the 1.5 BIOS update.

The Analog Devices AD1988A/B HD Audio Codecs used on the ASUS boards really put the screws to the Realtek ALC-88x series of HD Audio Codecs in our EAX 2 gaming tests. The EAX sounds were clear and concise unlike some of the warbling and muddy sound generated by the Realtek codecs in our Battlefield 2 and F.E.A.R. tests. While the audio quality of both codecs was almost equal in our standard game, DVD video, and audio tests we still think the ADI had the superior overall audio quality. Let's take a look at our winners now.

AnandTech presents the Gold Editors Choice for Best P965 Motherboard to the ASUS P5B-Deluxe WiFi-AP. Their 8-phase design with completely passive cooling worked very well throughout our testing regimen. The end result is an exceptionally stable motherboard and the best overclocker among the P965 motherboards. ASUS clearly listened to the computer enthusiast when they designed this motherboard, and they provided options in the BIOS that cater to this market. ASUS also utilized the ADI 1988B HD audio solution that provided the best overall audio capability and performance of the onboard solutions. The performance results from the board were consistently near or at the top and the board never once failed or put us in a situation where the product needed to be returned. However, all is not perfect as it took several BIOS releases and a new audio driver to solve some feedback and recording issues not present on other ASUS ADI equipped boards, and some users are still reporting problems. ASUS also continues to have issues with Vdroop exceeding that of other board manufacturers when overclocking, but how much that really matters is clearly debatable depending upon your overclocking objectives. Overall, the positives of the board greatly outweigh the negatives, and while we have expressed concern to ASUS about a few issues, this remains our favorite current P965 board.

AnandTech is pleased to present our Silver Editor's Choice for Best P965 Motherboard to Gigabyte for their innovative GA-965P-DS3. Gigabyte has made a tremendous comeback in the last year when it comes to product design, reliability, and customer support. This particular motherboard completely changed our perception of Gigabyte and was a motherboard that we felt best represented the spirit of the P965 chipset. One feature that Gigabyte introduced on this motherboard that is now in widespread utilization by other suppliers is the 100% use of Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors. We complained bitterly to Gigabyte for weeks about the inability of this board to overclock past the 450FSB level when utilizing Micron D9 memory, and their engineering group responded with several BIOS releases with the latest now allowing the board to reach 500FSB levels. Gigabyte has recently introduced a revision two board that improves upon the original release and adds improved electricals for better Quad Core compatibility, a new heatsink design for improved cooling, and it is now Vista Premium certified. We still wish Gigabyte would have included IEEE 1394 support, more fan headers, and a new color scheme, but otherwise this board is about as solid as they come (now).

The AnandTech Bronze Award for Best P965 Motherboard goes jointly to the Biostar TForce 965PT and the Foxconn P9657AA- 8KS2H. Both boards provided outstanding value and quality in a price range that most P965 based motherboards cannot meet. The Biostar 965PT is the best example of a budget P965 product, an outstanding overclocker for the price, high quality components, and a board that delivers what it promises. The Foxconn board delivers a high quality motherboard at an affordable price that still amazes us when compared to the other sub-$100 P965 boards. The feature set and layout is very good and we found the board to be rock solid during several weeks of testing along with very good technical support from Foxconn.

Our Editors Choice recipients are those we believe to offer the best performance, support, or value of the current P965 offerings. We congratulate ASUS, Gigabyte, Foxconn, and Biostar for their outstanding products that received our awards for Best P965 Motherboards. We would like to give an honorable mention to the MSI P965 Platinum as its performance and price are excellent. We believe this motherboard is only a revised BIOS away from receiving an award. We were also impressed with the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 after the last BIOS updates but felt the ASUS P5B-Deluxe offered a better platform for the same price.

There are several new P965 motherboards scheduled for release over the coming weeks and we will take an in-depth look at each one. As abit has already shown, the various manufacturers still have a few tricks up their sleeves when it comes to designing a motherboard based around this chipset.

We're happy to report that looking at the big picture, there was not a real loser in this group. Each board has its strengths and weaknesses so it comes down what the individual user wants, be it price, overclocking, features, and/or support. The boards that received awards are our top picks, but availability - particularly in other countries - can be a problem. There are also boards such as the ASUS P5B-E Plus and Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 that would certainly be considered for an award but are only available in certain localized markets.

On a final note, while we're quite pleased with the majority of the P965 boards now, the P965 launch left a lot to be desired, and we really don't like to see such a rocky launch of an otherwise good product. Perhaps it's simply the natural consequence of the price wars and intense competition between AMD and Intel, but if so we would rather see companies take an extra couple of weeks (or months) to iron out the problems rather than letting the customers do the final beta testing.