P35 motherboard round-up

9-way Intel P35 motherboard round-up - TechSpot

9-way Intel P35 motherboard round-up - TechSpot

Shooting for the mainstream...

Next up in the high-end value segment we have the Abit IP35 Pro, ASUS P5K-E and Gigabyte P35-DS4 which cost $155, $185 and $180 respectively. All three motherboards are extremely good value at these prices and they still feature the ICH9R southbridge chip for full SATA support with RAID. This means they also retain Crossfire support via two PCI Express x16 slots (that work at x8). They all feature a single Gigabit LAN controller while the P5K-E retains the wireless-AP feature. They also feature excellent on-board audio solutions while the P5K-E and P35-DS4 keep their Firewire support, which is nice.

Choosing between these three boards is a real toss up as they are so evenly matched. However once again we have to go with the ASUS board as it is around $30 cheaper and offers everything found on the Abit IP35 Pro and Gigabyte P35-DS4. In fact we have found the ASUS P5K-E to be so good at the $155 price point, that it really makes the P5K Deluxe somewhat pointless at $220!

More affordable solutions...

The next stop is $120, which brings us to the lower end of the scale where the ASUS P5K-SE and Abit IP35-E can be found. These boards come fitted with the ICH9 southbridge, meaning they drop two SATA ports and RAID support. The ability to utilize Crossfire also goes out the window on these more affordable versions. Firewire is also gone, but you do get a total of twelve USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit LAN and a quality 8-channel audio controller.

When it came time to overclock these two motherboards, the ASUS P5K-SE did fall short of the target set by the Abit IP35-E. We have found the Abit IP35-E to be a much more appealing motherboard, as it still has that high-end look and feel about it. So this time Abit delivered the goods.