In last month's PCW, we looked at Intel motherboards that support the new 90nanometer Prescott Pentium 4 CPU. This month, you can compare their performance with that of the nearest equivalent from rival manufacturer AMD. This test investigates nine socket 754 motherboards that support the Athlon 64 processor. If you're upgrading or building a new PC, you'll probably start by choosing a motherboard. As we discovered last month, there are a great number of factors to consider in making the right decision. If your aim is to maximise performance, then fast components will not be your only concern. Motherboards and their chipsets can often be significant bottlenecks, and their associated features can mean the difference between a relatively future-proof machine and one destined for the scrapheap. We tested each submission with 1GB of PC3200 Ram, a 256MB Radeon 9800 XT graphics card and an Athlon 64 3400+ processor, courtesy of Evesham. To determine our overall winners, we looked at factors such as connectivity (USB, Firewire, wireless and so on), value for money and overall performance.
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