Intel P35 / X38 Motherboards Roundup
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Date: 21.02.2008 |
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A few weeks before, we published our roundup tests of motherboards based on the Intel P35 chipset. Today, we are complementing it by adding eight more motherboards based on the Intel X38, with one of them (abit IX38 QuadGT) being tested for the very first time and the remaining ones reviewed formerly.
A few words on the X38 chipset. Release of Intel's new high-end chipset has not proved users' expectations. Yes, it does support sufficient number of PCI Express bus lanes (of the new v2.0 specifications) to make it possible for the developers to install two PCI Express x16 slots with 16 lanes allocated to each. Therefore, two AMD video cards in the Crossfire mode will run at the best performance. Besides, some motherboards based on X38 offer the third PCI Express x16 slot as well to which there are four PCI-E bus lanes allocated. You can install a third video card or a physics accelerator (although the fashion for such devices has already passed).
There are no other advantages in X38. Support for the PCI Express v2.0 bus does not give a real speed gain, and the expansion options remained at a level similar to that on P35-based motherboards . The latter is no wonder, because both the motherboards use the same south bridge ICH9 (R). Finally, Intel has deferred introduction of the 400 MHz (1600 QPB) system bus to 2008, and officially the bus is not supported by X38. Officially, this bus will be supported by the latest Intel X48 chipset which is a slightly improved version of X38. Until it has been announced, we can't make any conclusions regarding its superiority, but we dare assume that support for the 400 MHz is there in the X38 as well (albeit unofficially). As an evidence in favor of that, there is its high overclocking capability: all the motherboards based on X38 that we tested were running successfully at this frequency, as well as the fact that many motherboard manufacturers guarantee operability of their products based on X38 with the not yet released 400-MHz processors.
In fact, the release of X48 was planned early in the year, but under the pressure of motherboard manufacturers Intel deferred that event at least for two months. The thing is that the hasty release of X48 could bring harm to the sales of motherboards based on X38: because of the similarity of specifications the users would have ignored the "outdated" X38. Therefore, there may be several outcomes of further events. The most probable outcome is that X48-based motherboards will arrive in wide sales in a few weeks after Cebit to be held in March. This will result in the drop of prices for X38-based motherboards and their gradual disappearance from the retail shelves. Therefore, those users who find specifications and not the high rating of the chipset more important will get a good chance to buy a X38-based motherboard at quite a reasonable amount.
Another outcome - X48-based motherboards appear in sales much later, late in spring or early in summer. Therefore, the lifespan of products based on X38 will be more than expected, which makes them more topical. On the one hand, the probability of such an outcome is not high (a couple of X48-based boards is already there at our laboratory, and a review of one of them has already been published). On the other hand, there is no reason for Intel to force the release of X48 in combination with 400-MHz processors. Somehow or other, at Cebit we'll get the answer as to when and how many X48-based motherboards will appear.
This review has proved to be rather voluminous, so we'd better give our recommendations as which should be noted first. If you read the previous roundup review of P35-based motherboards, you don't have to read the introduction. We also displayed the names of X38-based motherboards in the table of specifications in bold so that to draw attention on them. There are no changes to the specifications of P35-based motherboards. There are two or three changes to the description of some P35-based motherboards, but they are so insignificant that we decided not to dwell on them.
Although the P35 chipset in combination with the south bridge ICH9(R) is a little bit better than the previous generation (P965 + ICH8(R)), by the end of 2007 it has taken a firm position in the middle-end and partly in the high-end sector. Intrusion into the high-end sector was quite short-lived, up to the release of the top-end Intel X38 chipset. That is a logical and consistent process, and we can expect its repetition in the new generation of Intel chipsets P45 and X48 which are to be released in the second quarter of 2008.
But until the summer of 2008, P35 and X38/X48 will be the major products. We note it straight off that, because of the novelty and the high price of X38, motherboards on its base seriously lose to products based on P35 in terms of attraction to users. The exception is only those users who need top-end compromise-free systems with two AMD video cards in the Crossfire mode, with a 4-core CPU and DDR3 memory. Therefore, we leave a review of X38-based motherboard for a later time and focus on P35-based products.
Chipsets
Let's talk about Intel P35 and X38 chipsets in a bit more detail. To start with, look at the comparative specifications table.
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NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI |
NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI IE |
NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI |
NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra |
Intel 975X |
Intel P965 |
Intel P35 |
Intel X38 |
| Market sector |
high-end + SLI |
high-end + SLI |
middle-end + SLI |
middle-end |
high-end + Crossfire |
high-end/ middle-end + Crossfire |
high-end/ middle-end + Crossfire |
high-end + Crossfire |
| Socket |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
Intel Socket 775 |
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Supported processors
|
Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core)
Core 2 Quad
Core 2 Duo
Celeron D
Pentium 4
Pentium D 9XX
Pentium D 8XX
|
the same + support for Yorkfield, Wolfdale |
the same + support for Yorkfield, Wolfdale |
| FSB speed (MHz) |
1333 MHz |
1066 MHz |
1333 MHz |
1066 MHz |
1066/1333* MHz |
1066/1333* MHz |
1333 MHz |
1333/1600* MHz |
| Overclocking capability (3dnews.ru) |
Good |
Poor |
n/a |
n/a |
Good |
Very Good |
Excellent |
Excellent* |
| Support for NVIDIA SLI™ / AMD-ATI Crossfire |
SLI (2 x16) |
SLI (2 x16) |
SLI (2 x 8) |
- |
Crossfire (2 x 8) |
Crossfire (16 + 4) |
Crossfire (16 + 4) |
Crossfire (16 + 16) |
| Support for the third PCI Express x16 slot |
+ (8 lanes) |
+ (8 lanes) |
- |
- |
+ (2/4 lanes) |
- |
- |
+ (4 lanes) |
| Support for SLI-Ready Memory (MHz) with EPP |
1200 MHz |
n/a |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Support for Intel XMP (Extended Memory Profiles) |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
+ |
| Support for DDR2 memory (MHz) |
800 MHz |
667 MHz |
800 MHz |
800 MHz |
667 MHz |
800 MHz |
1066 MHz |
1066/1200* MHz |
| Support for DDR3 memory (MHz) |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1333 MHz |
1333/1600* MHz |
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Support for PCI Express
|
|
No. of lanes
|
46 |
48 |
18 |
18 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
40 |
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Q-ty of links
|
9 |
11 |
4 |
3 |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
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PCI Express configuration
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16, 16, 8, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
16, 16, 8, 1, 1, 1,1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
8, 8, 1, 1
or
16, 1, 1 |
16, 1, 1 |
8,8,1,1,1,1 |
16,1,1,1,1 |
16,1,1,1,1 |
16,16,4,1,1,1,1 |
| Q-ty of SATA/PATA links |
6/1 |
6/1 |
4/2 |
4/2 |
4/1 |
6/0 |
6/0 |
6/0 |
| Support for RAID |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
0, 1, 0+1, MatrixRAID |
|
| Integrated support for Gigabit Ethernet |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
| Support for USB |
10 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
10 |
12 |
12 |
| PCI |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
| Sound |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA (Azalia) |
HDA |
HDA |
HDA |
HDA |
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