Conclusions and Final Thoughts
Motherboard Features

In terms of overall on-board features, the ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi AP obviously takes the crown in this department.  It includes a swell of options that neither the Gigabyte or ASUS board can really match including 802.11n draft WiFi support, three GPU CrossFireX expansion options, a 16-phase power solution and of course the embedded Express Gate instant-boot software option.  And bleeding-edge performance geeks will still definitely see the implementation of DDR3 memory as an additional feature as well.

That doesn’t mean the MSI and Gigabyte boards are devoid of techie goodness though – each offers a solid collection of storage and expansion features.  eSATA, Firewire and at least six USB 2.0 ports are standard on both motherboards so your connectivity options are already well laid out.  Both the MSI and Gigabyte P45 motherboards support at least six SATA channels courtesy of Intel’s ICH10R south bridge and support RAID 0, 1, 10 and even RAID 5.  The MSI Platinum motherboard does offer a couple additional SATA ports though giving it a slight leg up in terms of storage support.

Intel P45 Motherboard Roundup: MSI, ASUS and Gigabyte - Motherboards 60

The MSI and Gigabyte boards have support for CrossFire graphics with a pair of PCIe x16 slots and are well laid out to support all the GPUs we had in house – remember the problem we had with the ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe with our GTX 280! 

Overall, all three motherboards are more than competent solutions for building a new system on though the ASUS motherboard does one-up the Gigabyte and MSI motherboards in raw feature set.  Of course, you’ll have to pay for those features as I will show you in the pricing section below.

The BIOS and Overclocking

When comparing the BIOS’ and overclocking abilities of these three P45-based motherboards, they all offer about the same features to allow you to push and prod your system and CPU to their limits.  The ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi AP board has the most refined BIOS and was the easiest to browse through and adjust with it’s “type it in” input method rather than having to scroll through a list with your + and – keys.  It was also the only board that required you to adjust jumpers in order to unlock the full range of available voltage settings – you could see this is as a plus or a drawback depending on how easily annoyed you are.  The ASUS board also offered integrated BIOS Flash utility, profile support and the best overall monitoring support as well.

The MSI and Gigabyte BIOS solutions were also pretty good though I have to say the MSI P45 Platinum BIOS was the most confusing to move around in.  I really don’t like seeing options like “DOT Control” that don’t have good descriptions in the BIOS next to them as it confuses just about everyone and thus the options are never used.  The Gigabyte motherboard does actually offer an in-BIOS flash utility as well – a feature I think ALL motherboards should have by now.  But as far as overclocking options go – voltages, frequencies, memory settings – all three motherboards should provide enough flexibility for any user.

Pricing and the Core 2 Effect

At the beginning of this article I declared that because motherboards like the three we are looking at today and corresponding Core 2 processors are so cheap, they will continue to be sold through most of 2009 and thus would make a great budget upgrade or new system build for gamers today.  As of today, here are the current prices of the three P45 boards we reviewed today:
Those are very reasonably priced motherboards when compared to the majority of currently available X58 options for the Intel Core i7 processor.  What might be even more important is that you can get Core 2 processors with amazing performance for an incredibly low price: you can pick up a dual-core E7200 for $119 or a quad-core Q9300 for under $240 and have the base for a great gaming or multimedia PC for a really low entry fee.  And while DDR3 and DDR2 memory are both coming down in prices, obviously DDR2 is still much cheaper giving another cost advantage to the MSI P45 Platinum and Gigabyte EP45-DS3R motherboards over ASUS’ P5Q3 Deluxe. 

Final Thoughts

All three of these P45 motherboards reviewed today are competent offerings for anyone looking to build or upgrade an Intel Core 2 processor-based system.  Depending on your budget and feature desires, either the MSI, Gigabyte or ASUS board is going to have what you need.  If you have or want to move on to DDR3 memory technology then the ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi AP is the choice for you but if you are looking to stay on a tight budget while still getting a lot of great features and technology then both the MSI P45 Platinum and Gigabyte EP45-DS3R make excellent choices.  The Intel Core i7 may be the new king in performance but solutions like these will continue to make the Core 2 platform a great choice for enthusiasts and gamers alike in the months to come.

Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on P45 motherboards and anything else you might need:



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