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Very little difference separates the boards in this benchmark. Frame rates are identical for all four boards.

Conclusion:

Picking a motherboard to use for your PC is never easy. There's a lot of factors to consider. Apparently, performance is not that big of factor anymore. Using the same settings, these four boards offer nearly identical performance, except for some differences due to different audio solutions. So, what other factors we can consider - features are one, support and experience are others. By far, ASUS P5B Deluxe with WiFi offers the most complete feature. Some highlights are the two Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, noise surpressed microphone and the most complete cable bundle. However, there are some things we feel ASUS could've implemented differently. Hardware monitoring, audio distortion (in addition to slower performance in some games) are the most prominent minus point we've seen from this board. Minus points that shouldn't be present on a high end offering.

Slightly different, MSI P965 Deluxe offers relatively complete set of features - lots of USB, Firewire ports, Diagnostic LED to troubleshoot problems. However, the problems we experience with the board is nothing sort of annoying - the lack of multiplier adjustments, inability to enable DMA transfer support, USB boot behaviour. The lack of cables is also another concern, after all why put 6 SATA connectors and only supply 1 or 2 SATA data cable? With its price point, the board has some intriguing potential if you look past its weak points or if / when MSI issues a newer BIOS to address the issues we saw. Plus the odd clock behaviour, we just don't 'feel' MSI has fully realized the potential of the MSI P965 Platinum.

Finally, the Gigabyte P965-DQ6 and P965-DS3. Both have their own appeal and address different users. However, over the other two boards, these two exhibited no problems or quirks during our testing and drew less objection from us. We're especially impressed with the DS3 and have been using it for some time now to conduct further test and overclocking test with our Core 2 Duo E6300 (but that's another article). Of course, of the two, the Gigabyte P965-DQ6 with dual x16 PCI-E graphics slot and DTS Connect enabled audio has the upper hand.



Gigabyte P965-DQ6
Gigabyte P965-DS3

We recommend the Gigabyte P965-DQ6 for users looking for an Intel Core 2 Duo / Crossfire motherboard with lots of storage options. For more budget restricted users, the Gigabyte P965-DS3 offer more than enough features for the average user, even those looking to overclock their Core 2 Duo processor. These two boards many not offer the most features, but they do offer a better overall experience for users.

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