12 not-so-different P965 Motherboards Roundup

After numerous reviews, thousands of hours of testing, and reams of collected information we can safely say that an Intel P965 is still an Intel P965 no matter which motherboard you place it in. This is not a real surprise with each manufacturer utilizing the same basic chipset and core BIOS files from Intel. What has made a difference since the P965 chipset launched is the ability of each supplier to customize the BIOS code as well as the option to offer a bevy of features at each price point. The current boards that are shipping now are fairly mature and most of the lessons learned regarding layout designs, component choices, or user enhancements are being implemented in the next generation of P965 motherboards. We only have to look at the difference between the abit AB9 Pro and the new AB9 QuadGT to understand how manufacturers are addressing their short comings.

We do not believe the overall performance of the next wave of P965 motherboards will improve drastically over the current boards, although we do expect to see incremental improvements in memory and overclocking performance as the BIOS engineers have had time to learn the intricacies of the chipset. This generally happens to every chipset family over time but we are excited about 1T capability above DDR2-800 and potentially 8x8 operation for CrossFire for improved performance.