Intel P965: The Double Mint Twins Gone Wild
 

During testing it became obvious that we had two boards that stood out from the rest of the group and not because they were different. In fact, they grabbed our attention because they followed the cookie cutter process only with a twist. The first board that grabbed our attention is the Biostar TForce 965PT that is based on the Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe platform. In fact, if you peel the product label off the board you will see the P965 Deluxe silkscreen. The only difference between the two Biostar boards is the Intel ICH8 is used in place of the ICH8R found on the P965 Deluxe and a slightly different BIOS. Otherwise all of the positive aspects of the P965 Deluxe carry over to this board along with a $45 decrease in pricing. Gigabyte followed a similar path as the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 is identical to the GA-965P-DS3 except for the type of capacitors utilized on the board and a different BIOS revision while reducing the price by $30. While not identical twins, both boards are close enough to their more expensive siblings to be considered fraternal twins in our opinion.

if the 680i is too expensive, these boards should offer a good alternative :)