ABIT AW8-MAX & Gigabyte GA-81955X

i liked 'low quality benchmarks', because not everyone matter of details.

strange doom3 between 640x480 LQ and 1280x1024 HQ changes only 20fps

It just shows up the difference between Intel and AMD-based CPU's. AMD are very strong in low-detail CPU-intensive gaming benchmarks. :)

Great job on the article, Bindi! Truly enjoyable read.

I keep looking at these Intel dual cores, because they're so much cheaper than the AMD. Dumb question, though...do each one of the cores then come with hyperthreading?

Only the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 has Hyperthreading (four logical cores), the Pentium D's only have two 'physical' cores. No Hyperthreading support.

Hmmm...damn. That makes for one expensive arsed piece of hardware, since it's $1000.

also with a 120w prescot water cooling is almost mandatory :P

Originally Posted by Kipman725
also with a 120w prescot water cooling is almost mandatory :P

Not really, all the overclocking i do in reviews (to 4.5Gs) is under aircooling.

stock intel reference air cooling at that, too. ;)

Technically AMD also released the X2 3800+ recently, which competes rather well with the 830s; if your budget calls for an 820 though, its probably the better option. You sure that 3.73 EE isnt cherry picked? ;)

As for free-be's in the box, while the specs were mentioned in the review, it was never mentioned that the AW8-Max has SPDIF IN and OUT, while Gigabyte just has the SPDIF OUT. That's a free-be in the AW8 column, if you ask me. I haven't used the AW-8, but if there is reasonable software support for the IN, it could be handy outside of gaming.

The AW8 has optical S/PDIF in and out on the SoundMAX daughter board. It's not really a free-be so to speak, imo.