The AMD 880G Northbridge and SB850 Southbridge are two of the latest bits of chipset silicon designed to bolster AMD's position in the mainstream PC market. They were released about a month apart this Spring, as part of a full line of 800-series chips, and ASUS wasted no time putting them into production. Key items that help make the M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard stand out are native support for SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0, and AMD's latest game changer, the Phenom II X6 CPU. With both Core Unlocker and Turbo Unlocker functionality built right into the board, this combination could be the magic ticket to dynamic-clocked, quad core processing on the cheap. Benchmark Reviews is pleased to review one of the latest ASUS motherboards, using the latest entries from AMD's new 800-series chipset.

GIGABYTE has grown a lot in the market lately. They mainly produce top-notch quality motherboards and GPUs, and they have even entered new areas as well. We couldn't say they had a specific motherboard for each user until they finally released their Mini-ITX H55N-USB3 motherboard. Last year, Mini-ITX motherboards meant low CPU-performance. But in 2010, things have changed and now you can build a very small PC with great performance and good efficiency. Benchmark Reviews tests the GIGABYTE H55N-USB3 motherboard paired with an Intel Core i3 530 processor and 4GB of RAM to check which kind of performance we can expect from a Mini-ITX HTPC system like this one.

The Intel P55 platform has been with us for a good while now, and it is a real sleeper, having the memory controller integrated with the CPU gives it a nice performance advantage over competing products, even higher priced ones. If it has any serious shortcomings, it's the number of PCI-e lanes that it supports. With a maximum of 16 lanes of PCI-e 2.0 available for graphics cards, there is no room for expansion, if additional devices require PCI-e 2.0 connectivity. Guess what the most common support chips for SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 require? You got it, PCI-e 2.0. ASUS works their way out of this problem on the P7P55D-E Pro motherboard with a PCI Bridge from PLX Technology that takes some spare PCI Express 1.1 lanes, converts them into the required PCI-e 2.0 version, and serves them up to the latest NEC and Marvell controllers. Benchmark Reviews was intrigued by this latest combination and we're pleased to present a review.

ASUS has already earned our praise for their ASUS P6X58D-Premium motherboard. As the name implies, this exceptional X58-Express motherboard comes loaded with everything that could fit the circuit board... and a premium price to match. The ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard is exactly what enthusiasts want: more for less. It's nearly identical to the ASUS P6X58D-Premium version, but makes minor sacrifices to help drive down the price. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the affordable ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard against a collection of other Intel X58-Express enthusiast solutions to measure graphics, processor, memory, and SSD storage performance. This article will concentrate on the differences that exist between X58-Express products, since the added features are all that differentiate these motherboards.

With the release of the new 6-core Thuban processors, AMD unveiled their latest chipset to go with it; the 890FX/GX. Very similar to the 790FX chipset, the 890GX is the first ever to support native SATA III 6Gb/s. In this article Benchmark Reviews takes an in depth look at one of the Biostar's latest motherboards built around the 890GX chipset. The Biostar TA890GXB-HD mATX AM3 Motherboard is an entry-level board that, as the G suggests, pairs with onboard graphics in order to give budget minded users the option of using the latest technologies with the option of taking some of the pressure off their pockets. AMD has a reputation, especially recently, of making good quality products available to the everyday users and enthusiasts that might not be able to afford their hobby otherwise. The 890GX chipset is recommended for use with Phenom-II processors and it pairs quite well with the Athlon-II series as well, which are the most likely pairing for the Biostar TA890GXB-HD AM3 Motherboard, given its price. We will be pitting the TA890GXB-HD against the older 785G chipset to see just what type of performance the new chipset offers.

In April of 2010, AMD introduced the final parts of their "Leo" platform: new iterations of their 45nm processor family and the supporting 8-series chipset. Unlike Intel, which seems to delight in spawning new CPU socket architectures, AMD continues to support the AM3 socket, so upgrades are easier and cheaper. The 8-series chipsets along with the SB850 south bridge brings some new capabilities over the previous "Dragon" 7-series chipsets, and as you might expect, ASUS is ready with a new enthusiast-level offering, the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula motherboard. This AMD 890FX-based motherboard offers some interesting new enhancements over the previous generation 790FX-based Crosshair III Formula motherboard, and Benchmark Reviews compares the two as well as taking the Crosshair IV Formula as far as it can go with the fastest components.

Last year ASUS introduced the 785G chipset, one of their latest chipset with integrated graphics. This comes on the back of other recently successful chipsets with integrated graphics such as the 780G and 790GX. In true AMD fashion, we can tell a lot about the chipset by its numbering. The 785G is an upgraded version of the 780G and keeps a lot of the same features. Many motherboard manufacturers have been making products with the new chipset and, of course, ASUS is one of the top names. In this article, Benchmark Reviews will be examining the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Micro-ATX AM3 Motherboard. We will be specifically looking at the differences between this board, with the 785G chipset, and the similar 780G and 790GX chipsets. The ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO is being marketed as great combination for the Athlon-II line of processors because of its budget price-point. For this reason, Benchmark Reviews will be testing the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO against older equipment in order to provide an idea of the upgradeability offered by this motherboard.

Sometimes Intel's tick-tock plans don't coincide with the technical improvements made to other areas, such as SuperSpeed USB-3.0 or SATA-III 6.0-Gbps controllers. Most hardware enthusiasts agree that it's awkward to see Intel's "Enthusiast" branded X58-Express chipset paired to older standards while "Mainstream" P55 motherboards enjoy the better and faster new ones. Gigabyte agrees, too, and has re-launched the X58A-series as a refresh for their flagship platform. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard against the ASUS P6X58D Premium in heat-to-head performance, and compares to the original X58 platform.