Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Components > Motherboards > X38 Comparison Part 2: DDR3 Motherboards

X38 Comparison Part 2: DDR3 Motherboards

02:21 - Monday 26 November 2007 by Tom's Guide Team

1. Will DDR3 Make The Difference?
2. Asus Maximus Extreme
3. BIOS And Overclocking
4. Foxconn X38A Returns With Improved BIOS
5. Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6
6. BIOS And Overclocking
7. MSI X38 Diamond
8. BIOS And Overclocking

We covered the technology in our X38 Express technical introduction, and examined its major features again in our DDR2 motherboard comparison. Now we’re ready to see what benefits DDR3 will bring. As before, production delays triggered by a late-production chipset revision have limited the number of new products able to meet our much-delayed deadline to three models. A fourth X38 model is being brought forward from our DDR2 comparison, though, because it supports both memory technologies.

The price of DDR3 memory has pushed compatible boards into the highest possible market. Some companies have responded with added features meant to win over big spenders, while others view high-end chipset features as a reason to identically equip DDR2 and DDR3 based X38 Express models.

A few readers will want to "keep score" between DDR2 and DDR3 benchmark results, and though this article won’t address the issue of supposed DDR3 supremacy, it will use the same components and settings as our previous review. Also common to both comparisons is the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R, because this is the only dual-memory compatible P35 Express motherboard we’ve tested that was capable of providing both good performance and overclocking capability.