Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Components > Motherboards > X48 Motherboard Comparison, Part 2

X48 Motherboard Comparison, Part 2

06:40 - Friday 30 May 2008 by Thomas Soderstrom

1. Still on top, but for how long?
2. ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi
3. Onboard Devices
4. BIOS and Overclocking
5. Software and Accessories
6. Asus P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP @n (Update)
7. DFI Lanparty LT X48-T2R
8. Onboard Devices
9. BIOS and Overclocking
10. Software and Accessories
11. ECS Black Series X48T-A
12. Onboard Devices
13. BIOS and Overclocking
14. Software and Accessories
15. Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6

With all the commotion concerning Intel’s upcoming “mainstream” chipset, it’s easy to forget that the X48 Express continues to be the company’s top pick. With full support for PCI-Express 2.0 graphics, the X48 already has the most significant “new technology” trumpeted for its “next release.” But the future look even brighter for today’s high-end buyers, as the X48 offers twice the number of PCI-Express 2.0 lanes as the upcoming mainstream part. Furthermore, product maturity assures that builders can expect fewer bugs with the current range of X48 boards than they would from the initial release of next-generation parts.

The X48 Express has been around for a few months and even longer if we include the previous X38 incarnation, but that isn’t keeping manufacturers from updating their product lines. Several companies are now producing updated revisions of previously released models, while a few took extra time to “perfect” their product. Today’s new models come from both expected and unexpected high-end motherboard manufacturers, including ASRock, DFI, ECS and Intel itself.

We’ve already covered the basic features of the X48 Express in our first X48 Motherboard Comparison, so let’s see what makes the new models different.