Foxconn vs. Gigabyte: A 100 Bucks Difference?

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Perhaps the most important thing to take away from this article is that a budget board can hold its own against competition that costs twice as much, or more. Foxconn's P9657AA-EKS2H sells for $100 online, but its application and peripheral performance is surprisingly solid. All the essential BIOS options are there, as well, although we do wish the board offered more memory bus dividers. We also wish the vanilla ICH8 south supported AHCI and RAID, and that the board supported Firewire. Still, there's only so much you can ask for a Benjamin.

Given its modest price tag, the P9657AA is a good value. Sure, it doesn't have all the perks you'll get with a high-end board, and it's not entirely appropriate for power users and enthusiasts, but it's a solid Core 2 platform. The GA-965P-DQ6 is also a solid Core 2 platform, but with a price tag that ranges well into $200 territory, it has considerably more to prove.

All the potential is there, from CPU multiplier control to loads of voltage options, useful external Serial ATA arrangements, and fancy heatpipe cooling, but the DQ6 has a few layout issues that blemish the board's finish. The lack of CrossFire or SLI support also hurts given the fact that some comparably-priced alternatives support one or the other. Many of those alternatives also sport secondary networking options that are conspicuously missing from the DQ6.