Introduction

Dual Core, once only thought of as a dream, now it's a full blown reality. Intel has been the first to introduce the Dual Core CPU to the desktop market, with AMD right on their heals. AMD has had one great advantage over Intel, AMD Dual Core CPU's will run on just about any Socket 939 motherboard that supports the 0.09um AMD CPU, which is quite a few motherboards and a great option for the AMD users since there is little to upgrade.

Intel's Dual Core line, however, requires new motherboards and chipsets, due to Intel changing the voltage requirements. While I92XE boards can run the Pentium D CPU, their not guaranteed to work as their electrical requirements have changed quite a bit.

* Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro Motherboard Pricing *

Intel has let out two new chipsets to take on the Dual Core environment, the I945 series chipset is aimed at the mainstream and value segments, with four different variants. I945 supports all Pentium 4 and Celeron-D chips as well as support for the Pentium-D. The I955X chipset is aimed at the enthusiast market, with support for all Socket 775 CPU's including Pentium-D and the Pentium Extreme Edition Dual Core with Hyper-Threading.

Today we have two of Gigabyte's I945 motherboards which we are going to compare against ASUS's I955X P5WD2. Today we have the Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro and the GA-8I945P Dual Graphic.