DFI vs. MSI – Conroe 975X Motherboards Tested

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Introduction

Intel’s Core 2 family of processors are now starting to expand. At release there were only a few models released, the high-end Extreme and the 4MB cache Core 2 Duo. We now are starting to see the lower-end 2MB cache series hitting the streets and Quad Core is coming in a couple of months. While the CPU line up is starting to spread, so are the boards supporting Core 2.

Intel announced that their 975X chipset would support Core 2 but current motherboard before the release of Conroe based on the same chipset wouldn’t because of the required VRM 2.2 voltage system that the Core 2 uses. No 975X motherboards were built to handle this, until now.

Since Intel aren’t intending on releasing a new enthusiast level chipset for their processors for sometime, we are starting to see new revisions of older motherboards released like the ASUS P5W-DH - which is simply a P5WD2-E Premium with Core 2 support. Today we are looking at two new motherboards from MSI and DFI which are designed for Core 2 and Core 2 Extreme processors.

From DFI we are looking at the Infinity 975X/G motherboard to support the Pentium 4, Pentium D and Core 2 families. From MSI we are looking at the 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition which is a revision of the MSI 975X Platinum that was released earlier on in the year for the Pentium D and Pentium Extreme.

So come all ye faithful and see just who had the features and overclocking to be the king of the hill - will MSI murder DFI or will DFI devastate MSI? Let’s take a look and find out!