Introduction

By now every man and his dog know just how good Core 2 based computers are in terms of raw performance as well as its thermal characteristics. Intel finally got the message; Pentium 4 was a dud, as it couldn’t beat a 1GHz Pentium 3 with its 2GHz flagship CPU and they should have stopped there and went down a different path much earlier.

Core architecture changed all that for the CPU giant, as did its P965 chipset. Aimed to be the mid-range chipset, just under the 975X, it has become the hottest chipset for Core 2 from Intel. P965 added the first DDR2-800 native memory support and a new ICH with extra SATA ports. Gaining Crossfire certification last year pushed it to the top of the enthusiast market, leaving 975X in the dark looking for a spot to fit in costing more.

We have seen that with the right combination of overclocking options and motherboard features that the P965 chipset is a power house. ASUS has already done pretty well with the P5B-E Plus we looked at last time; however, this was just a patch board for the Commando to arrive.

Commando is the third board to come out in the “Republic of Gamers” series of boards, joining the Striker Extreme and the Crosshair boards. Based on the Intel P965 chipset it looks to have the goods, but how does it stack up and is it really worth the high price tag of over $300 USD?

Let’s find out!