In order for us to properly compare AMD’s Quad FX platform against a Quad-core Intel system, it is necessary to factor in the cost of the motherboards. As both platforms use traditional DDR2-800 memory, the cost of memory is the same for both systems. The same cannot be said for motherboards.

At the moment the only manufacturer of Quad FX motherboards is the famous Taiwan based company ASUS. The motherboard is expected to be available for a price point of 300 USD. For Intel quad-core solutions, the price of the motherboards varies depending on the chipset. Pricing can go from $200 for a solution with the Intel 975X chipset to $300 for the NVIDIA reference board equipped with the 680i SLI.

From the information available to us right now, this means that the maximum amount of extra money consumers would end up spending buying a Quad FX motherboard instead of an Intel-based motherboard is $100. It is essential to keep in mind the price differences between the motherboards of the platforms throughout the course of this review as all factors contribute to the final verdict.

Even though ASUS is currently the only Quad FX motherboard manufacturer, the situation is destined to change soon. More manufacturers should be coming out with their own Quad FX motherboards in the coming months, and AMD should be introducing their own Quad FX chipset which will support Crossfire technology.

In order to fit in all of the features on the motherboard, smaller PCB dimensions were compromised. We weren’t too shocked about the board’s large size considering it comes with two Athlon 64 FX sockets and 4 PCI Express 16x slots integrated onto it. In addition, if four video cards is to even be a possibility, the board must have adequate space. Four DIMM slots are placed between the two CPU sockets. Each processor independently handles two DIMM slots, so with 4 modules of DDR2-800 memory installed, the theoretical memory bandwidth of the system is 25.6 GB/s. This is only a theoretical value that represents 100% efficiency. In a real-world situation, expect the actual bandwidth to be a smaller figure.

The cooling of the system is a major issue that ASUS seems to have taken into consideration when designing this board. There are a total of three fans on the motherboard. The two chipsets are cooled by connecting two heatpipes to a radiator that dissipates the heat.

Above are the four PCI-Express 16x electrical slots. The single 32 bit PCI slot and PCI-Express 1x slot can also be seen in the photo. Although the physical connectors remain the same, two of the PCI Express 16x slots only work at 8 lanes.

The board comes with a total of 12 SATA-II connectors. Half of them are colored red while the other half are black.