Mother Board and Ram
Are Premium Motherboards Worth The Money?
When it comes to selecting a motherboard , users not only face a considerable number of different manufacturers to choose from, but also a wide model range from each maker, with products that vary in terms of form factor , chipset and features. In their efforts to appeal to every conceivable market segment, motherboard makers often hamper end users simply due to the diversity of their product lines.
The price range between the cheapest and the most expensive motherboards can be as significant as the feature differences between them. While an experienced user will purchase a motherboard that is outfitted with add-ons fitting his needs, it is quite difficult for beginners to determine what their needs really are, and what features they should do without. No matter how good a deal a particular board may be, money that is spent on features that will likely never be used is ultimately wasted.
We decided to explore this issue by taking a look at both the cheapest motherboard and the flagship product of a well known manufacturer. For this apples and oranges comparison, we picked two Socket 775 boards from MSI : the 915PL Neo-V and the P4N Diamond. The first one can be purchased for as little as $69 while the state-of-the-art platform puts a $219 hole in your wallet. 
Feature Discussion
If you compare today's motherboards with the products that were around a couple of years ago, you will notice that several changes have taken place. First of all, users now have a clear choice between the Intel architecture (Celeron and Pentium families) and the offerings from AMD (Sempron, Athlon 64 ). Though AMD processors and platforms have been around for many years, they had not always been able to keep pace with their Intel counterparts.
The motherboard market itself has changed too. There were times when choosing the right motherboard model and chipset would result in a performance difference of 10% and more when compared to another one running on exactly the same technical specifications. These days you will have to overclock the system or processor, or upgrade your CPU, to receive a comparable performance boost. And if you are interested in 3D graphics, the graphics card is more important than anything else anyway.
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Provided that we are talking about mature technology - not components that have only been around for two weeks - the differences between platforms is down to five percent or less for non-graphics system benchmarks. It is mostly similar with processors, because upgrading from a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz to a P4 3.4 GHz will make more of a difference in the user's mind than in real life.
Since performance is not much of an issue any more, motherboard makers have been focusing on hardware and software features in order to have their boards stand out from the crowd. Additional connectivity, higher-class components, overclocking features and numerous little details are intended to win the customer's favor.
Quality Components
The P4N Diamond is equipped with four transistor-based voltage regulators.
Leaking capacitors and poor voltage regulators caused severe problems in the past. Today, most companies are more careful about the electrical components they use, and generally deploy better quality capacitors - Japanese suppliers have a decent reputation - as well as multi-phase voltage regulators. The more MOSFET components are placed in parallel to share the load, the less electrical and thermal strain results. Four phases are considered adequate today; some manufacturers deploy solutions with even more components.
The essential questions are somewhat obvious. How does the customer benefit by tripling the money they spend on a motherboard? Do all the add-ons and supplementary components of the premium product actually make sense? What is the difference between these two motherboards in everyday life? Or in other words: Will a typical user really notice any difference at all? Let's find out.
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