ASRock P43R1600Twins-WiFi & P45R2000-WiFi

Conclusion:

While the ASRock P45R2000-WiFi is priced about $40 USD less than the EP45T-DS3R and the ASRock P43R1600Twins-WiFi is using a lower-end Chipset, both motherboards had performed very well against their competition. The ASRock results were shockingly close to the two Gigabyte motherboards we compared them against. At the end of the tests though there was no clear winner, which means it comes down to the features on each of the motherboards.

The ASRock P43R1600Twins-WiFi only has a single Gigabit Ethernet port, one PCI Express x16, and uses the Intel P43 Chipset. The ASRock P45R2000-WiFi on the other hand tacks on an extra Gigabit Ethernet port and a second PCI Express x16 port, but with limiting these slots to less PCI-E lanes, and it's backed by the higher-end Intel P45. Both motherboards though share the integrated ASRock WiFi, support both DDR2 and DDR3 system memory, use the Intel ICH10R Southbridge, and support the same CPUs (though the P45R2000-WiFi supports up to a 2000MHz FSB).

The ASRock P45R2000-WiFi currently retails for about $130 USD while the P43R1600Twins-WiFi is selling for less, but pricing information currently isn't available. Should you be interested in either of these motherboards, they perform well under Linux and the only compatibility problems were the caveats we mentioned. These aren't the ideal candidates if you are targeting a high-end system, but for the rest of the market these are some great cost-effective motherboards.

For pricing and additional reviews on ASRock motherboards as well as other Intel motherboards, check out TestFreaks.com.

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