Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H

But the Gigabyte isn't our favourite Core 2 Duo board thanks to the Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H and its aggressive price. It's hard to find a fault with it, especially as it costs only £75. Both power connectors reside in fairly sensible places, although the auxiliary power sits just below the CPU socket, which isn't ideal. Plus, this is the newer eight-pin variety, so may need a PSU upgrade.

There's a sensible layout, with six SATA headers to the lower right and an IDE connector halfway up this side. Also, you won't have any messy cabling with this motherboard at the heart of your system. The FireWire and three USB 2 headers not only have shrouding for easy connection but are colour-coded. Arranged to the bottom right, USB cables won't get tangled or block airflow either. And at the rear, there's a FireWire and external SATA connection. You get three PCI slots, plus PCI Express 1x and 4x slots. You only get a single SATA cable and no backplane connectors, but nonetheless the Foxconn is the ideal choice for a powerful Core 2 Duo PC.

Author: Clive Webster