D915PBL

The D915PBL isn't quite as feature-laden as some of the more expensive Intel 925XE-based motherboards that support a 1066MHz frontside bus. The D915PBL only supports a maximum bus speed of 800MHz. Nonetheless, the performance difference between this board and the 925XE motherboards we have tested was tiny.

The Intel board provides one ATA-100 channel, RAID 0 and 1 on the four SATA ports, eight USB ports (four external), and a gigabit Ethernet port. Its layout is spacious, with easy-to-read labels, but the area around the PCIe x16 slot can get cramped.

Surprisingly enough, Intel provides decent overclocking tweaks, though they're called "burn in" settings, in both the BIOS and the company's slick Windows-based Desktop Control Center. Annoyingly, the latter doesn't ship with the boards; before you can download the software, you must answer some intrusive questions at Intel's site. Intel also bundles other software with its board; InterVideo's Home Theater Silver and WinDVD Creator Suite and NTI's CD-Maker are the featured titles