Looking at the pricing for the Asus P6T, Gigabyte EX58-UD3R, and MSI X58 Platinum, none of them cost more than the cheapest chip to put in them.  That is a far cry from the pricing of the ROG boards from ASUS and other first generation X58 boards.  Of course, with the lower pricing you expect less features, for instance only the MSI board offers dual ethernet connections.  You can see the performance differences in The Tech Report’s full article, but the main factor in deciding between the three models and other high priced ones is to peg down which features you need and which you can do as well without.

“The first wave of Core i7 motherboards were prohibitively expensive, but a new batch has arrived that brings prices down to the $200 range. Join us as we take affordable X58 motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI for a spin to find out which is best for a budget.”

Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:

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