With so many factors to consider, choosing a motherboard can be a bewildering exercise. We put 11 models through their pace to find the ultimate in performance, flexibility and value

Meet a new player in the local motherboard market, with great features and solid performance

Plenty of connectors, but not much pizzazz

An appealingly upmarket board at a fair price

A great combination of features at an excellent price makes this our new A-List board - suitable for just about everyone.

The P45 chipset takes the stability of the P35 chipset and introduces support for PCI Express 2.0 - the latest standard for graphic cards. If you were waiting for the best choice of upgrade for an existing LGA775 system, or want a board for a budget system, this is definitely the chipset of choice. It's great time to bag an upgrade. What better gift for the DIY geek in your household?

Will splashing out on expensive RAM make a real difference to PC performance? And if so, how much should you buy? We supply the benchmarks and lay the details bare

A decent board, but the Hybrid SLI feature doesn’t justify the high asking price

A simple board that struggles to justify its price

All the options you could want, although it’s pricey

An uninspiring board with no strong selling point

A slightly bare but affordable media-centre board

A capable little package at an attractive price

Cheap, but there’s not much here to cheer about

A feast of features for those willing to pay

A high-end board bristling with great ideas

Selecting presents for the geek or gadgeteer in your life? We take the hassle out of gift buying, so you can put your feet up and relax.

A smartly engineered processor, but for today’s applications it’s lacking in bang per buck.

Nick Ross gets gadget fever on day two - a laptop with a built in projector, Sapphire's latest, the Asus v Gigabyte fight, extreme cooling, 3D monitors, GPS, and the Eee-killing Acer One.