But we digress. Record breaking performance numbers in all application types are what you can expect from any half decent X38 board. Our only reservation involves that age-old Intel bugbear, memory bandwidth. Even with DDR3 memory running at 1333MHz, our testing shows the X38 only just cracks the 7000MB/s barrier.

That said, both boards will support memory running much faster than that. Courtesy of Corsair's latest 1800MHz DDR3 DIMMs, we squeezed over 9,000MB/s out of the Asus.

Don't mention the X48

Finally, to bring the X38 story full circle, we should briefly mention rumours of the imminent arrival of the X48 chipset. There's no official word from Intel, but the scuttlebutt suggests it will be a minor revision that adds official support for 1600MHz bus chips and DDR3 1600MHz memory. According to reports, it could be out in as little as one month.

That said, the first X38 boards from Asus and Gigabyte already deliver 1600MHz bus support. At the very least that makes them excellent candidates for overclocking enthusiasts.

However, it's not guaranteed they will play nicely with any 1600MHz bus desktop processors Intel might launch in future. Anyone worried about X38-based boards becoming rapidly redundant might prefer not to pull the trigger for a month or two. Especially considering the likely £150-plus asking price of any X38 motherboard.

But whatever happens with the X48, one thing is for sure. Intel's Nehalem modular CPU architecture is rapidly approaching and with it a whole new platform apporach from Intel. Both the X38 and X48 are guaranteed to be toast in 2008.

Intel X38 key features:

Socket:

LGA 775

Bus speeds:

800, 1,066, 1,333MHz (some X38 boards also support 1,600MHz)

CPU support:

All Intel LGA775 processors including new 45nm chips

Memory support:

DDR2 up to 1,066MHz, DDR3 up to 1,333MHz (board implementatio dependent - some boards also support 1,600MHz DDR3).

Expansion highlights (minimum):

2x PCIE 16 graphics, 8x PCIE, 2x gigabit LAN, 6x SATA

Other:

Intel High Definition Audio, Intel Matrix Storage Technology, Intel Turbo Memory (optional)

Price:

Typically £150-plus for third party board based on the X38 chipset