Abandoning the 975X in favor of the newer, flashier P965 was a bold idea, but one that was ultimately sunk by the P965's lack of support for CrossFire multi-GPU configurations. However, ATI recently began supporting CrossFire on the P965, raising the question of whether there's much point to the 975X anymore. To find out, TechReport has collected the P965 and 975X Platinum motherboards from MSI. Both boards support CrossFire and Intel's latest Core 2 processors, but the 975X Platinum costs about $20 more:

MSI's P965 Platinum makes a strong case for itself and for its Intel P965 chipset. You're really not missing out on much by going with a P965 board rather than a 975X. You pay less, but get more Serial ATA and USB ports, slightly lower power consumption, and some peace of mind knowing that your chipset is slightly less obsolete at the time of purchase than the 975X Express. The P965 is also built using more advanced 90nm process technology, but as we saw, that doesn't necessarily guarantee better overclocking potential.

Apparent overclocking potential is one of very few differences between MSI's P965 and 975X Platinum. Price is another, and given just how similar the boards are, I'm not sure the 975X is worth the extra $20-not unless you really want Viiv support. That's not a knock against the 975X Platinum, mind you; it's the cheapest enthusiast-oriented 975X board on the market. The P965 Platinum just offers equivalent functionality for less.

All things considered, the P965 Platinum is a very reasonable mid-range enthusiast board. It may not be flashy, exotic, or groundbreaking, but all the necessary features are there, the price is right, and performance is solid. That doesn't make the P965 Platinum our favorite Core 2 motherboard-it would need to overclock better and be more comfortable with four-DIMM configurations to really win its way into our hearts-but it's up there among the best.