As is often the case when comparing motherboards, the results tend to boil down to horses for courses. You're not going to be disappointed with any of the boards we've tested here, but if you're looking to put together a server, you may need to consider boards with fast UltraDMA/ATA or RAID functions, as present in the Abit board. Speed freaks, meanwhile, will probably go for the Microstar MSI board that can use up to 4GB of the latest DDR memory and has the very latest chipset.

We've used an Abit KT7 board in house for the last few months and this has proven to be rock solid. However with a similar build quality and that popular VIA KT133 chipset, any of the others should be equally impressive. Note that if you're looking to use video conferencing or Internet phone functions, then a board with in-built sound features or an AMR slot will free up expansion slot space and save money.

If we had to choose one board then it would probably be the Abit KT7A RAID. It's a quality board that performs well and the onboard RAID control enables you to set up four extra UltraDMA/ATA devices and use a RAID array of hard drives. Although we'd also be tempted by the Microstar MSI board just for the sheer performance of its memory controller.

But for all these boards, the same conclusion applies - the performance of the 1GHz+ AMD chips is staggering, and even puts the latest Intel Pentium 4 to shame. It really is a very competitive combination of board and processor. 1.2GHz processors can be had for a shade over the £200 mark at the time of writing, so by the time you've selected a motherboard and heat sink you could have state-of-the-art performance for around £350, although a new hard drive and faster RAM are sure to follow.

If you're not too sure about the processor speed that a particular motherboard can handle, it's worth taking a look at the AMD site. AMD keeps a complete listing of motherboards from different manufacturers that have passed the company's approval rating to run at 1.2GHz.

A quick note: In the past, we've experienced problems with several of the earliest boards falling over above 1.0GHz. It's worth mentioning that most Socket A boards do need a larger power supply and if you're upgrading your system it may be worth considering a new PSU at the same time. AMD recommends a 300-watt unit for 1GHz processors and also recommends fitting one of the new style, deep, multi-finned Socket A heatsinks with fan. These are quite tricky to fit, though, and as they include a heat transfer membrane, you only get one shot at it. So be careful...