Features -
In the current market motherboard (and indeed almost all component) performance is very close. The days of a large performance advantage between boards using the same chipset are long gone. That is unless someone makes a HUGE mistake (like runs traces completely wrong). Now, the thing that differentiates different products is the features. These are things like power management, extra slots, better audio CODECs etc. It is these items that R&D teams work so hard to drop into what are really identical pieces of hardware at their most basic level.

Excellent -

Visual BIOS
PCIe Generation 3.0

Although there are only two features listed here, both are very good. Having support for the next generation of PCIe graphics or components is only going to improve your performance while Intel’s visual BIOS is one of the smoothest we have worked with (check out our video). If you want to see how UEFI should be done this is a great example.

In the middle (sort of good) -
HDMI 1.4 with full 3D support
Dual GBe LAN controllers
Support for 8-USB 3.0 ports
Bluetooth/WiFi

This listing of features are still solid ones, but they are not at the top of the list. There are a good number of motherboards with dual Gigabit LAN controllers, support for multiple USB 3.0 ports and also with Wireless and Bluetooth onboard. Still they are good features and add value to the board.

Floor Mats -
SLI
Crossfire

We hate to say it, Crossfire and SLI support is almost requirement these days. If you find a desktop motherboard (in the midrange or enthusiast category) that does not support these two standards there is something very wrong. We are even seeing entry level boards with this support.