DFI P55 mITX Motherboard Almost Hiting The Market

Category: Motherboards
Posted: November 11, 2009 01:27PM
Author: ScapeGoat

DFI recently announced the first P55 chipset mITX motherboard, the Lanparty MI-P55-T36. While it is a Mini ITX motherboard the quality is not going to be mini, at all. While some users may not have enough expansion slots to use on this motherboard as they would like to, most of us could use it as our regular motherboard since it has all we need to make a good use of our computer. It is also important to note that this motherboard uses a LOTES socket. While the launch is set to be really soon there are still no details about the price. Drop a Core i5 processor into the MI-P55-T36, plus a 5750 and you have a pretty good HTPC. For some hardcore modders this is also the opportunity to add two powerful systems in just one case!

Gigabyte Adds USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s to X58 Lineup

Category: Motherboards
Posted: November 9, 2009 03:57PM
Author: Ben Grantham

With the LGA-1366 socket aiming to have a considerable amount of life left in it, what with the six-core Intel Core i9 chips on the horizon, it makes sense that manufacturers will be starting to add features to their X58 based boards that have been introduced since their initial arrival. Gigabyte is looking to be first to have a refreshed board to market with its X58A-UD7, which includes the addition of a NEC USB 3.0 controller and a Marvell SE9128 to take care of the SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) duties. That gives the board 10 SATA ports in total, with six of them hooked up to the Intel ICH10R and four to the new Marvell controller, while the NEC USB controller will give you three powered USB 3.0 ports. I'm sure we can expect to see other manufacturers following suit soon.

ASUS Announces First 'Marine Cool' Motherboard

Category: Motherboards
Posted: October 1, 2009 03:42PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Back in March, ASUS showed a new high-performance motherboard concept it had been working on called 'Marine Cool'. That concept utilised things like a ceramic cooling backplate that covered the rear of the board and opted for SO-DIMM slots rather than the more traditional DIMM slots usually found on desktop boards. With the recently announced Sabertooth 55i, ASUS brings some of the ideas from that concept, but thankfully ditches the SO-DIMM slots for four DDR3 DIMM slots instead. ASUS does use some of the ceramic technology in the Sabertooth 55i's heatsinks, which it claims enables heat to be dissipated faster. It also features a frame that allows a 40mm or 50mm fan to be mounted for memory cooling and "military grade" capacitors and VRM MOFSETs, which it claims should provide more resilience to heat. There are no details on pricing or a release date, but you can check the full specs in the official announcement.

Lucid Announces HYDRA 200, MSI Confirms Use on Big Bang Motherboard

Category: Motherboards
Posted: September 23, 2009 03:39PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Last month we saw some shots of MSI's upcoming 'Big Bang' motherboard which showed Lucid's HYDRA engine chip placed to take on multi-GPU duties. Lucid has now announced the HYDRA 200 processing engine, which allows combinations of GPUs to work together, whether you favor the red team or the green team, or even a bit of both. The chip is a 65nm package that draws under 6W and comes in three versions, one of which supports up to four GPUs. It also does away with GPU-GPU connectors (your SLi or CrossFire bridges).

MSI has also confirmed that it will be featuring the HYDRA chip on its Big Bang P55 motherboard, which it has been previewing at the Intel Developer Forum event this week. It will feature three PCI Express slots, so should make for some interesting GPU configurations. It should be available for the holiday season, though without an official price tag as yet. The thought of finally being able to throw whatever GPUs you like into a system is an exciting one, though we will wait for some hard performance numbers before writing off SLI and Crossfire as obsolete. Should you come across any, then please let us know.

ASUS Announces P7P55 WS SuperComputer Motherboard

Category: Motherboards
Posted: September 10, 2009 06:56PM
Author: Dale Shuck

ASUS has announced a P55 chipset version of its WS SuperComputer motherboard based on the LGA1156 socket for Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Intended as a way for users to build their 'supercomputer' using NVIDIA cards and CUDA technology, the P7P55 WS SuperComputer motherboard can support up to three NVIDIA Tesla cards along with a NVIDIA Quadro card giving users four teraflops of processing power which ASUS says is about 250 time that of a standard PC. In regular graphics mode the board can support 3-way and 2-way SLI configurations; alternatively, users can also use ATI CrossFireX for a multi-GPU setup. The board comes with ASUS Hybrid Power 16+3 power management with dynamic T.Probe phase balancing and Hybrid OS for quick online access to such applications as browsing Skype and instant messaging. It also offers TurboV EVO-enhanced overclocking allowing users a push button way to boost their CPU's clock speeds by up to 22.2% and memory access rates by up to 14.8%. The boards also come with dual Gigabit LAN ports, 14 USB 2.0 connections, 6 3.0Gb/s SATA connectors and dual Firewire ports. The boards are available now and can be be found at online stores for as low as $225US.

ASUS P7P55D Series Motherboards Announced

Category: Motherboards
Posted: September 9, 2009 05:06PM
Author: Dale Shuck

Asus officially announced six new motherboards in its P7P55D series yesterday to coincide with he launch of the Intel Core i5/Core i7 "Lynnfield" processors. Based on the P55 chipset, the new boards feature the new LGA1156 socket and support for up to 16GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory running at speeds up to 2000MHz. The boards include the latest Hybrid Technology — Hybrid Processor, Hybrid Phase, and Hybrid OS—to give users intelligent performance enhancements, active cooling, and rapid online access. The flagship P7P55D Premium comes with native support for 6Gbps SATA through an onboard expansion bridge while the other models can be outfitted with the latest SATA technology through the use of an option expansion card. There are plenty of other storage options including 6-9 3Gb/s SATA connections, 12-14 USB 2.0 ports and eSATA and Firewire connections depending on model. The boards are available immediately with suggested prices ranging from $139 on the entry-level P7P55D LE up to $279 for the high-end Premium model although a quick online check showed these boards can be found for less than that.

Gigabyte Announces Six New P55 Motherboards

Category: Motherboards
Posted: September 8, 2009 06:17PM
Author: Dale Shuck

Prior to today's official launch of the Intel Core i5/i7 Lynnfield processors, we were forced to be content with previews of P55 motherboards such as the Gigabyte GA-EP55-UD4P. Well now the wraps are off and Gigabyte has officially launched six new boards based on the P55 chipset and the LGA1156 socket. The boards support dual-channel DDR3 memory at speeds of up to 2200MHz. The new boards feature Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 technology which utilizes two ounces of copper in the power and ground layers of the PCB for improved energy efficiency and heat dissipation, resulting in enhanced stability and greater overclocking ability. Also being introduced in this series with the Gigabyte GA-EP55-UD4P model is the world’s first 24 phase power VRM design that provides quick and seamless power delivery under varying CPU loading conditions while also offering a cooler and more stable platform by spreading the load between all 24 power phases. The boards also feature innovative Smart 6 PC management tools and Dynamic Energy Saver 2 power saving utilities along with a ton of other features.

ASUS Reveals New Motherboards

Category: Motherboards, Manufacturers
Posted: September 8, 2009 05:34PM
Author: Brentt Moore

With the introduction of the new Intel socket, known as the LGA 1156 socket, motherboard manufacturers will have to produce new products to support the next age technology. ASUS, one of the major motherboard manufacturers alongside GIGABYTE and others, is introducing two new gaming platform products into the market, known as the ROG Maximus III Formula and the ROG Maximus III Gene. The Formula edition includes ten SATA 3.0GB/s ports, compared to the seven on the Gene, along with a discrete SupremeFX X-Fi eight-channel sound card, while the Gene comes with onboard eight-channel sound. Both boards feature CrossFireX and SLI support; fourteen USB 2.0 ports, one PS/2, one S/PDIF port, a clear CMOS button, as well as a ROG connect on and off switch. The ROG Maximus III Formula includes three PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, while the Gene version comes with two, due to the Gene being mATX instead of a full ATX board as the Formula is. Neither price nor availability is known yet, but these boards should serve the gaming community well when they finally get launched to the public for purchase.

MSI Discounts P55 Boards

Category: Motherboards
Posted: September 4, 2009 06:20AM
Author: redtigerdragon

But only in the UK! Still, for all you visitors and OCCers across the pond who are looking to build a new system using Intel's newest chipset, be prepared for some savings! The discount is expected to be available only on launch day, which at this time is suspected to be September 8. Still, for one day, when Intel will be releasing new core i5 and i7 processors, MSI is releasing a whopping 55% discount on two of its boards: the high-end MSI P55-GD80 and upper-mid range P55-GD65. The P55-GD80 will be £85.5 (originally £189), and the P55-GD65 will be £63 (originally £139.99), while participating retailers include SCAN, Ebuyer, CCL and OverclockersUK. Unfortunately, there is a limit of one unit per customer.

EVGA Unveils X58 Classified 4-Way SLI Motherboard and Classified GTX 285 Video Card

Category: Video Cards, Motherboards
Posted: September 3, 2009 01:20AM
Author: Daryn Govender

EVGA has unveiled its latest high-end motherboard and video card duo, the X58 Classified 4-Way SLI and the Classified GTX 285.

First up, the X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard includes support for a 4-Way SLI setup (as its namesake suggests) - a world first! Also included are seven PCIe slots, 10 Phase Digital PWM, 100% solid state capacitors, a low ESR/ESL film capacitor, up to 600W of power dedicated to the CPU and support for up to 24GB of memory. Another innovative extra is the tripling of gold content in the LGA 1366 socket for better conductivity. The board has nine SATA connectors and dual 10/100/1000 LAN connectivity. It is also compatible with EVGA's E-LEET, EVbot and ECP V2 utilities. This new board is built around a custom form factor: "XL-ATX", which is bigger than E-ATX measuring in at 13.5 inches x 10.3 inches.

Next is the Classified GTX 285, designed especially to pair up with the X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard. It features 8 Phase Digital PWM, dedicated voltage reading points, a low ESR/ESL film capacitor, 4-Way SLI support in the X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard, EVGA EVbot support, an X-Cool jumper for overclocking and three PCIe 6 pin power connectors for up to 640W of dedicated electricity for the GPU and memory. The Classified GTX 285 runs on the standard GTX 285 clock speeds (648MHz/2484MHz/1476MHz|GPU/Memory/Shader) and features dual-DVI support.

Vince "k|ngp|n" Lucido and Peter "Shamino" Tan were able to beat 4 3DMark world records with these new EVGA offerings, in 4-Way SLI of course! EVGA recommend a PC chassis with at least nine expansion slots to fit the X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard and you'll need 10 expansion slots if you're planning a 4-Way SLI set-up like k|ngp|n and Shamino.

The EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI motherboard and EVGA Classified GTX 285 are currently available for pre-order, priced at US$550 and US$380 respectively from the EVGA online store.

ECS Releases A785GM-M micro ATX Motherboard

Category: Motherboards
Posted: August 12, 2009 06:26PM
Author: Dale Shuck

When ECS first announced the A785GM-M micro ATX at Computex back in May it said it would have more information on availability in the future. The future is now as it officially launched the A785GM-M this week. The board is based on AMD's 785G/SB710 chipsets and supports the latest 45nm Phenom II socket AM3 processors using DDR3 memory. The board's features have been upgraded a bit since May with the capability of supporting CPUs up to 140W TDP and 4 phase power design. Also on board are all solid capacitors and tons of connections with Gigabit LAN, 6 x SATA 3.0Gb/s and Firewire and 2 x eSATA connections. The integrated graphics include ATI Radeon 4200 with Hybrid Crossfire technology and multiple display connection options including HDMI, DVI and VGA. ECS has also included its eJIFFY Linux-based interface that allows you to quickly boot up without having to go into the operating system - a handy feature if you just want to hop online to check e-mail or do a little browsing. A quick check online showed the A785GM-M is currently available for around $100US.

Upcoming MSI Motherboard to Feature Lucid Hydra Chip

Category: Motherboards
Posted: August 12, 2009 09:12AM
Author: Ben Grantham

NVIDIA's SLi and AMD's Crossfire technologies have both evolved into respectable multi-GPU solutions that allow serious gamers to drive high resolution displays with high levels of in game settings at playable frame rates. If recent information from Israeli website iopanel.net proves accurate then we could soon be seeing a third option for multi-GPU setups, with MSI's upcoming P55 "Big Bang" motherboard reportedly making use of Lucid's HYDRA engine chip. The chip takes up a position usually occupied an SLI-enabling NVIDIA part (the nf200) and takes over multi-GPU duties, which in theory could enable AMD and NVIDIA cards to work together, as well as provide near linear scaling in rendering performance (at least according to Lucid). The Hyrda chip is also expected to take on multi-GPU duties for Intel's upcoming Larrabee, what with Intel Capital being one of Lucid's investors.

There isn't enough information to get excited about just now, but we will certainly keep our ears to the ground for any details of what the Hydra chip will mean for the MSI board's multi-GPU capabilities.

Major Manufacturers License Nvidia SLI Technology for P55 Boards

Category: Video Cards, Motherboards
Posted: August 11, 2009 05:55PM
Author: Dale Shuck

It looks like you'll be able to choose to run multi-GPU configurations using Nvidia's SLI technology when the Intel Core i7/i5 LGA1156 socket processors arrive next month. According to Nvidia, Intel, Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI have all signed licensing agreements to use the technology on their boards based on the P55 Express chipset. Whatever differences Intel and Nvidia had at one point seem to have been put aside make the X58 and P55 the only non-Nvidia chipset boards capable of running multiple graphics cards using Nvidia's SLI technology (not counting Skulltrail of course). That gives Nvidia full coverage across all the  consumer PC platforms, including the Intel Core i7/i5, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo processors and well AMD Phenom II CPU. This means users can choose their board and and then decide whether to go CrossFire or SLI or switch videocard manufacturers at a later date if they want.

Nvidia Now Able to Produce SLI Chipsets for i5 and i7 CPUs

Category: Motherboards
Posted: August 10, 2009 09:00AM
Author: Nick Harezga

Nvidia has announced an end to the battle with Intel over Nehalem motherboards. Nvidia had previously been unable to produce motherboards compatible with the newest processors from Intel. Due to this disagreement between the two companies, end users were unable to build systems with multiple Nvidia video cards and Intel processors. This could have been a tremendous blow against Nvidia, as ATI has no difficulty in putting multiple cards on any AMD based chipsets. However, it remains unclear whether Nvidia will be able to produce its own chipsets to compete with Intel made ones.

Newer AMD Boards Still Support Core Unlocking

Category: Motherboards, CPU's
Posted: July 31, 2009 07:06AM
Author: redtigerdragon

A while back, news came out that the new AMD Phenom II processors could have their dormant cores unlocked. This caused many people to consider buying into the red camp, as a cheaper tri- or dual-core processor and a cheap motherboard could. With the help of not-so-good BIOS-coding associated with the Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC), get you a quad core for half the price (or significant savings). As soon as news got out, AMD was quick to tell the motherboard manufacturers to release new BIOS updates to fix the issue, and while some did, many didn't (You have to wonder how hard they pushed, considering how well the items sold). Well, apparently the "problem" still persists in AMD's newest chipset, the 785G+SB710 chipset. At the Chinese website Coolaler.com, they were able to not only unlock cores using MSI's 785GM-E65 and a Phenom II X2 550, but also has good overclock stability to boot. They set  ACC to auto, which unlocked all 4 cores, were able to overclock it to 3.609 GHz (18 x 200 MHz, 1.344 V), and tested stability using two instances of Orthos. Seems like AMD is still champ for the "more for less" category.

NVIDIA ION Days Numbered?

Category: Motherboards, CPU's
Posted: July 28, 2009 01:14PM
Author: JifDaKiwi

It would seem as though NVIDIA's ION development team may get an early, and unwanted, holiday. Currently, Intel Atom platforms use three chips to get the job done - a CPU for the number crunching, a northbridge / GPU to do all the pretty graphics and a southbridge to talk to your storage devices, whereas the NVIDIA ION platform only uses two - the CPU and the 9400M northbridge / GPU, which also handles connection to storage devices. 

Now that the N270 has come to the end of its production life, Intel's new Pine Trail Atom platform will be coming to the fore. The main difference with this setup though, is that like the ION, only two chips are required, but not quite as it was before. Now the two chips in charge of the show are the CPU / northbridge / GPU all in one jobby, and an I/O hub, similar to current southbridges. This has the positive effect of reducing power consumption, and thereby reducing heat, and also giving enhanced graphics performance, but the other side of the coin is that now that the northbridge and GPU will be residing on-die, there's not much left for NVIDIA to develop.

Engineering samples have already been sent to OEM manufacturers of netbooks, and we will be likely to see the end results within the first half of 2010, but it will be interesting to see how this new setup affects competition in the mini-ITX motherboard market.

ASUS P6X58 Premium Motherboard Comes With USB 3.0

Category: Motherboards
Posted: July 21, 2009 04:02AM
Author: Ben Grantham

It seems as though ASUS may be one of the first to begin offering USB 3.0 ports on its motherboards, if pictures of the P6X58 Premium are anything to go by. The board features two USB 3.0 ports, powered by NEC's µ PD720200 USB 3.0 controller, with the rest of of the USB ports (4) being of the rather less exciting USB 2.0 variety. As it's an X58 board, it is of course designed to accommodate Core i7 processors and packs in many of the other other features you would expect from a premium motherboard of that ilk. This also includes SATA ports that support the new 6Gb/s standard. Naturally there is no word on pricing or a release date for the board, though at the moment there isn't any USB 3.0 equipped gear available to make use of those shiny new ports anyway. You can find a number of nice close up shots of the P6X58 Premium at Xfastest forums.

MSI Announce OC Genie Auto Overclocking For Desktop Motherboards

Category: Motherboards
Posted: July 19, 2009 07:03AM
Author: Ben Grantham

As overclockers, anything that makes the process a little less painful is always welcome. MSI has previously included instant overclocking buttons on some of its laptop models, but now it is taking a similar approach with desktop motherboards in the form of the OC Genie 'Intelligent OC Processor'. MSI was apparently demonstrating the technology on a P55 based motherboard at the MOA European Final event in Germany over the past couple of days, so we will be looking out for reports of how impressive those demonstrations were. The idea of OC Genie itself is to give you the simple option of instant one button overclocking to improve performance. According to MSI, OC Genie will optimise CPU clocks and voltages as well as memory clocks and voltages to achieve performance and stability.

Now the idea of automatic overclocking isn't a new one, with many motherboards including automatic settings in the BIOS to give those who find manually tweaking options daunting a way to give their systems a boost. These kind of options generally provide something for the casual overclocker, giving a bit of a performance increase but not getting near to the full overclocking potential of manual tweaking and testing. I suspect that OC Genie may fall into a similar category, but it will be intriguing to see how far the option will actually push clockspeeds. You can expect to see it appearing on MSI's P55 product line at first, but it says implementations will also be coming to AMD based platforms.

ASUS Introduces New mATX 785G Motherboard

Category: Motherboards, General News
Posted: July 10, 2009 08:16AM
Author: MrAlex

Hopefully sooner rather than later, AMD will announce their new 785G chipset, which comes with newer upgraded integrated graphics, the Radeon HD 4200. ASUSTek are one of the first with a new mATX motherboard that uses this chipset and it is called the M4A785TD-M EVO – and yes that IS a mouthful, along with the features that come with it:  the 785G chipset (duh?), a 2oz copper PCB, Socket AM3, four DDR3 DIMM slots, the usual connections and ASUS’s custom software but unlike the 790GX chipset it comes with only one PCI Express x16 slot. The cooling for the motherboard looks decent enough, the colour scheme is good and it seems to be quite plentiful for a mATX motherboard. Hopefully after AMD officially announce the new chipset this motherboard will be made available.

EVGA Launches X58 SLI Micro mATX Motherboard

Category: Motherboards
Posted: July 3, 2009 02:12AM
Author: Daryn Govender

EVGA has announced the release of it's latest X58 motherboard, the X58 SLI Micro. The SLI Micro is a mATX form factor motherboard based around Intel's X58 chipset. The Micro supports two-way SLI and up to 12GB of triple channel DDR3-1600MHz memory. Six SATA ports, one PCIe x1 and one PCI x1 slot provide support for future upgrades. The board also includes integrated eight channel high definition audio and one gigabit ethernet port. Connectivity options include up to eight USB 2.0 ports (four external and four internal headers) and up to 3 FireWire 1394A ports (one external and two internal headers). The X58 SLI Micro also features support for the E-LEET and EX Voltage tuning software from EVGA. The Micro will come bundled with a two year warranty and retails for US$199.99.

 

MSI MOA Qualifiers Now Open

Category: Video Cards, Motherboards, Manufacturers
Posted: June 29, 2009 07:51PM
Author: Dale Shuck

The MOA 2009 qualifiers are now open with Phase I selection scheduled to last from June 29 through July 19. The first round is open to all overclockers in the US, Canada and Mexico. The top 10 teams will move on to Phase II which runs July 25 through August 2nd. The top two scores earn teams the right to go to the Grand Final in Beijing as guests of MSI. The clock is ticking so head on over to the MOA web site and get your scores in. Who knows, maybe we'll be cheering for one of OCC's own in Beijing this year!

ASUS Maximus Formula III

Category: Motherboards, General News
Posted: June 15, 2009 10:37AM
Author: MrAlex

ASUS, manufacturer of computer parts never fail to impress with their line-up of Republic Of Gamers parts, and the new addition is the ASUS Maximus Formula III, an awesome looking black and red motherboard with a rather nifty heat sink. I won’t brief you on what the P55 chipset offers, but what this board will offer – a 19 Phase power circuit, with a 3 Phase power circuit for the DDR3 RAM to ensure the best possible overclock. ASUS will also provide us with a nice SupremeFX audio card and ASUS’s iROG, Volteter LED, and ROG-Connect. Thanks to PCGamesHardware.de for the information and pictures!

MSI Announces SLI Support For X58 Boards

Category: Motherboards
Posted: June 10, 2009 06:04PM
Author: Dale Shuck

MSI just came out with some good news for owners of its X58 motherboards by announcing it is enabling SLI support across its entire X58 product line. That doesn't mean just new boards because all it takes to get SLI support is a BIOS upgrade and the firmware is available on MSI's web site. Prior to this, users wanting to set up SLI on their Core i7 systems using an MSI board had to use one of its Eclipse boards. Customers will now have the option of choosing either  ATI's CrossFireX or Nvidia's SLI technology for multi-GPU configurations. That's not to say the Eclipse boards aren't worthy competitors as a new world record was set recently using the MSI Eclipse SLI to push the Intel Core i7 975 to 5.7GHz.

ASUS P6X58 Premium Pictured

Category: Motherboards, General News
Posted: June 8, 2009 08:06AM
Author: MrAlex

ASUS, manufacturer of computer parts has released one of the first X58 motherboards with SATA III, which means double the transfer rates of SATA II, which means 6Gbps instead of 3Gbps! The ASUS P6X58 Premium comes with (you guessed it) Intel’s X58 chipset, support for Core™ i7 processors, the usual tri-channel memory slots, three PCI-Express x16 2.0 slots, ASUS’s Express Gate OS, 7.1 Channel Audio a gigabit Ethernet port and a 16-Phase power design. Images courtesy of XFASTEST.com.

ASUS's New Collection of P57 Motherboards

Category: Motherboards, General News
Posted: June 6, 2009 09:24AM
Author: MrAlex

At Computex, ASUS, manufacturer of computer components revealed a whole bunch of Intel P55 motherboards, but now ASUS have gone one step further than anyone else and shown the world it’s three new P57 motherboards; but be warned, they are NOT a pretty sight coming with a yellow PCB. Let us hope performance is better than its looks. The three new motherboards are the P7P57 PRO, P7P57 and P7P57 LE. They support any Socket 1156 processors, which at the moment is currently Intel’s Core i5 range (to be released). Now, down to the nitty gritty – they come with 4 Dual-Channel DDR3 slots, a NAND memory slot, five SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, an e-SATA port and the usual 7.1 channel audio - oh and Intel's P57 Chipset. The difference between them aren’t visually obvious expect that the LE comes with only 1 PCI-Express X16 slot. Thank you to VR-Zone for the pictures.

Side Note: The images are in the following order: 1)P7P57 2)P7P57 LE 3)P7P57 PRO

New G34 Motherboards Pictured

Category: Motherboards, General News
Posted: June 3, 2009 10:25AM
Author: MrAlex

Currently, the server world is dominated by Intel’s Nehalem Xeons, proving to be powerful, but expensive. In 2010, AMD plan to change that with the release of the first 8-Core and 12-Core processors on a new socket – G34. So, what does this new socket and new CPUs offer us? How about support for Quad-Channel DDR3 memory, 4 HyperTransport lanes and second-generation direct connect architecture? Oh, and let’s not forget support for Two, Four, Six and Eight (?) socket motherboards, with potential of up to 64 processing cores?! Thanks to INPAI, we have two pictures from two motherboard manufactures – Inventec (First) and Quanta (Next). They are both dual-socket motherboards, while the only visible difference is that the Inventec comes with 12 DDR3 slots (maximum 48GB RAM) and the Quanta comes with only 8 (maximum 32GB RAM).  2010 will be an interesting year for AMD.

GIGABYTE Rolls Out New Motherboards for Computex

Category: Motherboards
Posted: June 2, 2009 09:04PM
Author: Dale Shuck

GIGABYTE is putting several new motherboards on display at Computex and there's something from both Intel and AMD fans. Along with the new boards are some new hardware and software features. Let's talk about the hardware side first. GIGABYTE is introducing a 24-phase power VRM design it says offers greater efficiency in delivering power to the processor by spreading the workload across the 24 phases. That means less heat being generated which leads to greater stability and higher overclocking potential. On the software side there's GIGABYTE's Smart 6 technologies which encompasses SMART QuickBoot, SMART Recorder, SMART TimeLock, SMART Recovery, SMART QuickBoost and SMART DualBIOS for more user-friendly and easier PC system management.

The motherboard lineup includes two Intel boards the company will be demoing live this week. These include the X58 chipset-based GA-EX58A-EXTREME and the GA-EP55-UD5 based on Intel's forthcoming P55 chipset. Both products will feature the 24-phase power VRM and SATA 6Gbps connections. For AMD lovers, GIGABYTE is offering the the GA-MA790FXT-UD5P based on the Dragon platform for 45nm AMD Phenom II processors and the GA-MA785G-UD3H using the latest AMD 785G chipset with ATI RADEON HD 4200 on-board graphics.

The boards are being released over the next several months with the GA-EX58A-EXTREME scheduled to launch in July, followed by the GA-EP55-UD in September with the AMD GA-MA785G-UD3H slated for the third quarter.

ECS Hardware Giveaway

Category: Video Cards, Motherboards
Posted: May 26, 2009 07:47PM
Author: Dale Shuck

There's nothing better than a chance to win free hardware, especially if there's little or no effort involved in qualifying. ECS is offering a chance to win one of its NGTS250-1GMU-F GeForce GTS250 videocards along with an A790GXM-AD3 Black Series motherboard. Entering couldn't be any easier. Just log on to your Twitter account and follow ECS By going to http://twitter.com/ecsusa and click on “Follow”. You need to send the following tweet without the quotes “RT @ecsusa I want to win that motherboard or VGA #ecsusa http://tinyurl.com/gimmethatboard”. That's it - you're automatically qualified for the giveaway which will take place on June 12, 2009 at 5:00PM Pacific Time. You can check out the rest of the contest details here. Good Luck!

ECS Unveiling Two New Motherboards at Computex 2009

Category: Motherboards
Posted: May 25, 2009 08:03PM
Author: Dale Shuck

ECS has announced it will be showcasing two new motherboards at Computex next week in Taipei. The first board of interest is the ECS P55H-A and, as the name indicates, is based on the Intel P55 chipset designed to support the new Intel Core i5 mainstream processor. The board features dual PCIe x 16 slots (x8 in dual card mode) and 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s connectors with support for Intel Matrix Storage Technology. You'll also find 14 USB 2.0 connectors on the P55H-A.

Next up is the micro ATX ECS ECS A785GM-M board based on the AMD 785G and SB710 chipset combination. The A785GM-M supports the latest 45nm AMD Phenom II CPUs running DDR3 memory. The board is designed for both digital home entertainment and performance tuning with its integrated graphics with TI Hybrid Graphics Technology and 5 phase power design supporting up to 125W TDP processors.

Both boards are part of the ECS Black Series and come with all-solid capacitors and the ECS M.I.B. II overclocking utility. Look for more information on pricing and availability in the future.

Biostar's New DDR2/DDR3 P45 Motherboard

Category: Motherboards, General News
Posted: May 25, 2009 10:19AM
Author: MrAlex

Biostar, one of the lesser known motherboard manufacturers have released a new P45 motherboard into their already famous T-Series.  This new motherboard supports BOTH DDR2 and DDR3 memory, for Intel Core users that want to get the best of both worlds, even though you can’t use them both at the same time. This new motherboard is named TP45E Combo, and if you haven’t already guessed it’s for LGA775 processors. It supports an FSB up to 1600, support for both DDR2 1066 MHz and DDR3 1333 MHz RAM. It comes with one PCI-Express x16 Slot, and Biostar’s Green Power Utility (GPU) which disables extra phases when not doing intensive work. It also comes with 6 SATA-II ports, a gigabit Ethernet port and 7.1 Channel Audio.