Gigabyte unveiled four Intel X79 motherboards at the
recent Intel IDF 2011 event in San Francisco last month for the as yet
unreleased Intel Sandy Bridge-E socket LGA2011 processor. While much of the
detail surrounding the upcoming Intel X79 chipset and Sandy Bridge-E CPU is
still under NDA, we can show you the motherboards Gigabyte demo'd and reveal a
few tid bits of info based on what's publicly known right now.
Gigabyte showcased the high end G1.Assassin 2 and GA-X79-UD7 motherboards along with the mainstream GA-X79-UD5 and value oriented GA-X79-UD3 board.
Most notable about the boards is the placement of the
memory DIMMs on either side of the CPU socket, and the quantity - these are
quad-channel platforms. The Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 motherboard
will accommodate up to eight DDR3 modules, or two DDR3 modules per channel!
Gamers will appreciate the option of three-way SLi/CrossfireX and support for
PCI Express 3.0 graphics cards too, I'd imagine. Next on the list is SATA....
quite simply there is a lot to go around. The same Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 platform
has no fewer than 14 SATA ports!
The Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2 motherboard
features the same core options as other X79 platforms, but with a twist to
gamer's requirements. The Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 LAN is there, as is
Creative 8 X-Fi / EAX5.0 audio and an innovative overclocker friendly 8-phase
VRM with POScaps, MPFC chokes and driver MOSFETs to improve power stability.
The Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard is
the value proposition of the bunch. It's four DIMM slots allow one module per
channel, though 14 SATA ports are still provided.
Last but not least is the overclockers Intel 79
platform, the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 motherboard. Again we find
only four DIMMs, but there are several other refinements to make this a better
overclocking platform. Several - and + buttons along the right hand side of the
board hint at direct bus speed control, while a PORT80 card is visible to the
right of the memory slots for troubleshooting boot errors.
Gigabyte
GA-X79-UD5 Motherboard for Intel X79 chipset and socket 2011 Sandy
Bridge-E processor family. |
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Motherboard for Intel X79 chipset
and socket 2011 Sandy Bridge-E processor family.
|
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 Motherboard for
Intel X79 chipset and socket 2011 Sandy Bridge-E processor family.
|
Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2 Motherboard for
Intel X79 chipset and socket 2011 Sandy Bridge-E processor family.
|