The Intel X48 Express chipset is designed for the latest generation of multicore 45nm Socket 775 Intel processors. It officially supports Front Side Bus speeds at high as 1600MHz (800/1066/1333MHz inclusive), although the Intel X38 could (unoffically) manage this when overclocked.

The Intel X48 Express is paired with Intel's ICH9 series of Southbridge chipset. The Southbridge chipset used with the Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 motherboard in this review is the ICH9R model, so the board supports RAID via Intel's Matrix storage technology.

With the Intel X48 Express chipset, memory support expands to DDR3-1600(XMP) care of Intel's Extreme Memory Profiles. Intel XMP is set of pre-defined memory SPD profiles that allow standard DDR3 memory to be overclocked via the BIOS automatically by selecting the appropriate profile, or via a tuning utility in Windows.

The Intel X48 Express supports DDR3-800/1066/1333/1600 (XMP) memory in a dual channel configuration, up to a maximum of 8GB of unbuffered ECC/non ECC. However, to run memory modules at 1600MHz XMP only one pair of DIMMs may be installed. If two memory modules per channel are installed, the Intel X48 will accommodate DDR3-1333/1067/800 modes only.

The Intel X48 Express chipset is the second Intel northbridge to come with a heatspreader. This allows the X48 Express to use a smaller heatsink and still keep the northbridge chipset cool. Here's a quick look at how the new X48 Express stacks up to the P35 Express and X38 chipsets. Apart from the speed increases, inclusion of PCI Express 2.0 and the focus on DDR3 memory alone, there are just a few extra ports.

Intel x48, X38, P35, 975, 965 Series Chipset Feature Breakdown Intel X48 Express Intel X38 Express Intel 975X Express Intel P35 Express Express Intel P965 Express CPU LGA775 Core 2 Quad LGA775 Core 2 Duo LGA775 Core 2 Duo LGA775 Core 2 Duo LGA775 Core 2 Duo Front Side Bus (FSB) 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz 1333/1066/800 MHz 1066/800 MHz 1333/1066/800 MHz 1066/800/533 MHz Intel XMP Memory Yes Yes No No No Dual Channel Memory Support DDR3 1600 (XMP) /1333/1066/800 DDR2 1066/800/667 DDR3 1333(unofficial)/1066/800 DDR2 800/667/533 DDR2 1066/800/667 DDR3 1333(unofficial)/1066/800 DDR2 800/667/533 Maximum Memory Capacity 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB Integrated Graphics - - - - - PCI Express 2.0 x16 2 2 2 1 1 PCI Express x1 6 4 4 6 4 Intel Matrix Storage Technology Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes SATA/IDE HDD 6/0 6/0 4/1 6/0 6/0 SATA Speed 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH9R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH9R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH7R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH9R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH8R) Hard Drive NCQ Yes Yes - Yes Yes USB 2.0 Ports 12 12 8 12 8 PCI Masters 6 6 6 6 6 Audio High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia)

The ICH9R supports six 3GB/s Serial ATA II channels (which support RAID modes 0, 1, 5 and 10) as well a 7.1 channel Intel Azalia high definition audio, 12 USB 2.0 ports in total (split between headers and the I/O slot), six PCI Express x1 lanes, and an integrated Intel Gigabit MAC that runs through the PCI Express bus specific to this chipset.

Noticeably lacking from the chipset is parallel IDE support. In this case, Gigabyte includes its own IDE controller. Without this there would be no way to hook up a DVD-ROM or similar legacy IDE optical drive. Luckily most manufacturers are installing IDE controllers onto the motherboards so you can use older drives. In addition to providing IDE support, the Gigabyte storage controller also adds another two Serial ATA ports, which can also be run in RAID 0, 1 or JBOD.

Next, PCSTATS examines the highlights of the Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 motherboard itself.