The Intel W480 Motherboard Overview: LGA1200 For Xeon W-1200

GIGABYTE W480 Vision D

For Intel's more workstation focused W480 chipset, at time of writing, GIGABYTE has unveiled three models with two ATX sized model and one micro-ATX model. The more premium of the two ATX sized boards is the GIGABYTE W480 Vision D, with its black PCB and striking white PCIe armor and heatsinks for a robust and classic contrasting look. Some of the boards feature set includes dual Thunderbolt 3 Type-C connectivity on the rear panel, three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with dual Ethernet on the rear including an Intel 2.5 GbE controller, and an Intel Wi-Fi 6 interface.

The GIGABYTE W480 Vision D has a solid feature set which includes three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which run at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/+x4, with a single PCIe 3.0 slot. Underneath the visually pleasing PCIe slot armor is the three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with six SATA ports also present which includes support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. The W480 Vision D has four memory slots with official support for both ECC and non-ECC memory, with a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB and speeds of up to DDR4-2933. 

Looking at the rear panel, the GIGABYTE W480 Vision D includes dual Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports with a single DisplayPort video input to assist. Also present are two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports, with a front-panel USB 3.2 G2 Type-C front panel header present for users that require more Type-C connectivity. The networking consists of two Ethernet ports including an Intel 2.5 GbE and Intel Gigabit controller pairing, with an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 interface which also provides support for BT 5.1 devices. Finishing off the rear panel are five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output controlled by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec and a single HDMI 1.4 video output.

The GIGABYTE W480 Vision D is undoubtedly one of the best looking W480 models announced and should fit a multitude of system configurations with its black and white contrasting design. Combining this with a solid premium feature set with dual Thunderbolt 3 Type-C and plenty of USB 3.2 G2 Type-A on the rear panel is suitable for content creators and workstation users with lots of USB devices. The W480 Vision D is also one of the only models to include three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots which is a huge plus point for the board and sets it apart from a small handful of premium models from the big four consumer-focused vendors.