Computex 2007: Preview Look at Motherboards and More
by Gary Key on June 5, 2007 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Gigabyte
Gigabyte has made a tremendous comeback over the course of the last year by offering quality products at fairly reasonable prices. They have been determined to compete in the enthusiast and gaming sectors again and their recent product introductions have reflected this new direction by the company.
We had an early look at the X38 boards that will be launching near the end of July. These boards do not contain the new heatpipe system that Gigabyte will be using but the layout is basically final. The performance of the boards is excellent, especially with the new 1333FSB CPU and R600 CrossFire combination. Gigabyte will be releasing both DDR2 and DDR3 versions of the boards.
On a side note, we have some information for the users of Gigabyte's GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board who were wondering about the new revision 2 launching this month. The difference between the boards is that the rev2.0 board will utilize the 570 SLI Southbridge instead of the 590 SLI Southbridge. NVIDIA is phasing out the 590 SLI Southbridge so Gigabyte and others will be moving to the 570 SLI Southbridge. We should expect to see an updated BIOS shortly. In short, the new revision is not necessarily an improvement; it is merely a change that is necessitated by chipset availability.
ASUS
ASUS is one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards in the world and their current product portfolio is extensive. They are introducing several new motherboard products over the course of the next few weeks that will range from server level to high-end gaming boards.
ASUS listened to the user base and reviewers who have been clamoring for a dual x8 capable P35 board for CrossFire instead of the standard x16/x4 configuration. The new Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula R.O.G. series of motherboards offers that and much more. ASUS has included their CrossLinx Technology (PCIe switching chipset) to enable true dual x8 capability off the P35 MCH. While they were at it, the design engineers decided to offer a hybrid water cooling/heat pipe system that allows the user to water cool the MCH. The "Fusion" block system consists of a solid copper block with 3/8" fittings and an accessory kit that offers ¼" and 10mm converters along with the necessary fittings.
From a performance viewpoint, the dual x8 configuration is showing up to an 8% performance improvement in most titles when compared to the x16/x4 setup, and utilizing a small water cooling system resulted in a 3C~7C improvement in MCH temperatures. The hybrid system works fine without the water cooling although we recommend additional cooling around the CPU area due to the increased temperatures from the P35. ASUS has moved the clear CMOS switch to the back panel, implemented overheat protection in the BIOS for the MCH and ICH chipsets when overclocking, improved the capacitors, and added EFI shielding on the Supreme FX audio card (ADI-1988B codec) along with adding two phase power circuitry to the memory module power delivery system.
We will have additional details on ASUS' server/workstation products in our next report but the two new releases are the ASUS P5BV-SAS and P5K64 WS motherboards. The P5K64 WS is based on the P35 chipset and ASUS plans on releasing additional workstation boards based on the X38 chipset in August under the P5E64 WS (DDR2) and P53E WS (DDR3) Professional nomenclatures.
Jetway
Jetway Computer is a making a comeback in the US market and plans on concentrating on offering AM2 products that are oriented towards performance on a budget.
The M2A692-GHG is based on the AMD 690G chipset and offers both HDMI and VGA output along with the standard features found on most AMD690G boards that include HD audio, Gigabit LAN, and four SATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0 and 1 capabilities.
Gigabyte has made a tremendous comeback over the course of the last year by offering quality products at fairly reasonable prices. They have been determined to compete in the enthusiast and gaming sectors again and their recent product introductions have reflected this new direction by the company.
We had an early look at the X38 boards that will be launching near the end of July. These boards do not contain the new heatpipe system that Gigabyte will be using but the layout is basically final. The performance of the boards is excellent, especially with the new 1333FSB CPU and R600 CrossFire combination. Gigabyte will be releasing both DDR2 and DDR3 versions of the boards.
On a side note, we have some information for the users of Gigabyte's GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board who were wondering about the new revision 2 launching this month. The difference between the boards is that the rev2.0 board will utilize the 570 SLI Southbridge instead of the 590 SLI Southbridge. NVIDIA is phasing out the 590 SLI Southbridge so Gigabyte and others will be moving to the 570 SLI Southbridge. We should expect to see an updated BIOS shortly. In short, the new revision is not necessarily an improvement; it is merely a change that is necessitated by chipset availability.
ASUS
ASUS is one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards in the world and their current product portfolio is extensive. They are introducing several new motherboard products over the course of the next few weeks that will range from server level to high-end gaming boards.
ASUS listened to the user base and reviewers who have been clamoring for a dual x8 capable P35 board for CrossFire instead of the standard x16/x4 configuration. The new Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula R.O.G. series of motherboards offers that and much more. ASUS has included their CrossLinx Technology (PCIe switching chipset) to enable true dual x8 capability off the P35 MCH. While they were at it, the design engineers decided to offer a hybrid water cooling/heat pipe system that allows the user to water cool the MCH. The "Fusion" block system consists of a solid copper block with 3/8" fittings and an accessory kit that offers ¼" and 10mm converters along with the necessary fittings.
From a performance viewpoint, the dual x8 configuration is showing up to an 8% performance improvement in most titles when compared to the x16/x4 setup, and utilizing a small water cooling system resulted in a 3C~7C improvement in MCH temperatures. The hybrid system works fine without the water cooling although we recommend additional cooling around the CPU area due to the increased temperatures from the P35. ASUS has moved the clear CMOS switch to the back panel, implemented overheat protection in the BIOS for the MCH and ICH chipsets when overclocking, improved the capacitors, and added EFI shielding on the Supreme FX audio card (ADI-1988B codec) along with adding two phase power circuitry to the memory module power delivery system.
We will have additional details on ASUS' server/workstation products in our next report but the two new releases are the ASUS P5BV-SAS and P5K64 WS motherboards. The P5K64 WS is based on the P35 chipset and ASUS plans on releasing additional workstation boards based on the X38 chipset in August under the P5E64 WS (DDR2) and P53E WS (DDR3) Professional nomenclatures.
Jetway
Jetway Computer is a making a comeback in the US market and plans on concentrating on offering AM2 products that are oriented towards performance on a budget.
The M2A692-GHG is based on the AMD 690G chipset and offers both HDMI and VGA output along with the standard features found on most AMD690G boards that include HD audio, Gigabit LAN, and four SATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0 and 1 capabilities.
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Gary Key - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
There are early chips avaiable for the limited benchmark sessions. These chips were running at 1.6GHz and 2.0GHz. My sources are still holding true to a very limited release schedule in Q3 with production not ramping up until early Q4. I will tell you right now, until AMD gets the speeds up to at least 2.3GHz, the numbers I have seen in private are not that exciting. This chip really comes alive around 2.6GHz. The last stepping would not even post in several boards, we had a look at new steppings that just arrived in our private meetings. We understand there is still another spin to come this month. I am not being anti-AMD here, just reporting what we have been told by sources inside and outside of AMD. We want them to do well with the K10 series, the market needs them to do well.lopri - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
3 articles at a time? OK, maybe in 2~3 hours. What hours? 3~5 AM. Don't you guys want to raise the pageviews? Then what's the hurry? While everyone's sleeping?I am not finished yet. ;)
Chunga29 - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Don't know where you've been, but I read the AMD piece over 24 hours ago, and right as I finished it the cooler article went up. Why don't you look at the actual comment times before making yourself look like an ignorant dweeb? Let me help out:AMD: 1st comment at Jun 4, 2007 1:09 AM
HSF: 1st comment at Jun 4, 2007 5:19 AM
Computex: 1st comment at Jun 5, 2007 3:29 AM
So there's at least a one day gap. Given the first and third are relatively short, and the other is a cooler review (i.e. 80% repeat text - just look at the graphs, read the intro and conclusion if you want), I'd like more content. But I do see that you've commented on all three now and basically said the content sucks, Anandtech sold out, etc. Why bother to come and comment if all you have is negativity?
Ahhh... back to work. Another boring day in the datacenter.
nicolasb - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Is that definitely confirmed? This is a matter of some importance to me, because I'm on the verge of putting together a new system. I think I can wait till late July, but not till late September. Cheaper quad-core processors in July by themselves have me agonising about whether to buy now or wait 8 weeks, but if cheaper Core 2 Quad processors and X38 motherboards will be available in July, that's reason enough to hold off.
defter - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Yes, prices will decrease at 22th of July: http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=789466">http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=789466If you want a cheap quad core, then cheapest Xeon 3xxx quad core will cost even less, about $224. However it will run at a lower clockspeed (2.16GHz instead of 2.4GHz for Q6600).
nicolasb - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
I know that, any idiot knows that. :) What's much more interesting is the claim that X38 motherboards will be launched at the same time. Has that definitely been confirmed?Gary Key - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
The boards will be ready from several suppliers in late July, but it appears after some conversations today that Intel wants to hold the release date to August, why, who the hell knows...
lopri - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Promptly after the Derek's incredibly hostile AMD article was replaced by Westley's HSF review, which also reads highly subjective and provocative. Now to clean up the mess, Gary had to come all the way from Taiwan to the States. (didn't read Gary's piece yet, though)I don't know what's going on with AT as of late??
Gary Key - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
Man, you must have had a bad day. :) I need to send you a magnet from Taiwan.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
STFU