Biostar announces Intel P45 motherboard aimed at the serious overclocker

For the computer hardware enthusiast, the most exciting trade show of the year is often Computex in Taiwan. CES in Las Vegas is a great show but many computer hardware makers typically hold most product announcements for Computex.
This year at Computex new motherboards are out in force and many of them are sporting the anticipated Intel P45 chipset. Among the new crop of motherboards to use the P45 chipset is the Biostar TPower I45. While the TPower I45 is the top of the line motherboard with the P45 chipset from Biostar, the series will include several motherboards that will hit different price points. The models in the P45 series will include the TP45 HP, TP43 HP, TP45D2-A7, TP43D2-A7 and P43-A7.

The TPower I45 is aimed at the overclocker and features 100% solid capacitors, updated TPower utility, 8+2 channel HD audio, twin PCI-Express x16 slots and a new thermal solution called Cooler Harbour. The board supports CPUs with front side bus speeds of 800/1066/1333/1600 MHz and DDR2 RAM at 800/1066/1200 MHz. ATI CrossFireX is supported and the board offers 10 USB ports (including headers). Asus will also be launching its own line of P45 chipset motherboards at Computex.

Other early Computex product information includes some shots of the upcoming ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. This card is reported to feature 512MB of GDDR3 and will retail in the $179 to $219 range.

The launch date for the new card it rumored to be June 18. The card is supposed to be available as soon as it is launched at Computex rather than being yet another paper launch. A higher performance HD 4870 featuring GDDR5 is supposed to come later, how much later is unknown

ASUS and Gigabyte both announced boards based on AMD's 790FX chipset. The AMD 790FX is the successor to AMD's dated 580X chipset and serves as AMD's new primary single and dual-processor platform. The new boards come with support for AMD's latest features, including compatability with AMD's upcoming Quad-Core desktop Phenom processors.

ASUS officially launched its M3A-MVP Deluxe WiFi, which comes with the latest bells and whistles. Highlights of the board include support for HyperTransport 3.0, 8-channel HD Audio, and Crossfire-support.

The most unique feature of the board, though, is its cooling system. Avid overclockers will be please to know that the board's memory slots come fitted with heatsinks that are connected to the central cooling system. The board's entire cooling system is passive, translating to less overall system noise, and is made of copper.



In addition to ASUS, Gigabyte is also releasing its first RD790 board, the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 Ultra Durable motherboard.

The board features support for AMD AM2+ Phenom desktop processors along with support for AM2 Athlon 64 processors and HyperTransport 3.0. The board also comes with 4 PCIe 2.0 slots, meaning it support ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technology.

Similar to the M3A-MVP, the GA-MA790FX-DQ6 also comes based on a passive cooling system made out of copper, however, it doesn't include cooling for memory.
Gigabyte will also introduce two slightly cut down version of RD790, the GA-MA790FX-DS5 and the GA-MA780X-DS4. The GA-MA780X-DS4 will only feature a single PCIe x16 lane.

MSI previously also announced its 790FX-based motherboard. The board supports Triple-Play Technology along with ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technology.

Source

MSI announces its first RD790-based board

MSI today announced its K9A2 Platinum Motherboard based on AMD’s RD790 chipset, officially dubbed the 790FX. The 790FX serves as AMD’s primary single and dual-processor platform and replaces AMD’s antiquated 580X chipset. The new MSI board comes with support for a host of new features, including support for AMD quad-core processors and Crossfire X.

The K9A2 Platinum supports all AM2+ processors, which means it will work with AMD’s upcoming Phenom quad-core, tri-core and dual-core desktop processors. Existing AM2 processors are also supported by the newest board BIOS.

The 790FX also brings 41 PCIe 2.0 lanes to AMD’s AM2+ platform, allowing manufacturers flexibility in the number of PCIe slots integrated on the board. The K9A2 comes with four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots and supports AMD’s Triple-Play Technology. In addition, MSI goes a step further by offering Quad Crossfire capability on the mainboard.

As of right now, AMD has not officially launched Triple-Play technology. MSI indicates, however, the official debut should take place soon. AMD guidance claims ATI RV670, Phenom and RD790 will simultaneously launch together next month.

Source from DailyTech

Foxconn today announced its first motherboard catered towards the enthusiast and overclocking crowd – the MARS. The Foxconn MARS features Intel’s P35 Express chipset and is the first of the company’s new Quantum Force model lineup. Foxconn claims to tune the MARS specifically for overclocking with posted front-side bus speeds of 575 MHz, or 2300 MHz effectively.

Foxconn names the overclocking tuned BIOS the Gladiator BIOS, a unique feature to the company’s Quantum Force series. The Gladiator BIOS allows CPU voltage adjustments in 0.0125-volts up to 1.6-volts, DRAM voltage, north bridge voltage, south bridge voltage and a couple other fine tuning voltage settings.

The Foxconn MARS supports all Intel LGA775 processors with front-side bus speeds up to 1333 MHz, officially. The board supports DDR2 memory with speeds up to 1066 MHz.

Foxconn equips the board with two physical PCIe x16 slots for compatibility with ATI CrossFire multi-GPU technology. However, one of the physical PCIe x16 slots feature four lanes, due to chipset limitations. Additionally, the Foxconn MARS features two PCIe x1 and three PCI slots.

Other notable features of the Foxconn MARS include one e.SATA, six SATA 3.0 Gbps, Firewire, 12 USB 2.0, one PATA, 7.1-channel high definition audio and Gigabit LAN.

Expect the Foxconn MARS to hit retail next month. Pricing information is unavailable, but expect to pay a premium, as with most enthusiast and overclocking catered products.

Source from DailyTech

New micro-ATX board consumes less than 24 watts during idle

VIA today announced its latest energy-efficient motherboard – the pc3500. The new VIA pc3500 consumes a mere 1.09 watts in sleep and 0.68 watts in standby modes. VIA claims that OEMs and system integrators can build systems running Windows Vista that consume less than 24 watts of power during idle with the pc3500 which helps meet Energy Star 4.0 Category A requirements. VIA pc3500-based systems can draw less than 35 watts of power during DVD playback.

“With the launch of VIA pc3500 mainboard we are leading the way in developing innovative low power platforms that enable our OEM and SI customers to meet the growing worldwide demand for energy-efficient PCs,” commented Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Consumers and business users who purchase PCs based on the VIA pc3500 mainboard will not only be able to significantly reduce their energy costs but also minimize their environmental impact while running all the latest software applications.”

VIA’s pc3500 motherboard features the CN896 chipset with integrated Chrome9 HC integrated graphics. The integrated VIA Chrome9 HC IGP delivers DirectX 9 compatibility with the Chromotion 3.0 video processing engine. VIA pairs the CN896 with an embedded, nanoBGA2 VIA C7-D processor. Two speed grades of the pc3500 are available – 1.5 GHz and 1.8 GHz.

Additionally, the board features two DDR2 DIMM slots for up to 2GB of DDR2 400/533/667 MHz memory, four USB 2.0, two SATA 3.0 Gbps, two PATA 10/100 Ethernet and onboard eight-channel high-definition audio. Gigabit Ethernet, S-Video and S/PDIF outputs are optional. PCIe x16 and PCI slots are also available for additional expansion.


Source from DailyTech

ASUS is finalizing its X38 Express based motherboard for shipping early next month. The upcoming P5E3 Deluxe supports all LGA775 socket processors, including the upcoming Penryns. The board only accepts DDR3 memory.

ASUS opted to implement two PCIe x16 slots for ATI CrossFire multi-GPU support. Unlike some other X38 Express based boards with three PCIe x16 slots, the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe is unable to take advantage of three-way or even four-way ATI CrossFire configurations. However, in exchange for less PCIe x16 slots, the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe has three standard PCI slots. The P5E3 Deluxe also has two PCIe x1 slots.

Although Intel removed IDE support from the ICH9R, ASUS opted to equip the P5E3 Deluxe with an Agere controller for a single IDE port. Other notable features of the P5E3 Deluxe include onboard high-definition audio, Gigabit Ethernet and six SATA 3.0 Gbps.

ASUS also employs a heat pipe cooling solution to cool the X38 Express. However, the final design of the heat pipe is undecided.

Expect the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe to show up in retail next month.

Source from DailyTech

Mention 'black pearl' these days and you'll probably conjure up an image of a dilapidated pirate ship and a half-crazy Johnny Depp. However, a natural black pearl (as in real pearls - the jewelry kind) is incredibly rare and often used as a term to describe something that is highly limited and valued. In the motherboard world, ASUS on rare occasions, tend to release a special edition of a motherboard that has been engineered to the brim with features and special high-quality components that sets it apart from their regular boards. These are known as the ASUS Black Pearl Edition motherboards.

Now, if there's one thing in PC marketing that is constant, it is the over saturation of a certain branding till it becomes somewhat trivial. However, the ASUS Black Pearl Edition is truly a rarity. The last Black Pearl motherboard from ASUS was the P4PE back in 2003 based on the Intel 845PE chipset (which we've reviewed here too if you're interested to take a peek). Now, after a four year hiatus and five chipset generations later, ASUS commemorates their 18th anniversary with brand new third generation series of Black Pearl Edition motherboards. Presently, ASUS has taken their current two flagship P35 motherboards, the P5K Deluxe and P5K3 Deluxe and transformed them into the P5K Premium and P5K3 Premium Black Pearl Edition boards respectively.

As it can get a little confusing separating ASUS' large family of boards, we'll go through a short background on the two boards. The ASUS P5K Deluxe and P5K3 Deluxe are really two versions of the same motherboard, the former exclusively supporting DDR2 and the latter, DDR3. Both these boards have appeared in our various past articles (ASUS P35 "Bearlake" Preview , ASUS P5K Deluxe and A DDR3 Story ), so www.hardwarezone.com readers should be very familiar with the original ASUS P5K Deluxe and P5K3 Deluxe by now. Since we've directly reviewed the DDR2 based P5K Deluxe before, we've decided that it would be much more interesting to have an in depth look at the DDR3 variant instead. In this article, we will pick apart the ASUS P5K3 Premium to see if ASUS still has what it takes to deliver a real Black Pearl.

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Source from HardwareZone