new socket 1366 motherboads for 2010?

[otis1337]

Does anyone know if there will be any new 1366 mobo's shown at CES 2010, or better if anyone knows for a fact someone is bringing out a new wave of 1366 mobo's?

thx

 

[Rastalovich]

Both Zotac and ASUS are showing off goods at the CES, but tbh, with it being more of a consumer based show, their products will be the likes of ION and ATOM, Tegra based little gadgety-esq or laptop/palmtop/ereader/tablet, mobile thingies.

It'd be rare to have circuit board type stuff on show, but that doesn't mean they won't make announcements or something in their own press areas.

 

[Hemicuda]

Got deep pockets ?

EVGA are showing a dual socket board at CES.

8 phase digital PWM + 3 phase power per socket, XL-ATX form factor (same as the 4 way Classified), 2 x NF200 bridge chips, 7 x PCIex16 slots, 6 x SATA, 2 x SATA 6Gb, eSATA. Looks great for folding.

CES will be the official unveiling for H55 (and possibly H57/Q57) boards from the usual suspects (Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA etc...), Most of the new revision X58 boards are already in the retail channel, which would leave MSI's Fuzion P55 offering as the main unreleased point of interest due to the Hydra chip implementation.

 

[otis1337]

i was thinking something around the Asus p6t SE price range..... as there's not much competition for the p6t series for the money, so i would of thought DFI, gigabyte, foxconn may of picked up on this.

 

[Hemicuda]

I think DFI are getting out of the ATX consumer mobo market-concentrating on the mATX and hybrid Ion boards.

Foxconn don't know what they're doing from one minute to the next. Between the fallout from their LGA1156 socket woes and the complete non-availablilty of their Flaming Blade and Blood Rage boards they're a bit of a basket case.

Gigabyte on the other hand I would have thought would have something as they usually have a model at every price point in direct competition with Asus. In mainstream series (P55/P45/P35/P965) they would have a DS3P/UD3P in the P6T SE price bracket but Gigabyte never release that feature level in enthusiast boards (X58/X48/X38)- Pity EVGA aren't priced competitively outside of the U.S.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Gigabyte have the X58 UD7 due out. We should have a review up before the end of the month.

 

[Hemicuda]

Gigabyte have the X58 UD7 due out. We should have a review up before the end of the month.

Looking forward to it.

I notice a few early adopters of the board are finding it a bit buggy. Hopefully the BIOS has matured some by the time you get your hands on it.

 

[otis1337]

alot of motherboards are buggy on there first release state to be fare, but it don't take long for firmware and BIOS updates to come out.

so there is pertty much nothing that we know of to take on the P6T SE then?

 

[Quantum.Entanglement]

I was hoping for native USB3 for my next build. Seems more attention is being paid to the 1156 socket so far.

 

[Hemicuda]

I was hoping for native USB3 for my next build. Seems more attention is being paid to the 1156 socket so far.

The present native P55 based solutions seem like a compromise at best as they rob PCI lanes from the graphics card/s (Gigabyte) or PCIex1 lanes using the PEX PLX8613 PCIe bridge chip -which also doesn't give full bandwidth (Asus), which is probably why the Rampage III Extreme is being launched-to use the smoke-and-mirrors NF200 chip in order to have full SATA 6Gb and USB3.0 functionality without crippling the add-in card options.

Either way you look at it SATA 6Gb and USB3.0 are going to be expensive. Both in the hardware optimising the tech, and the platform that can utilise it to it's potential- X58 or an uber-expensive P55 + bridge chip.

 

[PeterStoba]

Gigabyte have the X58 UD7 due out. We should have a review up before the end of the month.

It's been out since late November...

 

[__Miguel_]

I was hoping for native USB3 for my next build. Seems more attention is being paid to the 1156 socket so far.

Native USB3 is probably still a long way off, at least on the Intel camp. Same thing with SATA 6Gbps (though the 8xx series AMD chipsets might actually have this one available).

Both of these techs are new, especially USB3, which has just been completed. On the Intel side of things, the P5x and H5x series PCHs are almost "brand new" (especially the H series), so unless Intel has something up its sleeve (like a revamped version of P55, with PCIe 2.0 speeds on the DMI lanes, which would open up enough bandwidth to SATA 6Gbps and USB3... barely) for when Gulftown launches, my guess is we'll need to wait another generation for native support for both these techs.

Unfortunately .

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[Hemicuda]

... so unless Intel has something up its sleeve (like a revamped version of P55, with PCIe 2.0 speeds on the DMI lanes, which would open up enough bandwidth to SATA 6Gbps and USB3... barely) for when Gulftown launches, my guess is we'll need to wait another generation for native support for both these techs.

If my understanding is correct I would think that unlikely also,as surely adding native support for SATA 6Gb/USB3 would require a fundamental change at the P55 Platform Controller Hub (or ICH10R in X58) level. At present the bridge chip option (Asus high-end) is converting PCIe x1 lanes, or diverting lanes from PCIex16 use(Gigabyte/Asus budget) is an ad hoc measure at best-simply adding connectivity to a DMI link that has to cope with LAN, SATA2, 12-14 USB and HDA is, as you say, likely to saturate the available bandwidth-at least theoretically.

Adding true PCIe 2.0 connectivity to the P55 would make the X58 chipset all but redundant excepting it's implementation of Gulftown CPU's and (debatable)

use of triple 8.5Gb/sec channel memory over the P55's dual 10.8GB/sec

 

[__Miguel_]

If my understanding is correct I would think that unlikely also,as surely adding native support for SATA 6Gb/USB3 would require a fundamental change at the P55 Platform Controller Hub (or ICH10R in X58) level.

Well, the thing is, and from what I've read, the P55/H5x PCHs are actually capable of PCIe 2.0 speeds on the DMI uplink to the CPU. Intel simply chose (for whatever reason, my guess being since the P55 is actually only a slightly modified ICH10R you should be able to use whatever ICHx Southbridge you want with Nehalem-class CPUs - something you can actually do with X58, btw) to keep the DMI link at PCIe 1.1 speeds. OR, given the similarities between P55 and ICH10R, Intel simply decided not to change that part of the IOCH/PCH while giving the CPUs themselves PCIe 2.0 speed capabilities on the DMI link for future compatibility.

So, and I'm guesstimating here, if Intel wanted to increase the DMI link bandwidth, the backbone work should already be completed. It will most likely need a new PCH, but probably not much more. Which actually is a good thing if it turns out to be right!

Adding true PCIe 2.0 connectivity to the P55 would make the X58 chipset all but redundant excepting it's implementation of Gulftown CPU's and (debatable) use of triple 8.5Gb/sec channel memory over the P55's dual 10.8GB/sec

There I have to disagree.

First of all, I was only referring to the DMI link speed, NOT PCIe connectivity provided by the PCH, so that's a rather moot point.

Also, the P55/H5x PCHs, like any ICHx Southbridges before them are only capable of providing up to 6 PCIe lanes (4+2, or 6x1), plus 4 lanes for DMI. X58 provides 32 lanes (16+16, 16+8+8 or 4x8), plus 4 lanes for DMI. That's a magnitude of a difference.

However, I don't think X58 can actually work with PCIe 2.0 speeds on the DMI link (it makes sense it should be, since the rest of the chip is full PCIe 2.0), and if that's the case, the lower end i5s would have a tremendous advantage on the connectivity front if the PCHs started sporting USB3 and SATA3. Which means, until the X58 successor arrives, probably taking up the ICH10R functions and ditching DMI altogether, or gets a new ICH with a speedier DMI link, no luck on the lower end spectrum. Sigh.

Cheers.

Miguel