A new motherboard from Asus will soon be hitting the shelves that allows mix-and-match graphics cards from different vendors thanks to the Lucid Hydra chipset present on the board – this means you could chuck in an ATI card along with a Nvidia card! The Asus CrossHair IV Extreme will be the next out of Asus’ line of high-end motherboards packed with great features like the mix-match GPU support  and also Bluetooth RoG Connect, as seen on the Maximus II Extreme, will also be present.

The CrossHair IV Extreme packs an AMD AM3 socket along with the 890FX chipset to support the latest in AMD processors including the new Phenom II X6s. What we can deduce from the pictures provided is that there will be dual-channel DDR3 support, upwards of nine SATA ports which at least two of should be SATA 6 Gbps, five PCIe slots and one standard PCI slot and Core Unlocker and OC Turbo Key buttons. We hope USB 3.0 is present on the board.

The CrossHair IV will certainly sport a nice expensive price tag when it becomes available – which is currently unclear.

MSI, Gigabyte and Asus have announced that they will be releasing new motherboards that are set to unlock the true potential of some Phenom II processors. These motherboards will support a hardware method of unlocking and using disabled cores in some new AMD Phenom II processors – an option which will be available in the BIOS of the special motherboards. Each manufacturer is set to have their own name for this technology, eg. Asus’s name for the tech is “Core Unlocker”.

As you may be aware, some processors do not meet design specifications are dumbed-down and have cores disabled so that they can still be sold, usually for a cheaper price and under a different model name. The M4A89GTD series from Asus, the 89FXA-UD7 motherboard from Gigabyte and the 890GXM-G65 for MSI will all support unlocking of these disabled cores, with more motherboards presumably coming in the future.

Note: Pictured motherboard is not the new core unlocking motherboard

That W555 motherboard previewed was pretty awesome, but it has just got better and branded official. Renamed to the EVGA Classified SR-2, the fancy motherboard fits two LGA 1366 CPUs – that could be two Xeon 5600/5500s, or two of the latest and greatest Intel Core i7-980X processors for 12 cores/24 threads. Also on the board are the same seven PCIe 16x slots for seven graphics cards supporting either 4-way SLI or CrossFire X.

As you may be able to tell, the are 12 DDR3 RAM slots on the huge motherboard; enough for up to 48GB of RAM. Port-wise there are two SATA 6Gb/s ports, six SATA 3Gb/s ports and two eSATA ports; two USB 3.0 ports + ten USB 2.0 ports, dual gigabit Ethernet, 8 channel HD audio and an IDE port. The board is also quite large, fitting into the HTPX board sizing (15″ x 13.6″) so it might not fit into your standard case.

Unfortunately there is no word yet on a price or release date, but we’re betting it’s going to be released soon and that it will be very pricey. Gallery below for more pics.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a badass motherboard if you ask me. The EVGA W555, which was shown off at CES 2010, is a dual-processor motherboard that is designed for overclocking unlike most workstation motherboards. The board is larger than the E-ATX standard meaning that you may not be able to fit it in your standard case, but you should expect that when it has two CPU sockets on the one board.

On the board are two LGA 1366 sockets, mainly used for Intel’s upper-end Core i7 range of processors. However, you can’t just chuck in any old Core i7 CPU in this board because they lack a pair of QPI links, instead you’ll need to grab a processor from the Xeon W5000 series which has that pair of QPI links to talk to the northbridge and the other processor at the same time. Unfortunately these Xeons are much more expensive than the standard Core i7s thanks to them being more suited for the workstation computer.

Read the rest of this entry »

VIA, a company known for their incredibly small mainboards and systems, has released a new platform, Mobile-ITX, that takes on the older Pico-ITX platform by being 50% smaller; it measures just 6cm by 6cm. The device is aimed at the next generation of embedded devices, and with a 5-watt power consumption we assume it’s designed for devices that are always left on.

The Mobile-ITX platform is modular, containing two parts: the CPU module card and I/O carrier board. The Mobile-ITX based CPU modules include a core CPU, chipset and memory controllers and I/O features such as USB, HD Audio, IDE and PCI Express just to name a few. The first commercial Mobile-ITX CPU Module is expected to be announced in Q1 2010

Asus appears to be ramping up its ROG Connect overclocking system – they’re adding remote Bluetooth control to the list of things it can do. On the back of the Asus Maximus III Extreme motherboard is a button that when pressed, switches from normal control to a Bluetooth system that allows your “Bluetooth-enabled PDA phone” to review their system’s status and tweak settings wirelessly. Sounds pretty cool on paper, but we are yet to see it in action.

The board is set up for the serious, with a P55 chipset for Core i5/i7 processors, five (yes, five) PCIe 16x slots for graphics cards in multiple configurations, 6 SATA 3Gb/s ports and 2 SATA 6Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a myriad of USB 2.0 ports and a maximum of 16GB of DDR3 RAM via 4 slots. Apart from the actual motherboard specifications, there is no price or release date as of now.

USB 3.0 is starting to make a push into the retail world, as companies start implementing the technology in their cameras, external hard drives and optical drives. With this push though, you’ll need to upgrade your motherboard to support it, and if you’re an i7 user, this Asus X58 board should suit your needs. Unfortunately though, the Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard only sports two USB 3 ports, however I think we’ll cope for now.

Other features of the board include support for 24 GB (yes, twenty-four) of DDR3 RAM via six slots, three PCIe 16x slots for your graphics expansion cards, two SATA 6Gbps ports plus those two USB 3.0 ports and four USB 2.0 ports and the LGA 1366 slot for your Bloomfield i7 CPU. The motherboard is available now for purchasing for US$310 via Newegg.

Asus axed its last attempt at a USB 3.0 motherboard in July “not for any particularly interesting reasons.” It looks like Asus is having another crack at a USB 3.0 motherboard with the P7P55D-E, which will be supporting SATA 6Gbps alongside USB 3.0 like the cancelled P6X58. Sadly though, the motherboard only carries two USB 3.0 ports, unlike the 10 USB 2.0 ports. SATA 6Gbps is also lacking with only 2 of those ports vs. 6 SATA 3Gbps.

Other than the USB/SATA, the motherboard is designed for the latest Intel i5 and i7 (and upcoming i3) processors with its LGA1156 socket and P55 chipset. It also carries both CrossFire X and SLI with its two PCI-E slots, and can support DDR3 RAM up to 2200MHz. The motherboard will be hitting retailers early next month for US$299.

To coincide with the release of the new mid-range Core i5 platform by Intel, ASUS has given AnandTech a preview of their new P7P55D EVO motherboard. The board is based on Intel’s P55 chipset (for the Core i5) and is to be one of a few mid-level boards in ASUS’s P55 range. The board is expected to market for around US$120 at launch.

The board is one of the first I’ve seen to include a SATA 6Gb/s chip on it but unfortunately ASUS has chosen to use the chipset that is ridden with driver issues. The board also uses the new LGA 1156 CPU socket that will be the standard for all Core i5 processors. More specifications after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »