RumorTT: Intel's next-gen LGA2011 socket might be backward-compatible with LGA1366 CPUs

This is quite the rumor, Intel's upcoming X79 chipset may have support for both LGA1366-based CPUs as well as the new LGA2011-based chips. Documents viewed by X-bit labs have taken a look at show two X79-based "Extreme Board" motherboards, the DX79SA (Siler) and DX79TO (Thorsby) for both LGA1366 and LGA2011 microprocessors. The DX79SI is geared toward no-compromise performance enthusiasts whilst the DX79TO is aimed at users who want performance but under the inflated enthusiasts level.



The DX79SI does not hold back, it has support for the LGA2011 processor with up to eight DIMMs supporting up to 64GB of memory. The motherboard also features three PCI Express 3.0 slots (!!) which will support three-way multi GPU setups, 12 SATA ports (6 x SATA 6Gbps), 4 USB3.0 ports, 14 USB2.0 ports, 8-channel audio, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module, two GbE ports and probably a few other yet to be disclosed features.

The cheaper DX79TO board is not as feature-laden as the above DX79SI, it includes support for the LGA1366 CPUs, high-speed DDR3 memory as well as two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots. 8 x SATA connections, 2 USB3.0 ports, 6-channel audio, GbE.

If what is being reported is true, it would be a very cool move from Intel. Supporting older CPUs on newer boards is a good move, much better than supporting newer CPUs on older boards. Let's just hope it turns out to be true!

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