Motherboards - Page 24

Computex 2015 - ASUS has shown that it sure knows how to make an awesome system, showcasing the new X99 motherboard models within some great systems. What we build into the systems here (pictured) is the the X99-PRO/USB 3.1 and X99-DELUXE/USB 3.1 editions.

With this stunning ASUS X99 DELUXE build being completed by 'Mods by Davido_Libido' all the way from the UK, it's not too often you see the big players get into the local modding scene like this and it's certainly something great to see. This deluxe system is powered by a Thermaltake DPS G 1050w power supply, combined with an Intel 750 1.2tb SSD and is all housed within an InWin 909 chassis.

As for motherboard features, the X99-PRO/USB 3.1 boasts ultra fast USB 3.1 support combined with eight RAM ports capable of quad-channel and hosting up to 128GB of memory in total. The X99-DELUXE/USB 3.1 makes claim to 3x3 802.11ac Wi-Fi, USB 3.1 Type-A and a 'Fan Extension Card' for those looking to take things to the extreme.

Computex 2015 - We've just posted news of the new GIGABYTE mATX motherboard, helping show that the world is currently crazy about either super big or super small. ASUS has now joined the party with its higher specified X99M-WS micro-ATX offering with other applications in mind.

Supporting a LGA2011v3 socket based on the Intel X99 Express chipset, this new offering is powered by a single 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS plugs. There's also an optional 6-pin PCIe power port, depending on how you put this beast to use.

Computex 2015 - The MT70-HD0 is certainly a server board to behold - featuring dual socket ARM support and coupled with an associated 2U rack mount, the H270-T70.

This new release is based on the Cavium ThunderX ARMv8 processor and are designed to utilize the full power of Cavium's 48 core ARMv8 2.5GHz ThunderX chip.

The half-width MT70-HD0 motherboard is designed for this 48 core beast, with GIGABYTE's recent press release showing off the sheer amount of processing power on offer by explaining that "each server node combines up to 96 cores with up to 1TB of high speed 2400MHz DDR4 memory, two 40Gb/s LAN ports directly controlled by the SoC processors.

We're only a couple of days away from Computex 2015 kicking off, with ASRock showing off two of their upcoming Z170-based motherboards in the form of the Z170 Extreme 7 and Z170 FATAL1TY Gaming K6 motherboards.

These two new boards will feature Intel's new Z170 chipset, which will handle the company's upcoming Skylake processors which are launching in Q3 2015. ASRock has spent some time on the design of the new Z170 motherboards, with a slick new look for these Skylake-powered motherboards. The boards use the LGA 1151 socket, with these new Z170-based motherboards supporting DDR4 RAM.

The ASRock Z170 Extreme 7 motherboard will feature four DDR4 DIMMs, SATA 10Gbps support, SATA Express, USB 3.0, Ultra M.2 support, and much more. ASRock has deployed its Purity Sound 3 design on an isolated part of the PCB, so you shouldn't have any interference with your audio on the Z170 Extreme 7.

GIGABYTE has just unveiled its latest workstation motherboard, the MW70-3S0, which can handle two CPUs that fit into Intel's 2011-3 socket. The new workstation motherboard has the usual high-end technologies, such as SAS 12Gbps storage support, as well as support for 3-way GPUs.

The new GIGABYTE MW70-3S0 can handle three NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon GPUs with full x16 PCIe speeds, but it also supports a fourth card where the full x16 speeds aren't required. GIGABYTE has attached a high-end LSI SAS 3008 controller, which supports up to eight SAS drives running at 12Gbps through two mini-SAS HD connectors.

Not only that, but the controller is capable of aggregating any SATA and SAS drives into the full 12Gbps data stream courtest of LSI's DataBolt technology. This means that users can simply tie in their SATA 3Gbps or SATA 6Gbps drives into the 12Gbps bandwidth, and enjoy increased speeds depending on the configuration used.

ASRock has recently issued out a press release stating their intentions to debut their new Z97 chipset motherboards featuring both USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports alongside some new X99 Extreme 6 offerings.

One of the strange things on the new ASRock motherboard is that it may feature an X99 chipset, but it has just two DIMMs. This means we're only looking at dual-channel DDR4 RAM compared to what the X99 excels at: quad-channel DDR4. This omission is quite large, something that doesn't seem to be getting much notice.

USB 3.1 not only offers a much faster charging speed of 3A compared to the 0.9A of USB 3.0, but 10GB/s data rates can also be expected alongside USB Type-C offering an easier-to-connect reversible plug. All of ASRock's new X99 and Z97 motherboards will be shown off at their CeBIT 2015 booth in Hannover, Germany at hall 2, C54.

GIGABYTE has just unveiled four new motherboards in its growing line of motherboards, with the new X99 Champion series. The new X99-powered motherboards will arrive as the X99-Gaming 5P, X99-UD4P, X99-UD3P and the already famous X99-SOC Champion.

The new GIGABYTE X99 Champion series motherboards have support for RDIMM memory, which comes in up to 16GB per DIMM for some serious RAM setups. They also have GIGABYTE's Amp-Up audio technology, Killer E2200 or Intel's gigabit Ethernet controller. There's the usual all-digital CPU power design, IR Digital PWM, IR PowIRstage ICs, and server level chokes which ensure "server level reliability".

The new lineup of GIGABYTE X99 Champion series motherboards should be available at e-tailers and retailers near you soon.

ASRock has jumped out ahead of Computex 2015 in June, announcing some new USB 3.1-capable motherboards and PCIe cards. The company has announced that it will have a range of USB 3.1 products, including USB 3.1 PCIe cards that will either have two Type-A ports, or a combination of Type-A and Type-C.

Starting off with the motherboards, we have the Z97 Extreme6/3.1 and the X99 Extreme6/3.1. The Z97-based motherboard features a combination Type-A and Type-C card, where the X99 version includes two Type-A because the board already rocks a Type-C port on its I/O.

When it comes to the PCIe cards, which provide a huge 10Gbps of bandwidth that will be capable of saturating a USB 3.1 port. The two ports will have a combined throughput of 10Gbps, versus 10Gbps per port. The PCIe cards have power requirements, with the dual Type-A cards requiring a 4-pin molex connector, while the combo card requires a 4-pin custom/floppy-sized connector. Each card has up to 3 amps at 5V, which allows for 15W charging.

CES 2015 - We went on down to the GIGABYTE CES event here in Vegas, where we looked at all of the latest stuff that the company has on offer. So without further delay, let's dive right into the juicy goodness.

GIGABYTE just launched their greatly anticipated X99 SOC Champion. The board had been in the works for months, during that time top overclockers from around the world gathered to see how far GIGABYTE's champion could go. They ended up with 9 world records, 14 global firsts, 2 hardware firsts, and even the top X99 reference clock. This motherboard's name is well deserved.

I was invited to overclock at GIGABYTE's CES ballroom event, and the champion does live up to all the hype. Much of its success comes from the hardware on the board. Since the board has 4 SMT DIMMs instead of the typical 8 through-hole DIMMs found on most X99 motherboards, memory signaling is much cleaner and memory overclocks are higher as a result.

If you're looking to add a little safety to your rig and already have a surge-protection power-board installed, Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer BIOSTAR are now offering built-in LAN surge protection for their whole product range.

They've added an integrated chip to strengthen the electrical stability of their newest motherboards, said to prevent any damage from lighting strikes and electrical surges. BIOSTAR is the first manufacturer of its kind to offer such a service, with this features official name being "SUPER LAN Surge Protection" as laid out in their recently issued press release.

All motherboard models released by BIOSTAR in 2015 and onwards will have this protection by default, set to reduce the risk of electrical surges blowing up your PC or components through random surges.

It looks like ASRock is about to unveil a true beast of a motherboard, in the form of the X99 WS-E/10G, which will feature no less than four Ethernet ports. Yes, four.

This will be the first time a consumer motherboard has shipped with four Ethernet ports, two of which are GbE (1Gbps) but the other two are 10GbE (10Gbps). All four Ethernet ports are Intel made, with the GbE ports being based on the Intel I210AT chip, while the two 10GbE ports are the X540-BT2 for some super-intensive, high-speed networking transfers. On top of that, all four of them can be bridged together for an absolutely insane amount of networking bandwidth, hitting 22Gbps.

ASRock hasn't just made the networking side of the X99 WS-E/10G impressive, as we also have two PLX 8747 bridge chips, allowing for up to seven PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. This means you can have full x16/x16/x16/x16 quad SLI or Crossfire. If you wanted to go single cards the whole way, you can do x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8.

Hardware maker ASRock introduced the X99 WS-E/10G motherboard, the latest X99 enthusiast and workstation motherboard supporting Dual Intel X540 10GBase-T LAN, quad LAN, Windows Server OS, and supporting PCIe Gen3 video cards (4-way SLI or CrossFire X).

ASRock included support for LGA 2011-3 CPUs that range from 18 core 160W Xeon E5-16000/2600 V3 CPUs to unlocked Intel Core i7 CPUs. The X99 WS-E/10G also has eight DDR4 memory slots with support for UDIMM/RDIMM memory modules up to 128GB capacity. There are 12 SATA3 ports, 1 SATA Express 10Gb/s connector, 1 PCIe Gen2 x4 M.2 slot, a SATA DOM and a USB DOM.

The motherboard supports the Intel X540 Ethernet controller, with the single chip able to support dual 10G BASE-T LAN ports, significantly faster than regular gigabit LAN. 10GBase-T can be easily integrated, but the 10GBase-T Ethernet card is pricing, along with a higher level of power consumption.

We don't see many water-cooled motherboards, but here we are: the iGame Z97 motherboard is a concept board that shows off a beautiful, sleek motherboard, cooled with liquid.

The company is closer to releasing the board, with a release date that is still "unknown" for the iGame Z97 Ymir X - a confusing name, but it doesn't take anything away from its beauty. We have 16-phase IPP high-profile power, a silver and all-metal look, with a brushed surface. We have four DDR3 slots, three PCIe 3.0 16x slots, four PCIe 2.0 single-land slots, eight SATA 6Gbps ports, mSATA and mPCIe, HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, Killer NIC E2200, four USB 3.0 ports, and more from the front header, 8-channel HD audio, and more.

GIGABYTE has teamed up with EK Water Blocks, where they have collaborated on making some water blocks exclusively for GIGABYTE's X99 range of motherboards. The new EK-FB KIT GA X99 water blocks can be slapped onto both the X99 chipset, and the motherboard's power-regulation circuitry.

GIGABYTE explains it a bit better: "The EK-FB KIT GA X99 is a complete water cooling solution, made with a base of nickel-plated electrolytic copper while the top is made of quality POM Acetal or acrylic glass material (depending on the variant). Tailor designed for GIGABYTE X99 series motherboards, the coolers consist of two separate water blocks; one water block directly cools the Intel X99 chip while the other takes care of the power regulation area. Not only do the water blocks look amazing and are quieter than an air cooling system, they are actually as efficient as the GIGABYTE factory cooling solution. The screw-in standoffs are already pre-installed and allow for easy and trouble-free installation by utilizing original motherboard back plates".

The competition between GIGABYTE and ASUS is as fierce as ever, but ASUS is set to lower the prices of its motherboards, and spend considerable amounts of money on furthering its marketing reach according to DigiTimes' industry sources.

ASUS has reportedly planned multiple promotions, where it will sell bundles with its GPUs and motherboards, hoping to gain thousands more consumers with its impressive line up of GPUs. DigiTimes' sources noted "GIGABYTE's motherboard and video card businesses are separate units and the two departments hardly cooperate over sales and marketing. Although GIGABYTE's motherboard business has been performing strongly recently, Asustek's new strategy is expected to impact GIGABYTE's motherboard business group".

Just how much is ASUS planning to spend on marketing? According to DigiTimes' sources, the Taiwanese manufacturer has already prepared between $32 million and $65 million to boost its marketing. The company is expecting to see its profits for 2014 drop because of this, but the marketing should gain more sales going into 2015. The sources continued "GIGABYTE had profits of NT$3-3.3 billion from the motherboard business in 2013. Although the company's shipments in 2014 are unlikely to achieve the targeted growth of one million units, profits in the year are expected to stay at around NT$3 billion because of the rising proportion of high-end models".

Reports pointed out that AMD is strengthening its partnership with Asustek Computer, one of the tier 1 manufacturer of many components. In this case, AMD is apparently pairing itself with Asustek to boost the sales of its AMD-based products.

In exchange, Asustek gets an exclusive price cut of AMD products. According to sources, AMD's desktop processor currently holds 30% of the desktop processor market. While by theory it looks favourable for AMD, the amount of success from this partnership is something that only time will prove. It is also pointed out that AMD will be using the word 'Zen' to name its next-generation desktop APU that will be coming out in 2016. Of course, the popularity of these hardware components can only stand out if the performance justifies the price against its competition. AMD doesn't have any new architecture for their FX series lineup at the moment, but have been concentrating on APUs.

Of course, that would also mean that it might create issues with other motherboard manufacturers. It's not clear the amount of 'special discount' or what special services that Asustek gets from AMD, or how this would benefit AMD once their upcoming APU is released. That will simply create a friction between AMD and motherboard manufacturers, while other manufacturers may even start to reduce AMD-based projects, which defeats the purpose of having a special alignment with a single tier-1 motherboard manufacturer.

BIOSTAR has announced that it has launched its new Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard, which features "cutting-edge features and innovative durability enhancements". As you can probably tell, the new motherboard is based on Intel's new Z97 chipset, which provides the usual PCI-Express 3.0, PCIe M.2 support, and more. What makes this board stand out from the rest, though, is BIOSTAR's exclusive Super Hi-Fi Audio technology.

The motherboard itself is an ATX board, with four DDR3 slots, HDMI out, SATA Express, and of course: the Super Hi-Fi Audio which provides power regulation upgrades like Hi-Fi Power and Hi-Fi AMP. The HDMI output offers HDCP, paving the way for full video and Hi-Fi 7.1-channel Blu-ray audio support, even through the standard DVI port.

BIOSTAR has driven its durability and stability even higher, offering Super Durable Solid Caps, which the company explains "are the best quality solid state capacitors with ultra low ESR design, which doubles the lifespan. Another feature is 8-phase power design which gives unparalleled overclocking ability and the lowest temperature to reach maximum performance levels". The new BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97Z7 also features the new Super Durable Ferrite Choke, which provides higher current capacity, lower energy loss, and better power stability to the electric current across the board.

TYAN, an industry-leading, server platform design manufacturer, and subsidiary of MITAC Computing Technology Corporation, launched its full array of platforms supporting the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family. With 5 products and 10 SKUs in total.

Albert Mu, Vice President of MITAC Computing Technology Corporation's TYAN Business Unit today said "TYAN's new product portfolio was designed with the latest Intel technology and supports the newly launched Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family. With superior efficiency, higher performance, stronger scalability, and lower costs, TYAN's product line offers multiple solutions that meet the critical demands of HPC, SMB, cloud computing, storage, and other complex applications. Further, TYAN's new product lines are compatible with Intel SSDs, as well as Intel Cache Acceleration Software, which allows companies to process and store massive amounts of data in an easy and intelligent way".

Product Portfolio includes:

ASRock Rack announces its latest offerings of motherboards that support the new Intel E5-2600 v3 processors and DDR4 memory. These motherboards are more than just simple upgrades to their existing line of boards, they offer major feature upgrades in some cases.

The new motherboards continue ASRock Racks build quality that includes:

Stable - Robust Design, Quality Parts

ASRock has unveiled its new X99-based motherboards, with one of the top-end boards being the new X99 Extreme 11 motherboard which features an insane 18 SATA ports.

The ASRock X99 Extreme 11 motherboard is built on the same Super Alloy design that has been deployed on the rest of ASRock's X99 motherboards, with the PCB being built on a high-quality design and components, with the XXL aluminum alloy heat sinks being placed across the board. In order to cool down the extra storage and PCI-e controllers near the PCH, ASRock has provided an active fan cooling solution, bringing back memories of yesteryear.

Up to 128GB of DDR4 memory can be installed onto the X99 Extreme 11, at up to 3300MHz for the overclockers out there. Power requirements sit at the usual 8-pin EPS and 24-pin ATX connectors, but let's get to the 18 SATA ports. 10 of the SATA ports are powered through the PCH, while the remaining 8 are powered through a separate SAS controller, but each and every SATA port is of the SATA 6Gbps variety. We also have two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 headers at the bottom of the board, too.