Category Archives: Motherboards

AOpen has released i946GZm-DF motherboard. AOpen i946GZm-DF adopts socket 775 supporting Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium D, Pentium 4, and Celeron D processors with 800MHz FSB. Intel’s 946GZ chipset in this motherboard provides support for up to 4GB of DDR2 667/533 dual channel memory and incorporates Graphics Media Accelerator 3000.

On board there is PCI Express x16 slot and Azalia 7.1 channel audio. AOpen i946GZm-DF has eight USB 2.0 ports and Firewire. There is also Realtek’s Gigabit PCI LAN Chip on board.

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SiS has announced that its SiS671FX chipset is used in the new Fujitsu T671ME-FJ motherboard, which recently entered mass production.

The SiS671FX chipset supports Intel Core 2 Duo, Celeron D, and Pentium 4 processors as well as DDR2 667 memory. As for the graphics performance, the SiS671FX chipset delivers the integrated Mirage 3 graphics engine in addition to one PCI Express x16 slot for upgrades, according to SiS.

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Intel has disclosed the presence of an enthusiast gaming platform code-named “Skulltrail“, PC Magazine reports.

“Little is known of Skulltrail, other than it will be a dual-socket, dual-core platform due later in the year. Rival AMD has already disclosed the Quad FX (also known as “4X4″), a dual-socket platform that can hold AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 processors. Intel executives declined to comment further,” the report says.

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Intel plans to push its forthcoming Santa Rosa platform, scheduled for launch at the beginning of May, under its notebook PC platform brands Centrino Pro and Centrino Duo, as well as under a Viiv branded desktop platform too, according to Digi Times’ sources.

“PC makers such as AOpen, Sony and Shuttle have used mobile on desktop (MoDT) platforms to create small form factor systems targeted primarily at noise or space sensitive environments, such as SOHO and living room PC markets. However, these systems have found difficulty in expanding sales in to the wider desktop market due to higher costs, lower performance, and lower expansion options compared to traditional desktop systems,” the report says.

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SiS and PCCHIPS today announced the PCCHIPS P33G desktop PC Micro ATX motherboard, which is based on SiS671FX chipset. The PCCHIPS P33G supports 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Celeron D FSB1066/800/533MHz socket 775 processors.

It supports up to 4GB of DDR2 667/533 memory and is “compatible with Windows Vista”. The P33G has an integrated SiS Mirage 3 graphics engine and one PCI Express x16 slot.

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Gigabyte has released GA-MA69VM-S2, GA-MA69GM-S2H and GA-MA69G-S3H motherboards, which are based on AMD 690 chipset.

The Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 Micro ATX motherboard features the 690V chipset and ships without HDMI connectivity, while the Micro ATX GA-MA69GM-S2H and ATX GA-MA69G-S3H incorporate AMD 690G chipset and feature HDMI outputs.

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NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra chipset, which is similar to the 650i SLI with the exception of SLI support, is finally making an appearance in reference board form, DailyTech reports.

“Supported features of NVIDIA’s budget performance chipset include dual-channel DDR2-800, Gigabit Ethernet with FirstPacket technology and high definition audio. The chipset also supports Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo processors with 1066 MHz and 800 MHz front-side-buses”, a report based on forum posts at ChileHardware says.

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Chipset maker Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) today announced that it has signed a long-term licensing contract with Intel for the manufacture and sale of chipsets for the Intel Core 2 Quad processors with 1333MHz front side bus.

“SiS will be offering the next generation products to support high-speed FSB 1333MHz for the Intel Core 2 Quad processors,” said Daniel Chen, the CEO and President of SiS, “These new chipsets will strengthen SiS product portfolios with another high-end option for consumers seeking extreme performance and innovative design.”

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XFX has launched its MB-N680-ILT9 motherboard based on the NVIDIA’s new 680i LT SLI chipset, which is compatibile with Intel’s socket 775 processors.

“For extreme gaming performance at a great price, the 680i LT SLI features True Dual PCI Express slots, best-in-class performance and supports 1333MHz FSB and memory speeds reaching 800 MHz for SLI Ready memory with EEP. NVIDIA MediaShield storage, a suite of features that includes RAID and SATA drive support, safeguards users’ most important digital media assets. The 680i LT SLI also features TCP/IP Acceleration, which delivers the superior system performance by offloading CPU-intensive packet filtering tasks in the hardware,” XFX published.

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EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 ATX form factor motherboard based on the latest NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI chipset for Intel LGA 775 processors is now available at NewEgg.

Priced at $199.99, the EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 nForce 680i LT SLI provides support for Intel’s Quad-core, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo and Pentium processors with 1066/800MHz front side bus, as well as up to 8GB of DDR2 800 memory. There are two PCI Express x16 slots, which enable dual graphics gaming in SLI mode, according to motherboard’s product page.

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NVIDIA has launched its nForce 680i LT SLI chipset, which is the trimmed down and cheaper version of nForce 680i SLI.

The NVIDIA nForce 680i LT motherboards for Intel 775 socket processors “bring the award-winning performance of the nForce 680i SLI media and communications processor (MCP) to a sub-$200 price point.”

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Asus P5K-WS, one of the first motherboards based on the Intel P35 chipset (codenamed Bearlake), is showcased at ongoing CeBIT show.

The P5K-WS supports Intel Core 2 Duo / Extreme processors and DDR2-800 memory and provides 1333MHz front-side bus. Asus P5K-WS offers SATA2 hard drive support and has dual Gigabit LAN, as well as 8-channel HD audio, Digit Life reports.

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Sapphire has announced its PURE Innovation PI-AM2RS690MHD motherboard, based on the latest AMD 690G chipset with AMD’s socket AM2 processor support and with HDMI output.

“Now with HDMI, the new Pure Innovation HDMI mainboard boasts support for the impressive AMD Athlon 64/FX/ X2 processors, memory exapnsion of up to 8GB of 533/667/800 Dual Channel, PCI-Express Technology, onboard X1250 graphics and HDMI to fill your multimedia needs, onboard LAN/Firewire/USB 2.0 affords the luxury of connectivity without limitations, and for peak hard drive performance and backwards compatibility both IDE and RAID 0/1 SATA II suuport,” the Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-AM2RS690MHD product page says.

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Micro-Star International presented the motherboards it will be releasing in the coming months at the ongoing CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. The one of this motherboards is MSI P6N Diamond based on Nvidia chipset which supports Creative’s X-Fi Extreme Audio. X-Fi onboard means lower costs and better performance than other integrated audio solutions, Digi Times reports.

MSI P6N Diamond mainboard marks the first appearance of X-Fi on it and company plans to feature X-Fi on future boards too, including ones based on Intel’s recently unveiled Bearlake chipset family, according to MSI. The company says that Creative has recently submitted both 32- and 64-bit drivers for WHQL testing, and it expects Windows Vista certified drivers to be available around the time the P6N Diamond launches, according to Digi Times.

MSI P6N Diamond has three x16 PCIe Express slots. The four slots are paired up electrically as two x16 and two x8 and allow the P6N to support SLI plus a couple of PCIe add-in cards now, but MSI also mentioned SLI Physics and Quad-SLI will also be possible in the near future. Additionally, MSI highlighted that the RAID controller on the P6N supports hardware RAID 0 and 1 as well as RAID 5 in software.

The second interesting motherboard that MSI has on show at CeBIT is the P956 Neo2. This Intel 965 Express based board has been customized to support ATI Crossfire which is implemented via a PCIe x16 slot and an open ended x4 slot.

There are also AMD 690 chipset-based motherboards, as well as boards based on an Nvidia IGP – likely to be the upcoming MCP 73 for Intel and MCP 68 for AMD.

Digi Times says P6N Diamond will be priced around US$280 and P956 Neo2 will be priced around US$170. Both motherboards are scheduled to launch in the second quarter.

Digi Times

BIOSTAR Microtech has launched TF7050-M2 motherboard, based on the new NVIDIA GeForce7050PV/ nForce630a Chipset. TF7050-M2 comes with integrated HDMI with on-chip HDCP and High Definition Audio(HDA), according to Biostar.

The on board HDMI connector is designed to meet the output protection management (HDCP) and security specification of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD Formats, allowing the playback of encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays. High Definition Audio (HDA) brings consumer electronics quality sound to the PC delivering high quality sound from multiple channels. Using HAD, system can deliver stunning 192kHz/32-bit quality from eight channel, supporting the latest audio formats. And TF7050-M2 offers both HDMI and TV-Out ports to support HDMI and HDA function, according to Biostar.

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