HardwareZone has published details of a forthcoming MSI P35 Platinum D3 motherboard based on Intel’s “Bearlake” chipset. The MSI P35 Platinum D3 will support DDR3 memory modules with speeds of up to 1333MHz, according to the report.
Along with a LGA775 socket supporting Intel’s 64-bit processors, and four DDR3 memory slots, the P35 Platinum D3 will feature two PCI, two PCIe x1 and two PCIe x16 slots.
“The P35 chipset is not designed for dual-GPU and the two slots will operate in a fixed x16/x4 configuration,” HardwareZone reports.
On the P35 Platinum D3 board there are 4+1 SATA 3.0 Gbps ports with one Ultra ATA PATA connector. The motherboard also features a Gigabit LAN, the Realtek ALC888 HD Audio CODEC and a S/PDIF connection.
According to the HardwareZone, MSI will also release a similar P35 Platinum (without D3 in name) in its high-end motherboard line-up. The P35 Platinum will support only DDR2 memory.
For the mainstream market, MSI will deliver a P35 Neo, which is a DDR2 only motherboard and a P35 Neo Combo with exactly the same features except that it will support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory modules.
Currently there is no information on pricing and availability of these MSI’s “Bearlake”-based motherboards. Earlier reports indicate the “Bearlake” will be launched during this quarter.
The mentioned DDR3 memory standard will reportedly include modules with up to 1600MHz clock speed and 1.5V voltage, compared to 800MHz and 1.8V of current DDR2.
