14 DAY TRIAL // The Lynx Point chipset is no longer a far-off dream, but something that has begun to spawn motherboards left and right. And it should be, with Intel's new CPUs around the corner.
Intel's fourth generation of Core-series central processing units will be officially introduced between June 4 and 8, at Computex Taipei 2013.
Motherboards always come out a bit earlier than the chips themselves, and this is no different, something that MSI and ASRock have already shown.
Now, Elitegroup Computer Systems has formally introduced its 8-series mainboards.
This page should have the specifics, but it was not yet live at the time of this article's writing. We suspect it will go online soon.
Strangely, ECS didn't give the actual names of the platforms, nor did it say how many of them there would be.
Instead, it outlined so-called tiers: Pro series (optimized for performance), Deluxe series (for small office and home PCs), and Essentials (home and multimedia).
Regardless, all have SATA III 6 Gbps storage support, PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (at least one, for high-end graphics cards) and USB 3.0.
Intel Smart Response Technology, Intel Rapid Start and Intel Smart Connect are part of the feature set too, along with Thunderbolt.
These are all part of the Lynx Point package though. ECS' contributions are different, like 4-way video output (DVI, HDMI, Display Port and D-Sub / VGA), ECS EZ Bios, ADS (Anti-Dust Shield), EZ quick charger, Motherboard Intelligent Bios III, and Sound Blaster Cinema Technology.
Moreover, the ECS new Durathon durability technology (a triple density PCB, solid capacitors, extreme temperature resistance, 1.5K point marathon testing) greatly improves motherboard quality, stability and longevity.
All in all, the ECS 8-Series motherboards will have absolutely no trouble running even the best games out there, never mind normal applications.
