14 DAY TRIAL // After pictures of Intel's upcoming Nehalem-based Core i7 Extreme 965 processor have surfaced on the Internet, it appears that one of the yet to be announced X58 motherboards has also “posed” for the camera. More specifically, we’re talking about one of Gigabyte's soon to be unveiled mobos, which has been designed to meet the requirements of Intel's high-end Core i7 CPUs, and provide users with the very best in desktop computing technology.
The fellows over at TweakTown were lucky enough to have received an invitation from Gigabtye to their offices in Taipei, Taiwan. It is here that the company showcased the final design of its upcoming Core i7-supporting motherboard, which will apparently begin shipping next month, as soon as the leading chip maker, Intel, starts shipping its range of Core i7 processors.
When it is launched, the yet unnamed X58-equipped motherboard from Gigabyte will provide a plethora of connectivity options, including 8 SATA, 8 USB 2.0 and 2 LAN ports (probably with support for Gigabit networking), FireWire, S/PDIF, PS/2 and 6 audio ports (with support for HD audio). In addition, it will also be equipped with just enough PCI Express slots to enable one of the highest performance desktop gaming rigs on the market. Furthermore, the board will take full advantage of its chipset support for triple-channel DDR3 memory, which is why it features 6 memory DIMMs.
The showcased model is not an actual working sample but, aside from the heatsink cooling solution, it could look like the one that users will be able to purchase upon launch. Also, all enthusiasts out there would be happy to know that the upcoming Core i7-supporting motherboard will provide a total of six four-pin headers, allowing them to connect more fans on a single motherboard.
There was no mention of an SLI support for the showcased model, as the company wanted to keep some of the details under wraps for when the motherboard is officially unveiled.