Mar 2, 2011 10:31 GMT  ·  By

Not to be outdone by Asus and MSI, Gigabyte has also showcased an Intel Z68 based motherboard prototype, dubbed GA-Z68X-UD4H-B3, at the CeBIT 2011 fair, which takes place right now in Hannover, Germany.

However, unlike the models showcased by its competitors, Gigabyte's board looks to be in an early development stage as it features a blue printed circuit board paired together with black slots and gray heatsinks, an unusual color scheme for the company.

Judging by the picture provided, the motherboard seems to be using a 6+1 phase design, that packs driver MOSFETs, DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI video outputs as well as USB 3.0 connectivity provided by an Etron controller.

In addition, the board features dual PCI Express x16 slots, where the second slot can be activated by switching to dual x8 mode in the BIOS, three PCI Express x1 slots as well as a pair of regular PCI slots.

A total of six SATA ports are available for connecting storage devices, and two of these support SATA 6Gbps transfer speeds.

The Z68 chipset comes as a hybrid between the P67 and the H67 and was designed as to allow for overclocking Sandy Bridge CPUs and the system's memory while using the processor's integrated graphics.

Presently, this isn't supported by the P67 or H67 chipsets as the first one lacks the flexible display interface (FDI) that is required in order to use the on-die GPU while the latter doesn't allow for CPU multiplier adjustment.

In addition, the Z68 enables motherboard makers to split the 16 PCI Express lanes available from the CPU in two x8 PCIe slots, and implements SSD caching.

This function, however, won't become available right from the start as manufacturers have to wait for Intel to release the 10.5 version of the Rapid Storage Technology driver.

The first motherboards based on the Z68 chipset are expected to arrive in the first week of May. (via VR-Zone)