14 DAY TRIAL // Though they haven't exactly made it to market, Intel's Sandy Bridge processors are already getting their first supporting platform, or are about to, if Gigabyte's P67A-UD5 and P67A-UD7, found on display at IDF, are anything to go by.
The Sandy Bridge series of central processing units shouldn't take more than a few months to become official and begin gracing the consumer base with their high clocks and better integrated graphics.
They are expected to debut either before year's end or in early 2011 and to take the place of the current Core series of chips.
They will also require a new set of platforms, as they employ a different socket and, thus, need a new chipset.
As such, it is no surprise that platforms compatible with them, meaning based on the P67 chipset, have begun to rear their heads.
Gigabyte, unsurprisingly, is already building such mainboards, two of which have been spotted on display at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), according to Future Looks.
The two boards utilize copper PCBs that, instead of just using the company's signature blue color, are black, for a touch of uniqueness.
They each have four DDR3 memory slots, two SATA 6.0 Gbps connectors, USB 3.0 connectivity and, of course, overclocking-friendly Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons.
The two are different, mainly, through the number of PCI Express slots and SATA 3.0 Gbps ports they sport.
To be more specific, the P67A-UD5 has four SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors and two PCI Express x16 slots, while the P67A-UD7 boasts six and four, respectively.
Needless to say, SLI and CrossFireX multi-GPU setups are fully supported, as would be expected from high-end platforms.
Finally, the P67A-UD7 features a 24-phase power VRM and dual-Gigabit Ethernet, while its UD5 sibling 'settles' for Gigabit Ethernet and a 20-phase design. Unfortunately, the likely massive prices have not yet been revealed.