INTEL's X38 Chipset Is Alive

The statement is also true if you're planning for Penryn to come out. Yes, that's right, the X38 chipset (which is the natural successor of the 975x is the same way the P35 is the successor of 965P) will work with 1333FSB 45nm Conroes out of the box. And although the motherboards that integrate the X38 chipsets are still a month away from their launch, some models have already been showcased at Computex.


Aside the infamous DDR3 support, what's really new in the X38 is the fact that it integrates dual full-speed PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. The dual PCIe 2.0 slots are compatible with AMD's CrossFire technology but no one knows when AMD's PCIe 2.0 VGA cards will come out. X38 can also sustain a third PCIe 2.0 x16 for physics processing but due to chipset limitations this one has to use lesser lanes (4 to be more specific).

ASUS, Biostar, DFI, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI have X38 Express MoBos showcased at Computex 2007. ASUS for example, plans to release an X38 Express-based workstation board which will probably do away with the third PCIe 2.0 slot but will incorporate ICH9R as southbridge. DFI on the other hand takes a different approach and integrates DDR2 instead of DDR3 onto an X38-based motherboard. The LANParty X38-T2R supports DDR2-800 memory while the X38-T3R supports DDR3-1333. Aside from the DDR2/3 support, DFI has also produced a new audio solution called DFI Bernstein 8-channel theater-level audio solution.

Gigabyte has the same approach as DFI, with two X38 Express based motherboards, one with DDR2 while the other supports DDR3 even at 1600MHz speeds. And since onboard audio quality has always been a problem, Gigabyte's X38 MoBos use the new Realtek ALC889A HDA coded, offering a 106dB SNR.

INTEL will also roll out an X38-board which will be the successor of D975XBX2 BadAxe2. The new DX38BT codename "Bonetrail" will have 3 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots but will do away with heatpipe cooling. As for MSI, they will produce an X38 derivate with no less than 4 PCIe 2.0 slots, 2 of them running at full speed while the other two will run only at half speed.

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