14 DAY TRIAL // The X58 Express has been Intel's highest performing chipset ever since its introduction in November of 2008, but the company has recently announced that it will soon retire this I/O Hub from its product range in order to make room for the new X79 PCH for LGA 2011 processors.
Intel made public this change is a Product Discontinuance Notice (PCN) sent to its partners on October 3.
According to this PCN, the X58 I/O Hub will still be available for ordering until April 27, 2012, while the last shipping date for the chipset is set on October 5, 2012.
Intel will retire this chipset in order to make room in its lineup for the Waimea Bay platform, which is comprised of the upcoming Sandy Bridge-E processors and the X79 Express PCH (platform controller hub) for LGA 2011 motherboards.
Initially, the X79 was expected to feature no less than 10 SATA 6Gbps ports, SAS hard drive support and a special PCI Express x4 2.0 link to directly connect the CPU to the storage controller, but due to a series of issues faced with this PCH Intel was forced to remove some of the original features.
As a result, the first revision of the X79 chipset, which is expected to come out with the Sandy Bridge-E processors, can support a maximum of six SATA devices, only two of these working at 6Gbps speeds.
The additional DMI link between the PCH and the CPU has also been dropped, so the X79 Expressis in essence an P67 PCH with support for LGA 2011 processors.
An official release date for the X79 chipset hasn't been announced yet, but leaks suggest both the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs and the first X79 motherboards will arrive on November 14, which definitely makes sense considering the retirement date chosen for the X58.