14 DAY TRIAL // Details about Intel's upcoming LGA 2011 enthusiast platform have been scarce until recently, but this is no longer the case as a slide containing most of the specifications of the Intel X79 Express chipset was recently leaked to the Web along with the release date of the new platform.
As previous reports have suggested, the first LGA 2011 processors and motherboards will be available in the fourth quarter of this year and will carry the X79 name as Intel decided to skip right over the 6-series designation with this platform.
Just like the P67 and the P55 released before it, the X79 features a PCH (platform controller hub) design as most of the tasks that were handled by the X58chipset previously, such as the PCI Express connectivity, were integrated inside the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs.
However, the X79 packs an impressive array of features compared with its predecessors as it now supports no less than 10 SATA 6Gbps and the PCH is now linked to the CPU via a DMI 2.0 interface as well as through an additional PCI-Express 2.0 x4 link.
This can be enabled or disabled by the user in the motherboard's EFI BIOS and should bring a noticeable performance increase in systems that pack high-performance storage systems.
In addition, the X79 PCH also features an Intel Rapid Storage enterprise controller that enables RAID 0/1/5/10 support and eight of the available SATA interfaces can be configured as SAS by motherboard manufacturers.
The rest of the specs list includes an 8-lane PCI-Express 2.0 hub, which can be used to drive the x1 and x4 slots, as well as 14 USB 2.0 ports.
Sadly, the PCH doesn't feature native USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt support, which is an important omission considering its target market.
A firm release date hasn't been established at this point, but this is expected to be revealed when we get closer to the fourth quarter. (via TechPowerUp)
