LGA2011 MSI X79A-GD65 8D Motherboard Previewed

The next series of Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs, Sandy Bridge E, will be able to reside in the socket of a certain MSI motherboard that has, apparently, been extensively photographed not long ago.

Motherboards are among the PC components whose specs can most easily be leaked, since all it takes is a photo for its various parts to become apparent.

This is what happened to the MSI X79A-GD65 8D, although, in this case, the board wasn't pictured once, but a whole bunch of times.

Indeed, this preview helpfully provided a slew of pictures of the product, as well as pretty much every relevant detail about the hardware features.

Eight DDR3 memory slots exist, along with five PCI Express slots, three of which are PCI Express 3.0 and the rest 2.0.

SLI and CrossFireX multi-GPU configurations are, naturally, supported, as are hardcore overclocking maneuvers, and this extends to more than the OC Genie II one-second, automatic overclocking technology.

Micro-Star International actually threw in voltage check points in Military Class III components, plus a 5+2 phase DrMOS.

Additionally, the newcomer has Power, Clear CMOS and OC buttons, plus all the expected connectivity and I/O options, and then some.

Besides four SATA 3.0 Gps ports and four SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, one will find a pair of USB 3.0 connectors, Gigabit Ethernet (obviously), FireWire and 7.1 channel audio.

Finally, as far as design goes, this motherboard does not stray from the 'tradition' established by its predecessors and features the same old blue/black color scheme.

All in all, this is a real enthusiast-grade platform, so prospective buyers will have to keep that in mind when they speculate on how much it will cost.

The product hasn't been announced yet, but it should start showing up in online stores around the world in a matter of weeks.