14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS' Core i7 line of motherboards has been enriched with a new addition, the P6T6 WS Revolution board. Although coming with an ATX format and being based on the X58 chipset, the fresh ASUS part is somehow different from other Core i7 supporting motherboards. The company plans to push the board into the workstation area, and has included in P6T6 support for no less than six PCIe x16 graphics cards. Moreover, the board offers support for both 3-way SLI and CrossFireX configurations, allowing users to take advantage of the unleashed power of GPUGP.
The graphics processing performance of any system that includes the ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard can be leveraged to the maximum. The board supports three true x16 link PCI-E slots for NVIDIAs 2-way & 3-way SLI and ATi CrossFireX technologies, along with the six PCI-E Gen2 x16 slots onboard, which can deliver high speed I/O and flexible graphics and computing options. Undoubtedly, the board is able to offer the base for powerful workstation Small Office usage, SOHO and mainstream workstation users.
Each of the six PCI-E Gen2 x16 Slots is able to provide up to 8GB/s of bandwidth, twice the bandwidth of PCI-E 1.1m, allowing high speed Infiniband connections, professional graphics or high-performance computing cards to be plugged in. The I/O interfaces provided through the six PCI-E Gen2 x16 slots the board comes with will satisfy any user.
The features list of the P6T6 WS Revolution includes onboard SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) ports, which are said to offer hard drive upgrade flexibility, while also retaining full compatibility with the ASUS optional SASsaby card. The SAS hard disks are faster, safer and more stable, offering higher data transmission speeds and better data storage reliability when compared to SATA interfaces.
The new ASUS motherboard also comes with a 16+2 power design (16-phase to vCore; 2-phase to vDRAM/QPI controller inside CPU), offering this way high power efficiency, more efficiency in dispersing heat generated by the VRM module, as well as lower temperatures. The P6T6 WS Revolution includes high quality power components like low RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite core chokes (lower hysteresis loss), and 100% Japan-made polymer capacitors. The 16+2 phase VRM design is meant to deliver longer component life, minimum power loss, and helps reach higher overclocking scores.
Other features include WS Diag. LED and the “ASUS Heartbeat,” which are meant to ensure proper functionality of all components. The board also comes with a built-in operating system, the Express Gate, which features a web browser, instant messenger, Skype, photo manager, music player and online games. The additional G.P. Diagnosis card performs precise system checks, while showing errors on the LED display.