14 DAY TRIAL // Ladies and gentlemen, judging by the high number of pictures and details that have recently surfaced on Intel's upcoming Nehalem-supporting, X58-based mobos, we can say that we are getting close to an official unveiling. According to some of the most recent rumors, Taiwanese manufacturer MSI is in the final stage of release of its own implementation of Intel's upcoming X58 chipset.
The pictures have surfaced on French website syndrome-oc, which has also posted an English press release, claiming the official unveiling of MSI's X58 board, although MSI's website has no details regarding the new product.
Suggestively dubbed "Eclipse" the upcoming mobo is expected to shadow all of the other currently available motherboards. As it is meant to support Intel's next-generation Core i7 processor, the Eclipse has been featured with an LGA1366 socket, built on a black PCB. The board makes full use of a color code to differentiate the onboard connectors, including the six 3-channel-ready DDR3 memory DIMMs.
This is one of the main features of MSI's upcoming board, namely that it supports up to 24GB of DDR3-1333 memory, with an enhanced bandwidth of up to 32GB/s.
Furthermore, the board has been featured with three PCI-Express x16 slots, enabling users to benefit from a high-performance gaming rig with up to three graphics cards, connected together in a CrossFireX setup. Additionally, the board has been featured with two PCI slots, ten SATA ports and two eSATA connectors.
Other features include dual-Gigabit Ethernet and an impressive eight USB 2.0 ports for the back panel. However, we can't really say if the board has been completely finished, as it doesn't feature any audio jacks in the back panel.
No word on pricing and availability just yet but, as mentioned above, the board is expected to make its debut in the near future, along with other similar products from ASUS and Gigabyte.