14 DAY TRIAL // MSI kept to the promise made a few days ago and at this year's Intel Developer Forum presented a series of motherboards for Sandy Bridge-E LGA 2011 processors, the most impressive of these being the X79A-GD65.
A pre-production version of this board has also been showcased at Computex fair in June of this year, but, since then, MSI has made quite a few changes to the layout of its X79 offering.
These are more than enough to believe that we are dealing with an entirely new motherboard, even though the two solutions carry a similar name.
Before moving on, it’s important to note that MSI's motherboard will be available in two versions, one featuring support for no less than eight DDR3 memory modules, this is known as the X79A-GD65 (8D), while the other uses a more standard arrangement with just 4 DIMM sockets.
Outside of this change, the boards are nearly identical and they both feature five PCI Express x16 slots (three PCIe 3.0 and two PCIe Gen 2), a single PCI Express x1 slot as well as a wide assortment of other features.
These include support for MSI's well-known OC Genie II automatic overclocking technology, Military Class III components, dedicated voltage reading points, and THX certified audio.
Like most other high-end LGA 2011 motherboards that we have come to see until now, the X79A-GD65 is also compatible with CrossFireX and SLI multi-GPU technologies.
As far as storage is concerned, MSI's solutions are equipped with four SATA 6Gbps ports as well as with quad SATA 3Gbps ports, but SAS support is lacking.
USB 3.0 connectivity is also included thanks to four connectors placed on the rear I/O bracket, while an on-board pin-header adds support for another two such ports.
As expected, no information regarding the release date or the price of these motherboards was provided, but they should make their entrance into the market shortly after Sandy Bridge-E is introduced. (via AnandTech)
