14 DAY TRIAL // The Intel H61 chipset is definitely a great buy for users interested in building a Sandy Bridge system on the cheap and Sapphire will soon make this type of motherboards even more attractive as it plans to deliver the Pure Platinum H61P with support for both USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps.
Since the H61 platform controller hub (PCH) doesn't come with support for USB 3.0 or SATA 6Gbps, the Sapphire motherboard relies on third party controllers to deliver this functionality to its customers.
In the case of the Pure Platinum H61P, the two SATA 6Gbps ports present on the board are powered by an ASMedia controller, as VR-Zone reveals.
These are seconded by four SATA 3Gbps connectors driven by the Intel H61 PCH, which is also used for controlling the two PCI Express x1 slots as well as the three 32-bit PCI slots (via another ASMedia IC) installed in Sapphire’s latest creation.
In addition, the Pure Platinum H61P motherboard features a full length PCI Express x16 slot for adding a discrete graphics card to the system.
A pair of DDR3 memory slots are also present and Sapphire states these can support up to 16GB of system memory when paired together with high-capacity 8GB DIMMs.
Moving to the board's I/O panel, we get all the basic ports and connectors that one would expect to see in this type of motherboard, including DVI and VGA video outputs, four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a PS/2 ports and 7.1-channel audio.
An HDMI output is also provided, so users interested in building an HTPC system can go for the H61P without any worries.
No information regarding pricing was provided by Sapphire, but the Pure Platinum H61P is expected to hit the streets sometime next year.
