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New Asus P55 Motherboards are 'TUF'

Paul Lilly — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:38:38 -0500

We're all about a hardcore naming scheme that eschews the now overused 'Extreme' nomenclature, so we applaud Asus for its new TUF (The Ultimate Force) series, at least in title.

Kicking off the TUF series is the Sabertooth 55i. Based on Intel's P55 chipset and built around Asus' own 'Marine Cool' concept unveiled at CeBIT earlier this year, the Sabertooh comes equipped with the new CeraMIX heatsink. Through the use of ceramics and a microfin surface texture, the CeraMIX heatsink purports to dissipate heat more rapidly than traditional anti-oxidant compounds, Asus says.

Other TUF attributes include direct memory cooling by way of a CoolMem fan frame that encloses most standard 40mm or 50mm computer fans and fits directly below the memory slots, military-certified capacitors and MOSFETs, E.S.P. (Effcient Switching Power. Drat! We were hoping for a board with a sixth sense), a 12+2 power phase design, and other goodies.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Asus

Mobo Makers Pessimistic about Japanese CPU Alliance

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:22:40 -0500

A recent Nikkei report indicates that a government-backed consortium of seven Japanese companies will be developing a new CPU architecture. The consortium, which is backed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, consists of some of the leading Japanese semiconductor companies, including Hitachi, NEC, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Canon.

According to the report, the consortium’s plan is to develop a highly power-efficient CPU for use in a wide array of consumer electronics. The consortium hopes to deliver the first solar-powered prototype by the end of fiscal 2012.

A Digitimes report suggests that Taiwanese mobo makers are not optimistic of the Japanese consortium’s chances. Their sense of pessimism is “due to uncertainties in terms of the total costs of R&D manpower and funding.” The project will be kick-started with an initial funding of 3-4 billion yen (US$32-43 million).

Contrary to most reports, the new CPU architecture is apparently not aimed at challenging the dominance of Intel’s x86 CPUs, which don’t even dominate the market segment the new CPU will be developed for; the new CPU is intended for the embedded chip market.

Image Credit: TopNews

MSI Eclipse SLI

Gordon Mah Ung — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:00:15 -0500

An eclipse occurs when one celestial body obscures another. When MSI stuck its X58 motherboard with that moniker, we wondered just what it wanted to hide. Our guess is it’s the fact that the board supports ATI’s CrossFire X. Despite the Eclipse’s support for CrossFire X, MSI chose to change the name of the board at the last minute from simply Eclipse to Eclipse SLI. Regardless, the Eclipse SLI is jam-packed with features that would make any geek weep, including cross-platform GPU support, Core i7, six-slot DDR3, and onboard soft X-Fi audio.

We’ve now tested three X58 boards, and the Eclipse SLI has an edge over its closest competitor, the Asus P6T Deluxe, which we reviewed in January, as well as the stock Intel DX58SO board that we used for most of our Core i7 testing. The Eclipse SLI is technically able to run tri-SLI. We say technically because though you might be able to jam a GTX 280 into the third slot, you’ll probably have to saw off the end of the card to make it fit in your case—the card has to be seated in the bottom slot and hangs over the mobo by about an inch. We tested the Eclipse with a pair of EVGA GTX 280 cards but were unable to test it in tri, as our early board shipped without a bridge. MSI will include bridges with retail boards.

Right now, it’s difficult to compare the performance of the three X58-based boards we’ve tested, as it’s challenging to make sure the boards are all set to the same specs. We attribute most of the performance differences we’ve seen to how each vendor sets up the CPU, not to the performance differences with each board. One thing in the Eclipse’s favor: There’s no need to activate the X-Fi drivers on the board, which is necessary on the Asus boards that feature host-based X-Fi drivers.

So what board would we stick our Core i7 in? It’s hard to say at this point, but if we were forced to choose, the Eclipse SLI would just edge out the Asus P6T Deluxe. But to be honest, with BIOS updates coming out in near real time for the new CPU and new chipset, the answer to that question might be different next month. –gordon mah ung

Evga's New 790i Motherboard to Support Aggressive Overclocking

Paul Lilly — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:29:26 -0500

Evga, the company best know for its position as a top-tier Nvidia partner, continues to try and build a reputation as the go-to vendor for overclocking enthusiasts. The videocard manufacturer was the first to officially support overclocking its GPUs without invalidating the warranty (only XFX has since followed suit), and Evga's FTW branded motherboards look to live up to the three-letter moniker with all the right marketing bullets.

Adding to the FTW series, and specifically the 790i SLI FTW, Evga has announced the 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM designed for aggressive overclocking. In addition to the usual assortment of high end goodies (1600MHz frontside bus support, DDR3 2000MHz support, SLI certified, PCI-E 2.0), the long-winded FTW Digital PWM edition bumps up the reference design from a 6-phase to an 8-phase design. The board also comes with 100 percent solid state capacitors and ferrite core chokes, both of which purport to offer improved signal-to-noise ratios and ultimately lead to a higher overclocking ceiling.

Overclockers comfortable mucking around with advanced voltage controls will have the ability to disable Vdroop in the "enhanced" BIOS and avoid sagging voltage at higher overclocks. And for those that are more apprehensive when it comes to advanced level tweaks, Evga's BIOS will include several pre-validated voltage settings.

The board is available now for $340 direct from Evga.

Image Credit: Evga

Rumor: Asus Accounts for 80% of All P45-Based Motheboard Sales

Paul Lilly — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:20:04 -0500

Asus has to be feeling on top of the world, assuming sources at the company aren't blowing hot air. As DigiTimes reports it, those sources are claiming that Asus feasts on the lion's share of P45-based motherboard sales, with the company accounting for a whopping 80 percent of worldwide shipments.

Third quarter motherboard shipments are estimated at 6.12 million units, representing a growth rate of 20 percent and surpassing the company's original estimation of 15 percent. The numbers bode well for what's to come, as demand for Intel's X58 chipset based boards is also expected to run high.

Will your next board be an Asus?

Rumor: MSI's X58 Motherboard Will Support Quad-SLI

Paul Lilly — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:43:45 -0500

Yet another leaked slide has made its way to the web, this time showcasing a triumvirate of motherboards slated for a late 2008 release by top tier vendor MSI. The company has labeled its enthusiast offering as the Eclipse, and its performance board will carry the familiar Platinum nomenclature as the X58 Platinum. The third board, which doesn't yet have a name (X58 Diamond?), will target the "Über Overclocker" according to the slide.

The mystery board carries the most intrigue, and not because of its lack of name. While all three motherboards bring support for Nvidia's SLI and ATI's CrossFireX, the board without an identity shows support for quad-SLI or tri-SLI with PhysX support in full speed x16 PCI-E v2 slots (insert your own Crysis reference).

Anyone salivating over quad-SLI?

XFX nForce 780i SLI

Gordon Mah Ung — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:35:25 -0600

We knew something was up when Nvidia officials were light on details concerning its 780i chipset during a recent press briefing. Normally quite happy to toot its hardware horn, Nvidia practically skipped the PowerPoint slide on the chipset.
Why? Like Intel’s x48, the 780i isn’t really that new. In fact, those familiar with the 680i are well acquainted with the 780i, which is pretty much a 680i with an extra chip (interestingly named the Nforce 200) thrown in to add PCI-E 2.0 support and a full x16 tri-SLI mode.

Despite this, the XFX Nforce780i SLI is still worth taking a gander at. In the hardware department, it has some nice enthusiast touches, such as a POST LED and surface-mounted reset and power switches, but it’s pretty bare-bones next to the Asus board. While we can see not including 802.11n or the wacky pre-boot stuff in the XFX 780i, where are the eSATA ports?

In the I/O arena, the XFX 780i board features three physical x16 slots. Two slots operate at full x16 PCI-E 2.0 data rates while the third runs at x16 PCI-E 1.0 rates. When running tri-SLI mode, the two PCI-E 2.0 slots are actually slaved to the nForce 200 chip, which plumbs directly into the north bridge, while the third x16 PCI-E is routed through the south bridge. There’s been some criticism of this design, which is a bit like going from your kitchen to the living room by crawling though the bathroom window and cutting across the yard. Can you truly synchronize three GPUs if one has to take such a circuitous route? Nvidia says it’s not an issue because the cards actually do most of their talking across the big SLI bridge that’s clipped to the top of the cards. The board includes bridges for tri- and dual-SLI configurations.

Also supported out of the box in the 780i is Nvidia’s Enthusiast System Architecture, which lets a PC talk to new ESA-enabled smart components such as power supplies, water coolers, and case enclosures. We’ve seen early ESA implementations, and we like it so far.

What is truly a differentiator between the 680i and the 780i is support for Intel’s 45nm Penryn CPUs. Although Nvidia officials initially indicated that they expected quad-core Penryns to work on 680i boards, to the chagrin of enthusiasts everywhere, they were wrong. Due to limitations with existing board designs, the current 680i inventories won’t work with Penryn quad cores, such as the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 or the upcoming budget quad Penryns. For those, you need a board like the XFX 780i.

You’re not completely CPU-safe though. While the 780i supports 1,333MHz Penryn CPUs, it isn’t clear if it will work with the upcoming 1,600MHz FSB Core 2 Extreme QX9770 CPU. Nvidia has been cagey concerning this issue, saying that it can’t comment on compatibility until Intel releases a shipping part. In our tests, however, it’s a no go. Using a 3.2GHz/1,600FSB Core 2 QX9770, the XFX 780i board wouldn’t work even with the CPU and FSB downclocked to a 1,333MHz FSB. Nvidia has a point that it’s still waiting for final silicon to finish validating it, but come on. Aren’t Nvidia and Intel even communicating here? We must note that the QX9770 worked fine with the Asus X48 board.

This is perhaps the most troubling aspect of the XFX 780i board, and the entire chipset lineup. Add that to talk of a soon-to-be-released 790i chipset with DDR3 support and you have a chipset and board that have fairly limited appeal. Although performance was quite good and it erases the performance gap we saw in our January showdown between the x38 and 680i, we’re pretty damned worried that it’ll be obsolete faster than you can say 45 nanometer.

ASUS P5E3 Deluxe Wi-Fi-AP@n

Gordon Mah Ung — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:18:12 -0600

We’ll be the first to admit that we were unimpressed by DDR3 when we first tested it last year, but there’s finally a glimmer of hope.

What changed our minds? Asus’s spanking-fast P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP@n mobo, which uses the enthusiast-oriented X38 chipset. The X38’s main highlights are apparently useful DDR3 support and PCI Express 2.0 support. We say “apparently” in reference to DDR3 because we didn’t have a DDR2 version of the board for a direct comparison, but from our tests, the X38 with DDR3 is a winning combination. Also good to have but not a proven performance boost yet is PCI-E 2.0, which doubles the bandwidth of PCI-E 1.0 from 8GB/s to 16GB/s. But does PCI-E 2.0 matter?

Maybe. The jury is still out, but one GPU vendor told us he has seen solid performance boosts from it. We couldn’t test this claim because we were unable to lock our PCI-E 2.0 card at PCI-E 1.0 data rates. Of course, you’ll also need a PCI-E 2.0 GPU, such as Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT or AMD’s Radeon HD 3870, to see any benefits. The P5E3 Deluxe doesn’t include SLI support, but the board can run two graphics cards in CrossFire mode.

This mobo also sports a no-nonsense Asus design: There are no blinged-out gamer LEDs or crazy wind tunnels. But that doesn’t mean cooling is an afterthought. A heat pipe keeps the ICH9R south bridge cool and also wraps around the north bridge and voltage-regulation modules.

Other notable features include 802.11n-compliant Wi-Fi support, and the superior Analog Devices audio parts over Realtek hardware.

To test the board and chipset, we set up the P5E3 and an EVGA 680i SLI board with identical hard drives, quad-core CPUs, GPUs, and drivers. However, the P5E3 packed 2GB of Corsair DDR3 clocked at 1,333MHz while the EVGA board used 2GB of Corsair DDR2 RAM clocked at 1,066MHz. With the 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad overclocked to 3.3GHz and running on a 1,333MHz FSB on both platforms, we expected to see minor differences between the two boards, but the P5E3 easily outran the 680i board. The big wins came in gaming, where Quake 4 ran about 11.4 percent faster on the Asus board. FEAR and Valve’s Particle Test were also faster on the P5E3 by a comfortable 5 percent margin. In encoding tests, the P5E3 was faster by a shocking 13 percent.

Those are impressive numbers, especially in motherboard land, where clock-for-clock performance increases of 2 percent are viewed as a win. It’s also more impressive when you consider that the P35 chipset in DDR3 trim was slower than Nvidia’s 680i chipset. However, you’ll have to weigh the value of that speed boost against DDR3’s premium pricing.
The chipset does not officially support a 1,600MHz front-side bus, but we conducted much of our Core 2 QX9850 Penryn testing with the board’s FSB at 1,600MHz with no additional voltage. Intel, however, hasn’t certified the X38 as capable of officially supporting 1,600MHz FSB speeds. We won’t see 1,600MHz until the X48 ships, probably in January 2008.
The X48 launch will make the X38 one of the shortest-lived enthusiast chipsets in recent memory. Should that trouble you? The “unofficial” FSB doesn’t trouble us, but newer is better, and with the X48 launch imminent, the X38 is something of a head-scratcher.

And that’s really a shame, as the P5E3 Deluxe is a great board. It’s fast and solid and packs just about every feature you would want in an Intel system. Unless you’re hung up on getting SLI support, this is clearly one of the best boards available today for Intel.