Holy cow! 8 DIMM slots on a desktop board, that's just... massive. No PCIe 3.0 for Intel, mhh this guys arent going straight with the chipsets (integrated or not).
I'm really happy to see 8 DIMM's. All previous X79 boards i see only had 4 DIMM's which was pathetic for a highend platform. I would have had to downgrade my memory capacity from 24GB to 16GB, unacceptable. But now i can have 32GB with 8 DIMM slots, nice.
Actually, there are 8GB DDR3 DIMMs, but they are so expensive, that it's unimaginable, anyone would want to buy them, for their price. Anyway 8 times 8GB = WOW!! 64GB of RAM! :D
We can only hope there's a decently priced enthusiast part like the 920 was. I remember jumping on it and a mobo when it got around the $300 mark.
So far, a good investment considering the state of the art of high-end computing really hasn't moved forward (though the lower end chips have come a long way for way less money).
That and something with 6 or 8 cores that doesn't break the bank.
nice to see some USB 3.0 onboard headers. Sadly, still no SB controller integration. Does anyone know how many PCIe lanes a NEC/Renesas controller takes up from the SB (if it does work that way)? and can these PCIe lanes be saved if the USB 3.0 controller were integrated in the SB?
I agree on those pushpin HSFs. Such an inferior solution to AMD's simple clip and ARM. I guess it's still an improvement over the old "screwdriver" clips that left you wondering if you were about to mangle your motherboard.
Actually, 4 of available SATA3 ports, are SAS capable, so they can be connected to hdd backplates, usually one hdd backplanes takes in 2 SAS connectors, and lets you connect up to six drives. This way you can use 4 SAS ports, to get 12 SATA drives + 8 SATA drives from onboard SATA ports = 20 hdds, seems enough for me. ;)
I'm seeing PCI Express Gen 3 on all boards. 8GB of RAM per socket is massive. With current 4GB DIMMs that means up to 32GB per CPU. USB 3.0 is native or it's a NEC chipset who's doing the work?
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juampavalverde - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Holy cow! 8 DIMM slots on a desktop board, that's just... massive. No PCIe 3.0 for Intel, mhh this guys arent going straight with the chipsets (integrated or not).ph0tek - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
I'm really happy to see 8 DIMM's. All previous X79 boards i see only had 4 DIMM's which was pathetic for a highend platform. I would have had to downgrade my memory capacity from 24GB to 16GB, unacceptable. But now i can have 32GB with 8 DIMM slots, nice.knedle - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Actually, there are 8GB DDR3 DIMMs, but they are so expensive, that it's unimaginable, anyone would want to buy them, for their price.Anyway 8 times 8GB = WOW!! 64GB of RAM! :D
hechacker1 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
We can only hope there's a decently priced enthusiast part like the 920 was. I remember jumping on it and a mobo when it got around the $300 mark.So far, a good investment considering the state of the art of high-end computing really hasn't moved forward (though the lower end chips have come a long way for way less money).
That and something with 6 or 8 cores that doesn't break the bank.
etamin - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
nice to see some USB 3.0 onboard headers. Sadly, still no SB controller integration. Does anyone know how many PCIe lanes a NEC/Renesas controller takes up from the SB (if it does work that way)? and can these PCIe lanes be saved if the USB 3.0 controller were integrated in the SB?Paazel - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
a) 12 SATA connections? Really??b) Looks like a new HSF mounting mechanism!!! Looks similar to what you would use with a back plate. Pushpins RIP.
Unrelated, but that Creative X-Fi onboard is cool; why doesn't ASUS integrate their XONAR products?
MonkeyPaw - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
I agree on those pushpin HSFs. Such an inferior solution to AMD's simple clip and ARM. I guess it's still an improvement over the old "screwdriver" clips that left you wondering if you were about to mangle your motherboard.Mumrik - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
"a) 12 SATA connections? Really??"What's you point? Did you want more?
I'm already using the 8 I have on my P67 board and am rather annoyed that so few boards have more...
knedle - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Actually, 4 of available SATA3 ports, are SAS capable, so they can be connected to hdd backplates, usually one hdd backplanes takes in 2 SAS connectors, and lets you connect up to six drives.This way you can use 4 SAS ports, to get 12 SATA drives + 8 SATA drives from onboard SATA ports = 20 hdds, seems enough for me. ;)
IanCutress - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Looking good.Filiprino - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
I'm seeing PCI Express Gen 3 on all boards.8GB of RAM per socket is massive. With current 4GB DIMMs that means up to 32GB per CPU.
USB 3.0 is native or it's a NEC chipset who's doing the work?
Filiprino - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Woops, I meant 8 DIMM sockets, with 4GB DIMMs it's a total of 32GB.etamin - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
The MSI board description seems to indicate a maximum of 64GB supportedFiliprino - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
That is using 8GB DIMMs. 8x8 = 64GB.knedle - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
yeah, but 8GB DIMMs are so expensive it hurts (my heart and would hurt my wallet even more ;) ).