Many gamers and enthusiasts are anticipating the launch of motherboards based on Intel's X58 chipset. The boards are offering several interesting technologies including support for the Intel Core i7 processors and SLI.
EVGA gave an early look at its X58 SLI FTW motherboard and details on its features. The board supports the Intel Core i7 processor and uses the X58 Express Chipset with the ICH10R southbridge. EVGA integrates its VDroop Control into the design and uses 100% solid-state capacitors.
EVGA says that the VDroop control helps minimize VDroop making the system more stable while the EVGA E-LEET Tuning Utility makes it easier for users to overclock their system. Other features of the motherboard include six DIMM triple-channel DDR3 slots, support for SLI, 3-way SLI, and CrossFireX. It's interesting to note that Intel has been warning against the use of high voltages on memory with the X58 at risk of killing the Core i7 CPUs.
Support for SLI on a retail motherboard not using an NVIDIA chipset is also new. NVIDIA announced in August that it would enable SLI on the X58 chipset with or without the use of its nForce 200 chip. The board offers ten SATA II ports and one eSATA port. Overclockers will appreciate the external rear panel CMOS clear button.
Intel's Core i7 processor is promising the enthusiast higher performance with a few new tricks. Intel will use new QuickPath technology to compete directly against AMD's HyperTransport on-chip memory controller. The processor is built using a 45nm process and will have eight logical cores thanks to Hyper-Threading on the four physical cores.
