Chipsets & Motherboards

13 May 2008 - The enthusiasts have been waiting for Intel's latest chipset revision, the P45 Express chipset with glee. Codenamed "Eaglelake", the P45 promises a 1600Mhz FSB update and a PCI-E 2.0 refresh. Read on to find out more about the features, while we work hard on overclocking and benchmarking the board.

8 May 2008 - With the focus now shifting towards making more energy-efficient products, motherboard manufacturers such as ASUS have come up with technologies to keep power consumption (and heat output) down. Read on to find out more about the ASUS EPU as we put the Asus P5E3 Premium to the test.

6 May 2008 - ASUS has announced the new ASUS P5Q series of motherboards; which feature the new ASUS EPU-Six Engine. This new version of the EPU is able to detect current PC loadings in real time and automatically moderate the power supply for complete system level power savings. With automatic power management for components, the EPU-Six Engine provides the most appropriate power usage via intelligent acceleration and overclocking – helping users achieve the ultimate in energy savings. The P5Q energy conserving series of motherboards consists of the P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-E, P5QC, P5Q PRO and the P5Q, and will be available in the second quarter of this year.

23 April 2008 - Nvidia is planning to release the cheaper SLI capable chipset for AMD platform this month end. The NVIDIA nForce 740a SLI SPP includes 2×8 PCI Express 2.0 lanes (configurable as 1×16) and 2×1 PCI Express 1.0 lanes, 12 USB ports, six SATA ports, and single GigE.

15 April 2008 - DFI issued a warning earlier this week about imitation of their motherboards in Indonesia. Ironically, DFI doesn't even carry those imitated models; MCP78V and MCP68PV. We learned that an Indonesian company by the name of TIGA is said to be distributing these imitations using DFI branding and the OEM maker of these boards is J&W from China. DFI has already contacted the alleged party to cease and desist the act and have commissioned the legal department to take action to stop the authorized behavior. Update : J&W today issued a statement clarifying the whole situation.

1 April 2008 - VIA today announced the new VIA VX800 Series of digital media IGP chipsets featuring the latest video, graphics and connectivity performance in a single chip measuring just 33 x 33mm. The VIA VX800 Series comprises two primary digital media IGP chipsets, the VIA VX800 for ultra thin and light notebooks, mini PCs and embedded devices, and the ultra low voltage VIA VX800U for the fast-expanding ultra mobile market, including the rapidly-emerging mini-note, UMPC and UMD markets. The VIA VX800 Series chipsets will start shipping in April 2008.

27 March 2008 - Overclocking is all the rage these days and we are seeing some formidable brew at Foxconn, a laid-back OEM in the past. Someone sneaked into our office and left us a piece of puzzle we can't fit together...

27 March 2008 - Bills have been rising but more often than not, faster than our paychecks have been. If your utility bills have been a concern, join us as we examine GIGABYTE's new Dynamic Energy Saving feature on the GIGABYTE EP35-DS4 and see if there really are any savings to be had.

12 May 2008 - BIOSTAR TPower N750 offers Hybrid SLI technology, based on SLI technology, delivers multi-GPU benefits when a TPower N750 motherboard GPU is combined with an NVIDIA discrete GPU. BIOSTAR TPower N750 Hybrid SLI increases graphics performance with GeForce® Boost and provides intelligent power management with HybridPower™.

6 May 2008 - The P45 chipset based boards war is heating up as we speak as motherboard manufacturers are gearing up to launch their boards. Gigabyte has unveiled their EP45-Extreme specially for the enthusiasts with features such as Hybrid-Silent Pipe - a combination of air and water cooling, DES Advanced that phase switch even during overclocking, hardware overvoltage control chip that provides more voltage control options.

25 April 2008 - In 2004, 20-50 million tons of e-waste was produced worldwide, according to research carried out by Greenpeace. This will equal the total waste produced in Taiwan in 2 to 6 years time. In light of this, inappropriate disposal of IT-waste will no doubt cause irreparable damage to the earth we live on. At a press conference in commemoration of Earth Day (22nd April), ASUS and Intel, together with electronics retailer Tsann Kuen Enterprise, have announced plans for a collaboration to help the environment through a “PC Recycling for a Brighter Future” program – showing how the IT industry has taken the initiative to work together for collection and recycling of old laptops, PCs and LCD monitors in a bid to help the environment.

18 April 2008 - Sapphire is pleased to announce that the new high end, 125W Phenom CPU’s just released by AMD (Model numbers 9750 and 9850) are fully supported across the latest range of SAPPHIRE mainboards, including the high end PC-AM2RD790 - PURE CrossFireX 790FX, the new mainstream CrossFire board PC-AM2RX780 - PURE CrossFireX 770, and the microATX Hybrid CrossFire board with integrated graphics, PI-AM2RS780G - Hybrid CrossFire 780G.

11 April 2008 - Biostar has informed us that their TA780G M2+ board is able to run the Phenom 9850 without any hiccups. However, Biostar cautioned that certain areas like PWM and chipset do get pretty hot after prolong load condition so make sure your case is well ventilated. Gigabyte told us their 780G has no problems with Phenom 9850 while ASUS is revising their boards to support that 125W CPU.

28 March 2008 - DigiTimes reported that Intel is delaying the launch schedule of its P45 chipset from originally in May to mid-June due to compatibility problem between the PCI Express x16 port and graphics cards. The problem should be solved and ready to launch 2-4 weeks behind the original launch schedule. One source told VR-Zone that P45 boards might not necessary delayed till mid June but should expect the boards to hit retail by late May. Another source told us that there is no delay on their part and we can expect to see P45 boards by early May. Let's see who is right.

27 March 2008 - VR-Zone has learned that Nvidia is preparing a variant of their MCP79 chipset to support VIA C7 and Isaiah CN processors. Currently, MCP79 is designed to support Intel processors but some modifications can be done to support the VIA processors. The Inquirer first broke the news on Nvidia making chipsets for VIA processors and Infoworld followed up with a story that teaming up with Nvidia gives VIA access to cutting-edge graphics. Despite the deal with Nvidia, VIA will continue to produce its own chipsets for its microprocessors.

14 March 2008 - Asus has been pumping out "Striker" motherboards for a few generations of SLI-capable chipsets already. The third iteration is here, and it supports not just three way SLI, but third generation DDR memory as well. A potential enthusiast platform indeed, but will it live up to its promise?