Sapphire Adds Muscle to Mainboard Line

[btarunr]

SAPPHIRE Technology, best known as a manufacturer and global supplier of graphics solutions has just announced plans to seriously address the motherboard market with the introduction of high end Intel platforms.

SAPPHIRE has just released information that for the first time it will introduce Intel based mainboards in the high-end sector. Designed to appeal to the enthusiast, the first product will be a fully featured X58 board, to be known as the SAPPHIRE Pure Black X58, supporting the Intel core i7 series of processors. In addition to the established and highly regarded X58 chipset, the board incorporates many state of the art features such as on-board USB3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s ports in addition to SATA 3 Gb/s, six DDR3 memory slots, 3 Gen2 (x16/x8/x8) and one Gen1 (x4) PCI-Express expansion slots as well as a host of peripheral connections and on-board 8-channel audio.



Many enthusiasts are keen to performance tune this class of board and CPU, and the SAPPHIRE Pure Black X58 has many features to support 'overclocking'. The power sections are highly stable, featuring the same type of solid capacitors and the patented SAPPHIRE Diamond Black chokes with coolers that have featured on some of SAPPHIRE's high end graphics cards. Additional options are provided in the BIOS to help optimize settings, and start, reset and BIOS reset buttons are provided as well as a number of signal and voltage test points on the board in addition to a numeric LED status code indicator. A version of TriXX - SAPPHIRE's software overclocking tool - will give easy access to performance tuning and status monitoring.

The second Intel based board from SAPPHIRE will support the new range of SandyBridge processors from Intel. To be known as the SAPPHIRE Pure Black P67 Hydra, the new board shares many of the features of the X58 model, but in addition to the Intel P67 chipset it uses the Lucid Hydra chip to allow a mix of graphics configurations to be used in its PCI-Express slots. It again incorporates high quality components, extensive I/O and peripheral support and a number of performance tuning features.

Both boards are completed and in production.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Red_Machine]

Intel? Aren't they AMDs premier partner?

 

[H82LUZ73]

So is ASUS and many others,Sapphire sells stuff to make money,These could be the OLD DFI team making the boards.

 

[Swamp Monster]

I expected AM3 socket motherboard, but Intel

 

[H82LUZ73]

Maybe the AM3+ Boards will be the Pure White.

 

[btarunr]

Intel? Aren't they AMDs premier partner?

They're trying to do an EVGA.

 

[HalfAHertz]

The board is surprisingly colourful for a "pure black" board

 

[FreedomEclipse]

These could be the OLD DFI team making the boards.

not possible - DFI is a ghost of what it was in previous years, and they have retreated from the mainstream/enthusiast market to focus on making boards for industy only. their main reason for doing this was the lead designer leaving DFI - after that, they just fell apart. so unless DFI have managed to hire a new designer without anyone knowing - this isnt made by DFI

 

[blibba]

They're trying to do an EVGA.

Meaning?

 

[Lionheart]

Sapphire make motherboards?

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Meaning?

Even though they're AMD's leading partner for GFX cards, they're not just bound to AMD cards and products. Like EVGA, they want to make more of an enthusiast name for themselves by offering a broad range of... 'high-end' products. Motherboards (to which Sapphire have been making for years) Graphics cards; PSUs etc etc.

Look at Corsair, they started off making RAM and now all they need is to make Motherboards and GFX cards and you'll be able to make a fully Corsair branded PC.

Sapphire make motherboards?

Yup! Have done for years. It's only recently they're trying to get another foothold on that side of the market.

 

[kylzer]

Love sapphire mobos also there psus are pretty good aswell

 

[ZeppMan217]

I'd love to see some AM3+ 100$ MBs.

 

[CharlO]

Why the front panel audio that way up?

 

[btarunr]

Meaning?

Being a tier-1 partner to a GPU vendor, and venturing into high-end motherboards.

 

[nINJAkECIL]

Just like eVGA and XFX, they used to make nvidia only products (vga, mobo), but now eVGA make nvidia gfx cards and intel's mobo, contrary to the XFX which is now switch side to AMD (make radeon cards, AMD's mobo although I only see a handful of choice).

IIRC Sapphire is bound to only make AMD (radeon) gfx cards, but not their chipset. Being under PC Partner, Sapphire make radeon, and zotac make nvidia.but we see zotac is making AMD mobo too

And now....we'll see that not in the distant future, Sapphire will come up with P67 and X68 mobo. I hope.

 

[newtekie1]

Being a tier-1 partner to a GPU vendor, and venturing into high-end motherboards.

I thought you were talking more along the lines of eVGA making AMD boards first, then switching to Intel boards.

 

[timta2]

Looks sharp. I've only ever bought one Sapphire product (Radeon x700 Pro), but have been really happy with it. Still works great after all these years. If they price this motherboard right I would be willing to give it a shot.

 

[Hayder_Master]

They're trying to do an EVGA.

+1 , that's what i want to post

 

[H82LUZ73]

You guys read this from the main page.http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3774/sapphire_pure_black_x58_motherboard/index.html

I did the board is a surprise i must say it overclocks a cpu to 4.4 without a sweet. good cheap alternative i must say.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I didnt know eVga used to make AMD boards. Wow...Ill have to google and see what it was like

Thanks Newtekie1