GIGABYTE Shows off Three Upcoming X99 Motherboards

[btarunr]

At its PAX East booth, GIGABYTE showed off three of its upcoming socket LGA2011v3 motherboards, which it plans to launch alongside Intel's Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors. The three include the X99-Designare EX, the X99 Phoenix SLI G1, and the X99 Ultra Gaming (pictured in that order). The running theme on these boards, apart from their design-language that's similar to GIGABYTE's Z170-series motherboards, is 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, even U.2 slots in some cases, reinforced PCIe - and in some cases even memory - slots, and USB 3.1, besides out of the box support for the latest CPUs.

The X99-Designare EX features five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, from which three can function at x16 speed and two U.2 ports. GIGABYTE is probably betting on NVMe SSDs with U.2 connectors heavily. The X99 Phoenix SLI G1 appears to be a slightly more toned down board in terms of features. It features just four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, wireless networking, and just one U.2 connector. Unlike the Designare, which is slotted in the company's mainline Ultra Durable lineup, this board is the company's new G1 Gaming offering for this platform. Then there's the X99 Ultra Gaming. This board is based on the same PCB as the X99 Phoenix SLI G1, lacks wireless networking, but features reinforced memory slots. The three boards could launch alongside Intel's new CPUs.



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[GhostRyder]

Hmm, some decent looking boards. All with different color schemes, I can appreciate the different choices for those wanting something different.

 

[Breit]

What's up with these "reinforced slots"? What benefit does that even have? MSI is doing this also in their latest boards...

 

[EarthDog]

I can see their point on the GPU slots, but not the memory!!!!!

 

[Kursah]

Black and orange reminds me of my DFI LanParty P35-T2RS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136043

That was one of my favorite Core2 OC boards. Now if I only needed an X99 board...or rather had the budget for an X99 build...

 

[Caring1]

What's up with these "reinforced slots"? What benefit does that even have? MSI is doing this also in their latest boards...

It's got me wondering if there were issues with traces to the slots caused by CPU coolers or some other fault they are rectifying.

 

[Breit]

It's got me wondering if there were issues with traces to the slots caused by CPU coolers or some other fault they are rectifying.

You mean thats something like an EMI shield? I really doubt they have EMI issues that these metal-covers over the slot could prevent.

In the end this might only be a (not so nice looking) visual gimmick after all...

 

[Caring1]

Not for EMI, but to strengthen the slots to prevent flex.
Most likely it is just a visual gimmick to look fancy, looking under the board should show if they are really reinforced.

 

[EarthDog]

They typically are... if only at the ends, but boards that have them do show different, more/better, soldering.

 

[dj-electric]

Its nice seeing an actual practical slot layout. 3way card configs are now less common than ever before, and although possible on this layout, i really like the 2way spacing.

 

[TheLostSwede]

What's up with these "reinforced slots"? What benefit does that even have? MSI is doing this also in their latest boards...

It's supposed to be for people that carry their systems around to lan parties etc. so the slots aren't cracked or torn off the board due to the weight of the graphics card, if you're unlucky and drop your case.

 

[AsRock]

Wow would have to take all that plastic off, getting more like toys.

 

[JoePesci]

They are all 3 ATX? Nice.

No more random width somewhere in between ATX and E-ATX?

 

[oversampling]

They are all 3 ATX? Nice...

It looks like the Designare is EATX ...

 

[PP Mguire]

Any news from other manufacturers I'd actually purchase from? Curious what their refresh boards are.

 

[Briguy2004]

You mean thats something like an EMI shield? I really doubt they have EMI issues that these metal-covers over the slot could prevent.

In the end this might only be a (not so nice looking) visual gimmick after all...

These are basically to reinforce the slot from experiencing any flex from heavy graphics cards that aren't really secured or supported by the case. Heavy/unsecured graphics cards can cause more flex on the board as it heats up, (Think of the 360 RRoD issue with the flex brackets holding the heat sinks) causing way more issues down the line. In the end its cheaper for the MB MFR in this case Gigabyte, to spend the extra $0.10 to possibly prevent more calls to their RMA # and wasted labor in their RMA department on these kinds of issues. This gives the slot that extra reinforcement to (Hopefully) prevent any damage occurring to the slots or the rest of the board.


Its really to prevent anything like the below happening.

 

[Breit]

Well, OK I see where you are going. Crazy, never seen anything like this...
I guess in this case the owner of this board is to blame for not mounting his card properly. This probably would've never been accepted for RMA.

 

[Briguy2004]

Well, OK I see where you are going. Crazy, never seen anything like this...
I guess in this case the owner of this board is to blame for not mounting his card properly. This probably would've never been accepted for RMA.

Gigabyte is actually very lenient when it comes to RMA's. It's ASUS and MSI that are pretty stingy when it comes to RMA service. Also, it really depends on the rep and how they're feeling that day too.