MSI Launches Intel X48 Motherboards

[malware]

Micro-Star International (MSI) today launched its latest X48 Series motherboards based on Intel X48 Express chipset. Coming in two versions: X48 Platinum DDR3 only and X48C Platinum DDR3 & DDR2 combo, these new motherboards feature "Dual-Channel PWM", enhanced fanless cooling design "Circu-Pipe" and numerous exclusive features such as Quad graphics slots, MSI SkyTel VoIP, and all Made-in-Japan solid capacitors. Water-cooling versions of the boards are also set to come in the future.






View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Drool-worthy

The first board....there's cooling provided to three BGA chips....could the third one be the nForce 100 and that this board runs SLI?

 

[HaZe303]

The NB cooler is just terribly tall, no aftermarket cpu cooler will fit on there. You´ll need to remove the MB cooling if you want some bigger cpu cooler. And one thing I hate about MSI boards, they have almost always only 4 sata connections. I need atleast 6. But im quite happy with my x38 asus board, so im not intrested anyway.

Ps. One thing I do like about the platinum is both DDR2 and DDR3 are compatible with it. Hope more vendors follow this smart move.

Drool-worthy

The first board....there's cooling provided to three BGA chips....could the third one be the nForce 100 and that this board runs SLI?

I doubt it, its propably just one extra cheap southbridge from Via/Intel?? To support the extra two 16x pci-e.

 

[Disparia]

There's six on the first board, only 4 are angled. Not so sure about the second board, possibly eSATA.

 

[Tatty_Two]

So apart from some of these coming in quad XFire flavour which means nothing to 99.999999% of consumers, what are the other differences over the x38?

 

[SK-1]

So apart from some of these coming in quad XFire flavour which means nothing to 99.999999% of consumers, what are the other differences over the x38?

The difference is +10

 

[Hawk1]

So apart from some of these coming in quad XFire flavour which means nothing to 99.999999% of consumers, what are the other differences over the x38?

Native 1600FSB support vs 1333 on the x38s. Also hear they use better parts so "supposed" to OC better, but that could just be marketing speak.

 

[ktr]

I love how MSI does their heatpipes, its all shiny and crazy. Not like asus, who makes it dull and boring.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Nice,but i'm not a big fan of the fugly circu-pipe thing.

 

[HaZe303]

Nice,but i'm not a big fan of the fugly circu-pipe thing.

I agree, its damn ugly. But if it only was ugly I wouldnt care, but its ugly and stupid. I had a Gigabyte P35 DS4 rev 1.0 with the big NB cooler. No tower cooler like those from xigmatek or thermalright 120 would fit on that mobo, atleast not without breaking something. That circu-pipe thingy is much taller than the cooling on p35-ds4 so it would be impossible with anything bigger than the intel standard cooler, which is stupid.

 

[cdawall]

it should mount fine its below the socket i could probably fit my gemini II on it and thats huge...

 

[btarunr]

For a cookie, Will the 110 mm Zalman CNPS 9700 series coolers fit on MSI boards with Circu-pipes?

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I doubt it,it looks tight twixt socket and circu-pipe.

 

[asb2106]

so i have googled around looking for this, has anyone found this for sale anywhere?

 

[acperience7]

The big problem I see is that two of the PCIe slots are positioned for one slot cards. So is this board forcing 3800 buyers to get two 3870's and two 3850's, instead of four 3870 cards? Or maybe I'm missing something

 

[asb2106]

The big problem I see is that two of the PCIe slots are positioned for one slot cards. So is this board forcing 3800 buyers to get two 3870's and two 3850's, instead of four 3870 cards? Or maybe I'm missing something

well im alittle concerned on a quad graphics platform because those last 2 slots only support 4x and that could really hinder the performance of the cards. I think the only true quad xfire platform out now is the 790fx, and i dont feel like going to AMD procs

 

[acperience7]

well im alittle concerned on a quad graphics platform because those last 2 slots only support 4x and that could really hinder the performance of the cards. I think the only true quad xfire platform out now is the 790fx, and i dont feel like going to AMD procs

Yeah the 4x is a big disappointment to me too. I was expecting all Crossfire X boards to be x16 for all four slots.

 

[asb2106]

Yeah the 4x is a big disappointment to me too. I was expecting all Crossfire X boards to be x16 for all four slots.

thats what i was hoping for too

 

[btarunr]

well im alittle concerned on a quad graphics platform because those last 2 slots only support 4x and that could really hinder the performance of the cards. I think the only true quad xfire platform out now is the 790fx, and i dont feel like going to AMD procs

Intel Skulltrail is x8, x8, x8, x8 the same as any 790 FX based Crossfire X board. Again, don't forget, this is PCI-Express 2.0 we're dealing with. PCI-E x8 in 2.0 specs has the same theoretical bandwidth as a PCI-E 1.1 x16 and that's more than enough for today's ATI cards. The dual-GPU HD3870 X2 anyway doesn't support Crossfire X as in four-cards. I'm hoping the ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme to turn out this way too.

 

[asb2106]

Intel Skulltrail is x8, x8, x8, x8 the same as any 790 FX based Crossfire X board. Again, don't forget, this is PCI-Express 2.0 we're dealing with. PCI-E x8 in 2.0 specs has the same theoretical bandwidth as a PCI-E 1.1 x16 and that's more than enough for today's ATI cards. The dual-GPU HD3870 X2 anyway doesn't support Crossfire X as in four-cards. I'm hoping the ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme to turn out this way too.

so its gonna work like the 975, and not the 965

and i thought x48 and skulltrial were 2 different things

 

[asb2106]

Intel Skulltrail is x8, x8, x8, x8 the same as any 790 FX based Crossfire X board. Again, don't forget, this is PCI-Express 2.0 we're dealing with. PCI-E x8 in 2.0 specs has the same theoretical bandwidth as a PCI-E 1.1 x16 and that's more than enough for today's ATI cards. The dual-GPU HD3870 X2 anyway doesn't support Crossfire X as in four-cards. I'm hoping the ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme to turn out this way too.

yah, skull trail is 4x 16x and dual CPU config, completely differnet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_SkullTrail - one of many pages that say it

EDIT **** and skull trail is a socket 771 board

 

[btarunr]

Nope, Skulltrail is a socket 775 board, designed to take in current gen Penryn processors. The board uses 32 lanes from the X48 northbridge, 16 lanes split to x8, x8 when doing SLI using the nForce 200 chipset. The ICH9DH supplies 4 lanes for peripheral use. The 32 lanes from the northbridge are split 4x (PCI-E x8 lanes)

Intel Codename SkullTrail is an enthusiast gaming platform. SkullTrail is a dual CPU system. The demonstration unit is reported to have NVIDIA SLI support, and it is now known that it will support NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire. Skulltrail was demonstrated, and the board includes 2 nForce200 SLI components.

Intel demonstrated SkullTrail at Intel Developer Forum Fall 2007 in San Francisco, USA.

Intel's Skulltrail is a motherboard platform aimed at the enthusiast PC market. It is built from Intel's chipset Seaburg model. The primary difference between the X38 and Skulltrail is the dual sockets that allows for two processor chips to operate on the same system. This means that, given current technology, Skulltrail can operate eight cores on one system.

Skulltrail has a front side bus of 1600 MHz, and it was demonstrated with two 45 nm High-K processor Yorkfield running at 3.2 GHz. During IDF, a 4.0 GHz phase cooled skulltrail was demonstrated, on 22 October 2007, the two processors were demonstrated running at 4.4 GHz, water cooled and on 31 October 2007, the two processors were demonstrated running at 5.0 GHz, phase cooled. The 1st Benchmark of Skulltrail overclocked showed up 13th of December 2007, and broke the record for Cinebench 10 rendering speed[citation needed], more details on the link below.

Skulltrail will be released in Q1 2008.

The SkullTrail platform includes the following:

* CPU - 2 Sockets(45nm Penryn)
* SATA - 6 Ports
* eSATA - 2 Ports
* USB - 6 Ports
* PCIe x16 - 4 Slots
* PCIe x1 - 1 Slot

Doesn't it say "it was demonstrated with two 45 nm High-K processor Yorkfield running at 3.2 GHz"? Yorkfield is a LGA 775 processor incompatible with LGA 771 boards.

 

[asb2106]

Nope, Skulltrail is a socket 775 board, designed to take in current gen Penryn processors. The board uses 32 lanes from the X48 northbridge, 16 lanes split to x8, x8 when doing SLI using the nForce 100 chipset. The ICH9DH supplies 4 lanes for peripheral use. The 32 lanes from the northbridge are split 4x (PCI-E x8 lanes)

CPUz shot of the skulltrail
http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx?image=big_skulltrail_5.jpg&articleid=1030&t=a

Article the screen shot came from
http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Intel_Skulltrail_and_Penryn_Performance_Preview/

Not all x48's are skulltrails, thats just a special x48 with the nvidia chip on it

 

[btarunr]

CPUz shot of the skulltrail
http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx?image=big_skulltrail_5.jpg&articleid=1030&t=a

Article the screen shot came from
http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Intel_Skulltrail_and_Penryn_Performance_Preview/

Not all x48's are skulltrails, thats just a special x48 with the nvidia chip on it

You don't get it. Harpertown can run on a Skulltrail but an LGA 775 processor like Yorkfield cannot run on a LGA 771 platform. Re-read my previous post. Made additions.

 

[asb2106]

You don't get it. Harpertown can run on a Skulltrail but an LGA 775 processor like Yorkfield cannot run on a LGA 771 platform. Re-read my previous post. Made additions.

Ok, but is all x48 chipsets gonna fall under the skulltrail platform?