As of today, AMD is close to over a year and a half behind Intel with the implementation of the DDR3 system memory standard, and it doesn't look like we are going to see a DDR3 AMD platform only until late this year or early next year. Chilian website CHW.net published slides of the roadmaps for AMD chipsets in the months to come, also published are slides refering to the details of the next generation southbridge by AMD, even though the latest entry, the SB700 is only teething and only the latest motherboards with 7-Series chipsets feature this.

CoolIT Systems announces its new "ST" line of liquid cooling solutions designed specifically to work with Intel's D5400XS motherboard (formerly codenamed Skull Trail). The lineup consists of the Boreas MTEC Chassis ST and PURE ST both of which provide maintenance-free, aggressive cooling power to both CPUs and Chipset, reduce noise, and enhance system reliability. The PURE ST easily fits into any chassis with a 120mm fan mount and efficiently cools both CPUs and the chipset with near silent operation. The Boreas MTEC Chassis ST combines CoolIT's most powerful MTEC technology in the Boreas with the well renowned Silverstone TJ07 chassis to create the ideal barebones kit for the most avid PC enthusiast to the experienced professional content creator. Both the Boreas MTEC Chassis ST and PURE ST are available from multiple distributors and online etailers, with street prices expected to be $899 and $269 respectively. "CoolIT's new ST lineup will enable PC Enthusiasts to fully maximize the performance of Intel's new Skull Trail platform technology" said Geoff Lyon, CEO of CoolIT Systems. " We've worked closelywith Intel to develop this customized Skull Trail liquid cooling solution and the end result will excite PC Enthusiasts and Gamers world-wide ."

Kingston Technology today released new HyperX high-performance, low-latency 800MHz DDR2 fully-buffered dual-inline memory modules (FB-DIMMs). Designed for high-end workstations, servers and extreme gaming systems such as Intel's 5400 Skulltrail platform, the new Kingston HyperX PC2-6400 FB-DIMMs are shipping immediately in 2GB kits. The new FB-DIMMs work at 800MHz with CL4-4-4-12 timings and 2.0V. They are also backed by a lifetime warranty and 24/7 technical support. For more detailed information please search for Kingston HyperX 800MHz FB-DIMM with part number KHX6400F2LLK2/2G. The MSRP for this 2GB kit is $169.00.

Another day, another world record broken. K|ngp|n, well known for his LN2 cooling projects and many previous world records, has become the first man to pass the 6GHz barrier with dual Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors (3.2GHz) and Intel Skulltrail enthusiast gaming platform. Who would of guessed that 8 cores can run at this insane speed? Here are two new wPrime world records as well, 32MB @ 3.450s and 1024M @ 1m 52s respectively. More results here.

Blastflow, a subsidiary of British boutique PC manufacturer Vadim Computers, just announced its latest product, the Blastflow Tidal Skulltrail SB Block: If you are worried about the heat produced by your sparkling new Skulltrail PC system, this copper cooler for the Southbridge and SLI bridges might be the solution. The new Tidal Skulltrail SB Block is manufactured using a combination of polished copper and transparent acrylic top, which provides enough cooling power for the two NVIDIA nForce 100 chips and the single ESB2 Southbridge. The watercooler weighs about 314 grams and uses standard 1/4" bsp thread connections. Pricing of the Tidal Skulltrail SB Block has not been announced.

For those who crave more performance than what four processing cores and a single graphics card can deliver today, Intel Corporation has introduced the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform. Formerly codenamed "Skulltrail," this is one of the first enthusiast desktop platforms to support two Intel quad core processors for a total of eight processing engines and a choice of multi-card graphics solutions from either ATI or NVIDIA.

A little bit early if you ask me, but FUGGER from XtremeSystems has posted his new overclocking buddies: Intel D5400XS, 2x Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 CPUs @ 5586MHz (FSB: 399x14) and a duo of custom LN2 containers. Watch this thread for more results later today.

4Gamer, prior to the soon to be announced formally Intel Skulltrail platform, has posted some first look benchmark results. You may consider this as full review perhaps the first full review of Intel Skulltrail, since the system was fully assembled and running with the Intel D5400XS Extreme Desktop Board, 2x Core 2 Extreme QX9775 (3.20GHz, 2x6MB L2 cache) processors, 2x 2GB Micron PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM FB-DIMM, and pair of ELSA GLADIAC 988 GTX 768MB (GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB) in SLI configuration. The Google translated review can be accessed here. Enjoy the system and don't try to calculate the overall price (each CPU is expected to cost USD $1,399).

When we reported about the Inquirers review of the Asus Z7S we were quite skeptical. ASUS contacts could not confirm existence and even doubted the news themselves due to various reasons. (naming scheme, FB-DIMM's on enthusiast board, etc)
Besides a small review the Z7S was not heard of. Though we are happy to be able to tell you it isn't a hoax, a contact at Asus confirmed existence of the board and it is indeed aimed at previous PC-DL/NCCH-DL users.
Unfortunately nothing new is known, but seeing how the aforementioned boards were priced odds are it will not cost you an arm and a leg. Which is, of course, relative.
Strategically it would make sense to release this around the release of Skulltrail, the only board with similar features. So let's hope for some more news next month.

Now that Intel Skulltrail is due to be out in the beginning of February, we can confirm this will be the first Intel motherboard to fully support NVIDIA's SLI multi-GPU Technology. Below is a proof picture of the SLI bridge included with the motherboard's bundle.

I'll be brief on this one. Intel Skulltrail is designed to compete against the AMD Quad FX platform. Although the Quad-Father was never popular enough, Skulltrail will share the same idea: dual Socket 771 Xeon processors like the 45nm Harpertown supporting up to 8 processing cores and fully-buffered DIMMs (FB-DIMM). The Skulltrail system will use the upcoming Intel D5400XS motherboard. With two NVIDIA nForce 100 MCP chips, the D5400XS will support up to four PCI Express x16 slots, finally allowing SLI on an Intel motherboard. The motherboard will have a 10-layer PCB with limited production (2000 units reported earlier) and price over US $600. Today's word is that the Intel D5400XS motherboard is scheduled for a launch on WW06. That's short for Work Week 6, tech-speak for the sixth week of 2008. In other words if that's true, expect Skulltrail to be launched somewhere around Febuary 4-9, 2008.

We all know the Inquirer isn't always right. However this story seems solid. The Inq is reporting of a new Asus s771 board. Of course nothing special, though next to Skulltrail this would be the only board with overclocking options in the BIOS.

Some of you may already be familiar with Intel's SkullTrail or V8 systems that have been on display at the Intel Developer Forum. Designed to compete against the AMD Quad FX platform, the Intel SkullTrail comes with two CPU sockets, allowing eight processing cores on a single motherboard with multi-GPU capabilities. The guys over at Tech ARP have managed to obtain some additional info on the Intel SkullTrail project:

• The SkullTrail is only meant to be a temporary flagship or proof-of-technology product, not a permanent Intel product.
• The SkullTrail will use Socket 771. That means only Intel Xeons (like the upcoming 45nm Harpertown) can be used.
• The SkullTrail will require the use of FB-DIMMs (Fully Buffered DIMMs).
• The motherboard will have a 10-layer PCB.
• There will be a very limited production run, with only 2000 units to be manufactured.
• At this moment, Intel will only sell the SkullTrail motherboards online, directly from Intel.
• The SkullTrail motherboard will be very expensive, at > US$ 600.
• The SkullTrail motherboard is set for final tests in Week 50, 2007, in time for a launch in Q1'08.

PC Watch has posted more detailed pictures of the dual processor Intel Skulltrail based system running two NVIDIA video cards in SLI.

During his keynote today at IDF, Intel's Pat Gelsinger showed off a machine based on the company's Skulltrail enthusiast gaming platform. Skulltrail is a dual-socket platform based on the X38 chipset that supports Intel's upcoming 45nm Quad-Core processors, FB-DIMM memory and offers PCI Express 2.0 support and true dual-x16 PEG slots (or four x8 PCI Express x16 slots). What was interesting about the machine on display was that it used a pair of GeForce graphics cards running in SLI mode, but on an Intel chipset. According to Intel, this is a special version of Intel X38 paired with NVIDIA's nForce MCP to enable SLI support. There's no word on official SLI support with future Intel chipsets, though.Ed. by W1zzard: You can't pair X38 with any NVIDIA MCP because both are the same: a Northbridge with memory controller. It would be possible to put an NVIDIA southbridge on the board but this wouldn't enable SLI because that many PCI-E lanes are not routed through the SB. Since technically SLI works on ANY chipset, NVIDIA could enable SLI on X38 only if an NVIDIA SB is present.