Last week, Intel sketched out its strategy in dealing with its client processor brand Core, and placing its different kinds of processors in series of markers (such as "i3", "i5", and "i7"), on the merit of performance and features they offer, and not necessarily a segregation based on core type and socket type. This raised a big debate in our forums, on who is really going to benefit from this kind of branding.

Chinese website INPAI.com.cn sourced information which explains what factors go into determining which brand marker a processor gets. The table elaborates on how different kinds of Intel processors (determined by core and socket types) cross different lines, with a few features toggled or enhanced. It is sure to throw up some surprises.

ASRock has yet another socket LGA-1366 motherboard up its ranks: the X58 Extreme. This model is distinct from the X58 SuperComputer and X58 Deluxe, which shared the same PCB. It has three PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots, from which only two are routed to the X58 northbridge. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase circuit, similar to the other ASRock models. The blue PCI-E x16 slots are connected to the northbridge with full 16-lane bandwidth, while the third orange slot is wired to the southbridge with 4-lane bandwidth. The package bundles only the 2-way SLI bridge, and 3-way SLI is not advertised, although 3-way CrossFireX is. The ICH10R southbridge provides 6 SATA ports, while an additional controller provides IDE and eSATA connectors. ASRock's InstantBoot feature is supported. Looking at the features on offer, we expect this board to sell for a lower price than the X58 Deluxe, which is on the brink of entering the sub-$200 segment.

During the weekend EVGA released a new part - the Hydro Copper waterblock (PN: 200-CU-HC59-B1) for its EVGA X58 Classified top of the line motherboards. Featuring a sleek black top and a full copper design, the Hydro Copper waterblock can drop the operating temps of the X58 Classified by half, and still it won't make your watercooling system too restrictive because of the block's unique E-Flow design. Priced at $129.99 USD the block ships with both hi-flow 1/2-inch and 3/8-inch fittings depending on your needs. The Hydro Copper is fully compatible with the following EVGA parts: 141-BL-E759-XX, 141-BL-E760-XX, and 141-BL-E761-XX.

EVGA expanded its motherboard lineup with the LGA-1366 based X58 SLI LE (141-BL-E757-TR). This ATX motherboard supports the most common standards of EVGA motherboards in the sub-series, at a price-point lower than that of its 3X-SLI series. It is priced at US $239. Making use of only the X58+ICH10R chipset, with no companion nForce 200 chips, the board goes on to feature four PCI-Express x16 slots, for NVIDIA 3-way SLI, or ATI CrossFireX. A 8-channel audio, and one gigabit Ethernet connection make for the rest of the signficant feature set. Popular retailer Newegg.com has already started listing it.

At the booth of ASUS we found a motherboard that supports the brand-new SATA 6 Gbit/s standard that was released just a few days ago. ASUS prepared a running demo that showcases the performance differences between SATA-II and SATA-III.

Known for good performance and value when it comes to water blocks, EK Water Blocks has water block for most applications. The company is working on a full-coverage block specially designed for the EVGA X58 Classified series of motherboards. The block cools the most significant heat sources of the motherboard, namely the X58+ICH10R chipset, the companion NVIDIA BR-03 chips, and the VRM areas. A draft design surfaced on XtremeSystems Forums, revealing the complex construction of the cooler. The design is still under development, and could vary from the actual product.

There is a new X58 "SuperComputer" motherboard, this time not from ASRock, but from ASUS. The company is ready with a new LGA-1366 single-socket workstation motherboard that concentrates quite heavily on its PCI-Express expansion slots. THe motherboard packs seven full-length PCI-Express slots. To support these, ASUS used a clever design: two 16-lane PCI-Express channels from the X58 northbridge provide connectivity to an NVIDIA nForce 200 (BR-03) chip each. Each of these chips in turn broadcast the connection to two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (blue slots). The blue slots with a neighbouring black slot further have PCI-E switching logic that can divert 8 lanes to the black PCI-E x16 slots, when populated. As a result, it has seven slots worked out in all. The board supports ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI.

A large heatsink cools the lower cluster of chips that include the board's ICH10R southbridge, and the two nForce 200 chips. Heatpipes distribute heat to an elaborate array of heatsinks over the northbridge and the board's VRM areas. The board features six DDR3 memory slots for supporting up to 24 GB of memory. Storage is care of the southbridge and an additional controller to provide extra internal SATA ports along with the eSATA connectivity. 8-channel audio, and two gigabit Ethernet controllers, and an ASUS-exclusive system diagnostics card make for the rest of the equation. The P6T7 SuperComputer is yet to hit stores.

Intel's newest high-end processor, the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition is gearing up for launch later this year, on course of which, it already passed a milestone. Xtreme Systems Forums member PcCI2iminal scored one with overclocking a Core i7 975 XE D0 stepping chip past the 5 GHz mark, 5015 MHz to be precise using only air cooling for the processor, with an ambient temperature of 20 °C as claimed by the overclocker. Its cooling was care of a Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120. Its partners in crime were Biostar TPower X58 motherboard, and Corsair Dominator DDR3-1866 memory. At that speed, the setup made it through a CPU-Z validation. PcCI2iminal was further able to put the chip through SuperPi 1M at a speed of 4750 MHz, where its crunch time was measured 8.672 seconds. For more pictures and screenshots, head over to the thread at Xtreme Systems.

Intel's newest line of CPUs, the Core i5 series is generating quite some buzz ahead of its release, with each piece of detail emerging about the processors adding to the attention it's gathering. Expreview has learned that the Core i5 series processors will feature a slightly different system interface in comparison to their Core i7 cousins.

Coming to the QPI interface between the CPU and NB dice, Intel will raise the QPI base frequency at the expense of lowering the multiplier. For example, the Core i7 uses a 20+ multiplier with a base frequency of 133 MHz. This frequency could be scaled up to 166 MHz at 24x multiplier due to the theoretical speed-limit of QPI at 8.00 GT/s. With the Core i5, Intel will set lower QPI multiplier values (around 16X), while upping the base frequency to around 250 MHz.

Adding to its now 6-strong lineup of motherboards for the Intel Core i7 processors, that includes the recently pictured X58M micro-ATX board, the company is preparing yet another full-sized motherboard, the X58Pro-E. This board is designed to be a notch above the X58Pro thanks to support for the GreenPower design. This is perhaps to compete with similar offerings from other manufacturers, under the $220 price-point.

MSI has taken care of the essentials with this one. A basic 4+1 phase VRM powers the CPU, which uses the company's proprietary Driver-MOSFET (DrMOS) technology. Six DDR3 memory, three PCI-Express x16 slots supporting ATI CrossFireX technology, seven SATA II ports (six routed to the ICH10R, with one on the board routed to an external controller, the same controller providing an eSATA port), several USB ports, IEEE-1394 and gigabit Ethernet, make for all of this board's feature set. We predict this board to be launched alongside the X58M. Many thanks to one of our readers for providing the pictures.

A photo has emerged showing a prototype Micro ATX motherboard from MSI, based on the Intel's X58 chipset. Dubbed the MS-7593 the board comes with six DDR3 slots supporting triple channel, two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (SLI compatibility is at present unknown), 7 SATAII ports, 8 channel audio, Gigabit Ethernet and an on board power switch. Further details such as availability and pricing are currently unknown.

Patriot Memory, a global provider of premium quality memory modules and flash memory solutions, today announced their DDR3 12 GB Tri-Channel Viper kit.

Designed specifically for the Intel Core i7 processor/Intel X58 Express Chipset, the Patriot Viper 12 GB kit has been built to excel for the Core i7 triple channel tehcnology. The Patriot Viper 12 GB are hand tested extensively on X58 motherboards to ensure maximum compatibility and supreme quality. The kits will be offered in 1333 MHz and come in both CL7 and CL9. "With all memory slots utilized in all three channels, the Core i7 brings the effectiveness of a server to mainstream desktops, and for a fraction of the price, says Benny Chea, Patriot Memory's Applications Engineer. Mr. Chea went on to say, "Multi-applications users will appreciate the increased bandwidth."

Pictured last month as merely a low-end variant of the Blood Rage X58 series (read here), Foxconn Flaming Blade X58 has emerged as a product series in itself, with two sub-variants: Flaming Blade X58 and Flaming Blade X58 GTI. The former being the base-model, while the latter is a scaled-down, even cheaper one.

Both motherboards feature an identical feature set for the most part: Three DDR3-1800 DIMM slots, two PCI-E x16 slots, near-identical board layouts, etc. The differences start with the GTI variant featuring simpler component cooling, with individual heatsinks over the chipset and VRM areas. The base-model has a heat-pipe based cooler. Another set of differences are present with the boards' back-panel and the connectors on offer: the GTI variant lacks two eSATA connectors and an Ethernet controller (although the picture suggests otherwise). Both models will cater to the $200 market price-point.

Yes, you read the title correctly, on their stand at CeBIT, ASUS has a motherboard on show featuring seven full length PCI-Express slots. Four operate at full x16 speed, whilst the remaining three are at 8x speed. This has been achieved through the use of Intel's X58 chipset and the addition of two NVIDIA NF200 chips. Dubbed the P6T7 WS Supercomputer, it has been said to be the, "best choice for intensive parallel computing demand." Although no details yet on availability or pricing, the board is confirmed to support up to 24 GB RAM through six DDR3 slots, six SATA ports, two SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) and two eSATA ports and the usual 7.1 onboard sound and gigabit ethernet. The featured shot shows the board "naked" so to speak but due to this, you can see how ASUS have crammed the northbridge, southbridge and two NVIDIA chips into the bottom right corner of the board. This has given the space for the seven PCI-E slots, though it will require some sort of low profile cooling solution so as not to obstruct the installation of any graphics cards.

GIGABYTE Technology CO., LTD., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today is pleased to announce GIGABYTE X58/P45/P43/P41 series motherboards now support Creative's latest Sound Blaster X-Fi technologies, delivering a premium audio quality and listening experience for your PC.

X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity is the new audio standard from Creative that makes your music and movies way better. It breathes life into songs, restores detail, and expands the music to surround sound. For music lovers or gamers, X-Fi technology delivers superior 3D audio solutions. At the heart of X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity lie three key technologies; X-Fi CMSS-3D Virtual, X-Fi Crystalizer and EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0.

Over the course of the last year, Foxconn's channel division emerged as a mature, seasoned and determined player in the high-end PC motherboard industry. For Intel's new Core i7 platform, Foxconn started off with an enthusiast-grade motherboard called the X58 Blood Rage, and a premium X58 Renaissance model. Over time, the X58 Blood Rage became a series of motherboards based on the scaling-down of its feature-set. The first variant to emerge out of it was the Blood Rage GTI, and now a newer "value" offering: the Blood Rage Flaming Blade.

Pictured by Japanese AKIBA PC Hotline, the Flaming Blade shows a distinct scaling-down of Blood Rage's feature-set, beyond that of the GTI variant, with a remodeled PCB, rearranged components and colour-theme. To begin with the CPU is powered by standard ferrite-core chokes as against the PWM circuitry on the original Blood Rage, and the semi-digital circuitry on the GTI variant. A standard 6-phase circuit is employed. The board continues having three DDR3 DIMM slots. Memory is powered by a two-phase circuit. Instead of four PCI-Express x16 connectors on the other variants, Flaming Blade makes do with only two, with a PCI-E x4 slot added to the mix. There is a notable amount of changes with the placement of connectors and headers. The board reduces the use of red in colour-coding the connectors and slots. The SONAR X-Fi sound card gets replaced by onboard audio, while the rest of the back-panel remains the same in terms of connectors. According to the source, Foxconn is looking to target the US $200~$220 price range with the Flaming Blade. For reference, the third picture below is that of the original Blood Rage.

Kingston Memory putting memory technology development in the right direction, by upping the per-module density to 4 GB. When produced in a large scale, the modules may go into making 2x 4 GB dual-channel, 3x 4 GB and 6x 4 GB triple-channel memory kits. The company put engineering samples of its new 4 GB ValueRAM modules to test.

In its teaser video (dubbed tech demo), using a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 and Intel Core i7 920 based system, Kingston was able to demonstrate a mammoth 24 GB of system system memory by smoothly operating several virtual machines, which serves as a valid test to show how 24 GB of memory helps. The video was posted on YouTube and can be watched here. Kingston notes its pre-production 6x 4 GB kit to cost around $2000 to produce.

Following the release of the X58 SuperComputer high-end motherboard, ASRock made an addition to its socket LGA-1366 motherboard lineup with the X58 Deluxe. The new SKU is simply a trimmed-down package of the X58 SuperComputer, with a few features and accessories removed. The motherboard continues to be a high-end offering from ASRock that supports leading multi-GPU standards in their highest-possible configurations: ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA 3-Way SLI and Quad-SLI. It retains the PCB and component-layout of the X58 SuperComputer for the most part.

The changes kick-in where, the X58 Deluxe makes do with only a single gigabit Ethernet interface, as opposed to two on the X58 SuperComputer. It does away with an SLI interconnect bridge that spans across two expansion slots (2S). The SuperComputer package originally bundled three SLI bridges in all: 2-way 2S, 2-way 3S and, 3-way. The 2S bridge connected two NVIDIA graphics cards on neighbouring PCI-Express x16 slots. With the red-coloured slots wired-up for a maximum of 8 PCI-E lanes only, the 2S bridge become redundant and not recommended for common two-card SLI setups. The rest of the offering remains the same, with support for up to 24GB of DDR3 memory, four PCI-Express x16 slots, 8-channel HD Audio and gigabit Ethernet. The new model is expected to be priced a little lesser than the X58 SuperComputer. It is yet to be officially announced by the company, though already listed on its website.

Famed for creating one of the most well-presented Core i7-supportive motherboards with the original BloodRage X58, Foxconn is preparing a new variant of the said motherboard: the BloodRage X58 GTI. This variant is identical to the original design, for the most of the part. It even provides a near-identical feature-set and bundled accessories, except for a few minor changes: the digital PWM-based CPU power circuit has been replaced with a 14-phase hybrid PWM. In simpler terms, the CPU power circuit will consist of a portion of digital PWM circuitry, plus a portion consisting of standard chokes. From the picture (below) one can see the dark heatsink right above the CPU socket and chokes next to it. Apart from that, the standard feature set remains: support for ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technologies, up to 12 GB of DDR3 memory (3 DIMM slots in all), an expansive set of overclocker-friendly features such as Force-Reset, that restores the last known working BIOS state, and finally the SONAR X-Fi sound card. The BloodRage X58 GTI is expected to hit stores soon. A lot more is yet to be known about this SKU before predicting its price.

DFI made additions to its Core i7 compatible motherboard lineup today by releasing two new motherboards under the LANParty Dark and LANParty Junior series. While pictures and specifications of the LANParty JR X58-T3H6 surfaced earlier, its introduction makes it a one of its kind mATX motherboard supporting the Core i7 platform. DFI started its Core i7 motherboard series with the enthusiast-grade LANPARTY UT X58-T3eH8. Its newest entry that comes to surface is its LANParty Dark motherboard: the LANParty DK X58-T3eH6.

The LANParty DK X58-T3eH6 uses essentially the same PCB layout as the LANPARTY UT X58-T3eH8, except for a few changes: the CPU power ciruit and the component cooling. While the UT board comes with digital-PWM, the DK board comes with standard choke-based 6-phase CPU power circuit. It uses chipset and VRM coolers identical to those of the LANParty JR board, comprising of a simplistic northbridge cooler that propagates into the VRM cooler, while a heatsink cools the southbridge. It provides three PCI-Express x16 slots (electrically x16, x8, x8 or x16, NC, x16). These two motherboards are expected to reach retailers soon.

DFI is ready with the first LGA 1366 motherboard in the micro-ATX form factor, the DFI LP JR X58-T3H6, dubbed LANParty Junior, which supports the latest Core i7 processors by Intel. The motherboard measures 245 x 245mm. Despite its smaller size, it has a respectable feature-set: 6-phase CPU power circuit, six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots supporting both ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI, an additional PCI-Express x4 slot, and HDCP capable ALC 889A HD audio.

The BIOS features CMOS Reloaded, Voltage Tuning for vDIMM, vNB, vCore, vSB, vHT, frequency tuning in increments of 1 MHz, adjustable CPU multiplier, and ABS technology system. The board features as many as 7 fan headers, onboard power and reset switches, and diagnostic LED display. There is no word on the pricing or availability at this point in time.

XFX has just released its X58i motherboard, yet another new member of the Intel X58 based guild. Pictures and specs of the motherboard follow below.

Patriot Memory, a global provider of premium quality memory module and flash memory solutions, released their DDR3 1600MHz Viper Series Tri-Channel memory kits designed for the recently released Intel Core i7 processors and X58 Express Chipset. Available in 3GB and 6GB* kits, these new memory kits deliver exceptional bandwidth and latencies needed for today's PC applications.

"Optimized for Intel's new Core i7 processors and X58 Express Chipset, Patriot's DDR3 1600MHz Viper Series Low Latency Tri-Channel memory kits unleash a channel for unsurpassed memory bandwidth, virtually eliminating any bottlenecks between the CPU and memory," says Les Henry, Technical Director for Patriot Memory.

Previews, reviews and all kind of write-ups about the new Intel Core i7/X58 platform flooded the network this morning. I'll use this post to add all the links I can find, you can also post your comments here until the official press release statement.

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Here's ECS with its X58 motherboard. Over the past month or two, motherboard manufacturers have been taking the opportunity of flashing their offering based on Intel's newest chipset, supporting the upcoming Core i7 Processors. Product launch dates for the processors itself had been see-sawing, with early estimates having pointed at an October launch, while other sections of the industry pointing at November 17, 2008 as D-day for Intel and its motherboard partners. Perhaps the November launch was chosen to give motherboard vendors some room to ready their products for the market that comes to be.

The ECS X58B-A is the company's X58 motherboard based on the Black-Series design, sporting a black PCB with yellow, red, orange and copper to form the design theme. It uses a rather simplistic layout, with two PCI-Express x16 slots, a close-ended PCI-Express x4 slot, and one PCI slot. It features a 5+1 phase power circuit for the CPU, and uses solid-state capacitors overall. The motherboard supports both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technologies, it features six onboard SATA II ports with headers to two e-SATA ports, among other standard features. The X58B-A is expected to start shipping around the time Intel launches the Core i7 processors, it is expected to be priced at US $260.