Fall 2004 Motherboard Preview: A Sea of New
by Wesley Fink on June 4, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
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It's been a while since so many things are changing all at once in the motherboard market. The AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 just launched and the Intel Socket 775 is set to go on June 21st. On top of that, PCI Express and DDR2 memory are also launching with the new Intel processors. New video cards in the PCI Express flavor are coming from both major manufacturers. New BTX form factor cases are also appearing from a number of vendors. Add it all together and you get the biggest changes in PC architecture that we have seen in quite a while.As the showcase for all the stuff that's coming, Computex is a sea of new motherboards. Since Computex is a Buyer's show, some of the new designs are trial balloons built to see if there is any interest. Most of the boards, especially the boards from the major players, do find their way to your dealer's shelves. That makes Computex the shopping cart for motherboards that will be available in the next 1 to 6 months.
We're taking a look at a few of the most interesting designs that have caught our eye at Computex in this preview. Once we sort through a mountain of new models, we'll be bringing you more news on the new motherboards from all the top board makers.
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Wesley Fink - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
#1 -Based on what we now know we expect the new graphics integrated in 915 will be the best performing integrated graphics we have tested. We are told performance is roughly equivalent to 5200FX. That will not excite many of our readers, but it is still a fact that 60% of motherboard shipments are integrated graphics.
Cygni - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
Depressing is when you see the performance "gain" PCI-E 16x was supposed to offer in real life. Hint: Its not there.JGF - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
September at the earliest for A64 nvidia PCI-E is more than a little depressing. :(Bozo Galora - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=858&s=2Speaking of 4 phase power...
Is that 5 phase power on the shuttle board?
RyanVM - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
On page 3: "As we reported, PCI-X and AGP on the same 915 board is supposedly an impossible engineering feat."PCI-E!!!!!!!!!
jrphoenix - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
Good to see all the news on the Athlon 939 boards and PCI-Express. Does anyone have an idea when we will see these boards? It was kind of depressing hearing that Nvidia may not support this until Q3 or Q4 :(Heck... when will we see any socket 939 boards?
SDA - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
"A Sea of NEW"?Hm. Problem with an A64 with decently powerful integrated graphics is that the A64's so expensive that I don't see much of a need for it. .. ehm, but OEMs would like that, I'm sure. Save them money on cheapo add-in cards, for sure, and they could still advertise "64-bit power!"
DDR2 and DDR1 on the same board, eh. What, is the yellow slot DDR2? What the hell? I thought the purpose of a key was to make it HARDER TO STICK THINGS IN THE WRONG WAY? It's practically in the fscking middle! Rrrrr. And I thought DDR1 was bad. Also, "Intel's excellent new integrated graphics"? Excellent must be a relative term.
Also, Tyan now has nine Opteron boards. On one hand, that's an amusingly diverse selection.. on the other hand, it's great that there are so many choices there, and Tyan boards ARE quality.