Sapphire PURE Innovation - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast
by Wesley Fink on July 29, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
The ATI Xpress 200 Chipset Family
Last fall's introduction of the ATI AMD chipsets featured the SB400 south bridge. The Sapphire and upcoming Radeon Xpress 200 introductions combine the north bridge with the ATI SB450 south bridge, which features High Definition Azalia audio for both AMD and Intel. This is the first chipset to bring High Definition audio to AMD. The SB 450 also supports PCI-e Gigabit LAN, standard SATA 150, and has improved USB burst performance compared to the earlier SB400 chipset. We will see full SATA 2 support and a completely reworked USB controller in the SB600, which will launch in the 4th quarter of this year.
The various ATI Radeon Xpress 200 north bridges can also be combined with ULi south bridges. The current ULi 1573 provides all the features of the ATI SB450 except integrated Gigabit Ethernet. This includes High Definition Azalia audio. Gigabit Ethernet can be added as an external chip and the ULi 1573 also supports NCQ hard drives, which are not supported on the SB450, according to ATI.
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afrost - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
One of the big things for me is that there is only passive cooling on the motherboard without the need for crazy heatpipes etc. This is really important for those of us who want to build silent computers.I'v definately picking up this board from Saphire.
Zebo - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Good point must run at lower temp than nvidia's single chipset solution which gets hot as hell when you start cranking HTT.rjm55 - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
We mentioned several times in the article that Sapphire will launch the new board in early August. Sapphire has confirmed their plans to launch around August 5. Sapphire has asked us to pass on that you will be able to buy retail PI-A9RX480 motherboards in most markets by August 15th-20th. Price will be "competetive with nForce4".Resh - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Any idea on when we will see them? I'd really like to go that route, but I can't wait forever!Wesley Fink - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Halibut (Crossfire AMD) and Stingray (Crossfire Intel) boards are ready to go to reviewers, but there are still some decisions being made at ATI. We have also seen the prototype retail boards from Gigabyte and another manufacturer. When ATI decides whether Crossfire will be now or with R520 (just a guess at events) Crossfire will roll out quickly.Resh - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Thansk Wesley. I wish they would hurry up with that decision... RAM is ordered and PSU, CPU, and X800XL will be ordered this w/e, too, so they better get the motherboards out!If you do hear something, please share it with the rest of us.
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coomar - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
wow the white pcb stands out, at least the thing is packaged wellDhaval00 - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
A week ago, AT was having fun posting such rumors... I am sure it thinks otherwise now :)./me feels like getting rid of all my nVIDIA hardware.
ukDave - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Typo on Pg8, second bottom paragraph. "ATI X350XT PE" - the '3' should be an '8' me thinks.Tommouse - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Nice board. Still undecided on the white color though.I wonder if the Zalman CNPS7700-Cu will fit :|