Live from Taiwan: ATI RD580 Motherboards

DFI RD580

One of the most anticipated Socket 939 RD580 motherboards is the DFI. With the incredible success DFI has enjoyed with their nVidia nForce4 chipset Expert, SLI and Ultra motherboards, enthusiasts expect great things from the new DFI RD580.

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DFi was showing the final pre-production RD580 at their Taiwan offices. We are told the board improves on the performance of the current RDX200, which is based on the ATI RD480 chipset. It is also the only DFI dual x16 motherboard, since DFI decided not to produce an nVidia dual x16 SLI motherboard.

DFI is definitely using the ULi M1575 chipset on their new RD580 board, instead of the ATI SB450 used on the RDX200. This will provide full SATA2 3Gb/s support and competitive USB performance. Four additional SATA ports will be provided by the Silicon Image 3114 chip.

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DFI tells us the final layout has been released to production. This means retail boards should be available for purchase 10 days to two weeks after the March 1 RD580 launch. Pricing data was not available, but DFI expects their new RD580 to sell at about the same price as the current RDX200.