Upcoming Intel Based Motherboards from GIGABYTE, ASUS, MSI and ASRock
by Ian Cutress on April 28, 2014 3:30 AM ESTASUS’ New Products
The ASUS set of images came about via a leak at an APAC event. Apparently one media representative invited to that event (and should have been under NDA) took pictures and then distributed them via Weibo in spite of the NDA. At this present time ASUS has not officially released any other pictures of its range, so we are left to decipher these blurry photographs.
The whole range seems to have removed the mustard color and gone for a more subtle dull metallic gold. The iconography is around the livery and a chipset heatsink with a circular image.
First up is the mini-ITX model:
Here ASUS have put the 24-pin ATX power connector outside the DRAM slots and the CPU power connector is in an easy to reach place on the top. The socket area is more central, meaning the chipset is squashed down towards the PCIe slot. The SATA ports are spread out such that two are near the 24-pin ATX (along with a USB 3.0 header) and two are inside the DRAM slots at the bottom.
On the high end of the market is the Deluxe:
The styling is easier to see here, especially with the power delivery heatsink reaching around three sides of the CPU socket. On the right there are some SATA Express ports, with an M.2 just between the chipset heatsink and what looks like the TPU switch. As the Deluxe is high up the scale of the board list, we see two USB 3.0 headers near the 24-pin ATX connector as well as an 802.11ac WiFi module on the rear IO. It looks like the audio also has had an update, and we move to Dual Intelligent Processors V (five).
The workstation model was also on display:
Despite the small grainy picture, we see four PCIe slots and a heatsink exactly where a PLX8747 would be, suggesting an x8/x8/x8/x8 PCIe layout for four-way SLI. It is perhaps interesting that we see this on the WS and not on the Deluxe. Like the Deluxe we have dual USB 3.0 headers, SATA Express ports and an M.2 slot. There are dual two-digit debugs at the bottom for enhanced error reporting, and the chipset heatsink is larger than the others, perhaps to accommodate a controller or two.
There is also an image of three ROG motherboards being released, including the Hero, Gene, and the Ranger which is new to the brand.
TUF gets some love as well with the Sabertooth:
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juhatus - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
I can't wait for M.2 to rumble in on desktop-side, having and using it on Sony vaio pro 13 its just awesome that boot is "instant-on" in 7 seconds.Comment on:
"One of these slots is called ‘Ultra M.2’, with the words ‘PCIe Gen3 x4’ next to it, suggesting that they are implementing an x4 M.2 slot for the faster devices."
Isnt there Samsung xp941 thats x4 M.2 also there are rumours about LSI M.2 Griffin.. (1.8Gb/s)
http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/latest-buzz...
http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/latest-buzz...
goinginstyle - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
"Gigabyte Black Edition" - Does Gigabyte have any original ideas at all? Besides the obvious color scheme ripoff of Asus ROG now they are copying their naming scheme also. ASRock's stuff looks like a crayon factory exploded.ddriver - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
If you think asus invented black+red, you must have been living under a rock. Or "black edition" for that matter.Flunk - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Asus was definitely one of the first companies putting crazy colors on their motherboards.AznAnarchy99 - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
You obviously don't remember the DFI LanParty motherboards.littlebitstrouds - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Who the heck argues about marketing schemes for million dollar companies? UUUUGH Gap just started a BOGO sale, but Old Navy did it first!LordOfTheBoired - Monday, May 5, 2014 - link
Both posers. Payless Shoes did the ORIGINAL BOGO, before it went mainstream.Antronman - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
The black PCB design + Red slots and highlights design was originally used by ASUS.The term "black edition" was originally coined by AMD.
The funniest part is that the gigabyte mobo isn't even close to being black, much like the Titan BE :P
nevertell - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Wait, so you are arguing about the origin of such bland marketing terms as "black edition" ? And cutting each other's throat about the color scheme ? I understand that there could be some debate about the latter, but nobody can get a patent on a color scheme, and no one should be. The originality of the cosmetics is just a moot point, there is no such thing as original, when every motherboard model is made in thousands. Do you want the motherboards tailored to one's individual preferences, like Motorola is doing with the Moto X ? If you want it to be original, order the chips and build your own. As for the naming scheme, differentiation is better than just changing a single letter in the model code. Whilst you could argue that there are better phrases than "black edition", it's hardly the worst http://www.anandtech.com/show/7067/computex-2013-e...I couldn't care any less about the colour scheme and name of a motherboard, I care only about the build quality and the functionality/features a certain board has.
Antronman - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Neither of which Gigabyte has plenty of.