Time to get excited! Gigabyte X79 motherboards "LGA 2011"

New Gigabyte images and some specs of motherboards that support Intel's new Sandy Bridge E chips. Gigabyte has four of its upcoming X79 products, G1.Assassin 2, X79-UD7, X79-UD5 and X79-UD3.

These LGA 2011 boards make use of 3-way digital power technology, and have four or eight (only UD5) DDR3 memory, slots, up to ten SATA ports (both 6.0 Gbps and 3.0 Gbps), three (G1.Assassin 2, X79-UD5) or four (X79-UD7, X79-UD3) PCI-Express x16 slots, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, USB 3.0 connectivity, and various other, model-specific goodies. The G1.Assassin 2 for example includes a Killer 2100 NIC and a Creative X-Fi audio processor, while the X79-UD7 boasts with two SATA port connectors and overclocking buttons.

Expect an official announcement from Gigabyte in the coming weeks.

G1.Assassin 2 

GA-X79-UD7

GA-X79-UD5

 

GA-X79-UD3

Picture source: http://sinhardware.com

Some quick info about Gigabytes BIOS/UEFI on screenshots from (anandtech.com):First looka at Gigabytes UEFI setup on X79

I'm not an ASUS fanboy either. But if you compare these boards to ASUS! You can see an instant change. ASUS includes 8 DIMMS on every motherboard, and their SLI support increases as the boards become higher-spec. ASUS's layouts make much more sense than Gigabytes.

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GIGABYTE USA page:
http://www.facebook.com-Gigabyte X79

Intel's X79 brings support for four memory channels resulting in a possible eight DDR3 DIMMs, plus USB3, AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI support.

Intel is expected to release its Core i7 39XX range of chips in the coming weeks, which are set to replace the LGA1366 Core i7 Nehalem chips that launched the Core-series chips back in 2008. Socket LGA2011 mainboards will also support the so-called Sandy Bridge E chips, which are Core i7 processors marketed for workstations.

While pictures are out, Intel's NDA still hasn't expired so there's no official word on pricing, but expect both Asus and Gigabyte to price their X79 boards from £200, with the RoG and Assassin boards coming in at £300 or above.