Asus shows off X79 motherboards "LGA 2011"

 Asus images and some specs of motherboards that support Intel's new Sandy Bridge E chips. Asus has three of its upcoming X79 products, P9X79 DELUXE, P9X79 Pro and Rampage IV Extreme

 ASUS P9X79 DELUXE

Picture source: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk

ASUS P9X79 Pro 

The biggest difference between P9X79 Pro and Deluxe is the 16+2+2+2 VRM setup on the Deluxe over the 8+2+2+2 setup on the Pro. The higher amount of power phases means that overclocking ability should be a little better on the Deluxe version. The DELUXE board has Triple card SLI / CrossFireX making it that little bit more enthusiast orientated. It has another Gigabit networking port with two extra USB 3.0 ports and a new BT V3.0 GO similar to P8P67 DELUXE - BT GO V2.1.
Another interesting feature is USB 3.0 Boost. Asus claims a performance increase of up to "170%".More about USB 3.0 boost you can find here: (vr-zone.com) - Asus-launches USB 3.0 speed booster UASP support for ASMedia

ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME

Picture source: http://www.tweaktown.com


The ASUS Rampage IV Extreme looks to be one of the best ROG boards to date from the company.

The Rampage IV Extreme is a overclocking motherboard and it's going to be "expensive". This is going to be one of the most hardcore options on the market and any true ROG fan is going to absolutely love what ASUS has brought to the table.

All of Asus boards will support UEFI BIOS and one-touch USB BIOS "flash" updates. It allows you to flash the BIOS of a motherboard with literally nothing in the system. It gets handy if you get a motherboard and a brand new CPU that wasn't supported on the shipping BIOS. With a USB flash drive you can get to the latest BIOS without the need of getting an older compatible CPU.


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.

 More news, pictures on: 

(expertreviews.co.uk) Asus-motherboards show off
(tweaktown.com) Asus P9X79 Pro and Deluxe motherboard preview
(tweaktown.com) Asus_RAMPAGE IV EXTREME_motherboard_preview

DDR4 crossover to come in 2014!

Market research firm iSuppli has released a new report that takes a closer look at the DRAM module market. As one might expect, DDR3 dominates. It's expected to make up the lion's share of the market until 2014, when iSuppli thinks next-gen DDR4 modules will take the lion's share of the market.

DDR3 debuted on desktops with Intel's P35 Express chipset just over four years ago. Although it was relatively expensive at the time, prices fell pretty quickly, allowing DDR3 to reach 24% market share in 2009. The third-gen DDR standard took over the following year, and iSuppli expects an even quicker ramp for DDR4. The research firm predicts that DDR4 will more than quadruple its market share after its first year on the market.
While DDR2 prices are predictably on the rise, DDR3 is incredibly cheap these days. You can snag an 8GB dual-channel kit of name-brand DIMMs for only $65. A similiar SO-DIMM kit for notebooks costs just $3 more.

Source: http://techreport.com

X-bitlabs news about DDR4: http://www.xbitlabs.com