Computex 2006: 300W GPUs, Conroe, HDMI Video Cards and Lots of Motherboards
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 5, 2006 10:24 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Gigabyte's Conroe Motherboard
Using the P965 chipset (Broadwater), Gigabyte showed us its flagship Conroe motherboard. The P965 chipset only supports one PCIe x16 slot and one x4; the blue slot below is the x16 and the orange slot is the x4:
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Six of the SATA ports are courtesy of Intel's ICH8R, the other two are made possible by the relabled JMicron SATA/PATA controller that you see in the picture above. The Gigabyte "SATA2" chip (actually a JMicron chip) provides support for the two SATA ports and the lone PATA port you see in the picture above. Remember, Intel's ICH8R doesn't support any PATA ports natively so you will see all motherboard manufacturers resorting to a similar sort of arrangement.
Gigabyte outfitted its P965 motherboard with a 12-phase power design, designed to support Kentsfield. This board has already been tested to work with Kentsfield, although Gigabyte's competitors insist that a 12-phase power design is not necessary for Kentsfield.
You'll notice that all of the capacitors on the motherboard are similar to those around the CPU in that they are not standard electrolytic capacitors filled with liquid. All of the capacitors used on the Gigabyte board use a solid chemical compound designed to better withstand higher temperatures, thus preventing leaking or other capacitor related failures. The more expensive capactiors raise the price of the motherboard by a healhty $20. Gigabyte still only offers a 3-year warranty on this board, despite the technically more reliable capacitors.
Gigabyte is simply trying out the more expensive caps on this motherboard, if the demand is high enough you may see a similar setup on high end AMD motherboards as well. Gigabyte's competitors insist that the more expensive caps aren't necessary across the motherboard and that this is simply a gimmick.
Gigabyte also ships this motherboard with two external SATA brackets that convert internal SATA ports into ports that can be used outside of your system. Gigabyte's brackets also provide 4-pin power for powering internal hard drives outside of your case.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
61 Comments
View All Comments
lopri - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I thought the next gen Intel chips are supposed to consume less power? I admit that I'm ignorant when it comes to such things, but the common sense tells me that VRM which supports TDP 130 should have no problem handling TDP 80? Could anyone elaborate?
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
It happens every time Intel releases a new CPU. The then current chipset will support the CPU, but then the "VRM issue" pops up. It's a scam by Intel to force you to buy a new motherboard (preferrably with their chipset, of course). AMD doesn't seem to have this problem.ShapeGSX - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Yeah, slam that AM2 CPU into your old Socket 939 board. It will work! AMD doesn't require you to buy a new motherboard to buy their latest and greatest!Conroe is a huge departure from the P4. The fact that it works at all in LGA775 and with old chipsets is impressive.
phusg - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Bol(*#*&s, digitalfreak is right, of course this is a scam. Just because AMD is now using the same scam doesn't mean this is the way it has to be. I'm sure it wouldn't cost too many transistors to build in a legacy mode on the CPU die.Spoelie - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
U guys are missing the point, the X2 dual core socket 939 cpu with TDP 89w works on the socket 939 motherboards that were available at launch 2 years ago, when .13µ newcastle cpus were the only game in town, barring any bios updates of course.Same thing for socket A, altho not at the right FSB speed depending on chipset.
AMD only forces you to update if there is a significant feature difference that can't be worked out in the current socket. It seems that intel engineers its cpus without 'socket environment' consideration and then engineers a specific chipset for it, while amd engineers its cpus to fit in a specific socket environment that they defined a standard for long ago.
ShapeGSX - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
So you don't think that lower power consumption due to the new VRM is a significant feature difference? It is all the technical press is talking about these days.The LGA775 socket was launched in June of 2004. So, here we are 2 years later with the same socket for Intel, but a change to the voltage regulator. And you can run dual core processors on what was originally a socket meant just for one core, just like AMD.
Socket 939 was also launched 2 years ago, and it is already obsolete.
Sounds like both companies have similar track records, as of late. Perhaps the march of technology these days simply will not allow for using the same motherboard for more than two years.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
It could be that the VRM requirements are for lower voltages or cleaner power or something along those lines. Also, just because Conroe runs cooler than Presler doesn't mean it can't have more stringent voltage requirements. I wouldn't be surprised if this is less of a case of *can't* run Conroe but more can't run 100% *stably*. The newer 975X chipsets/motherboards will probably have a few slight tweaks to fix some erratta encountered with current 975X designs.giantpandaman2 - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Conroe has new power states that aren't supported by older motherboards. For example, a Conroe would try to go to "sleep" and the motherboard wouldn't supply the right level of power to it.soydios - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
1 kilowatt power supply? bloody hellI like all the pictures. But I'm still waiting for Asus AM2 RD580.
highlandsun - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
Any news on iRAM2 or anything similar?