Wednesday 4th June 2008

Computex 2008: Intel P45 launches - zillions of new motherboards spotted

Posted at: 6:26am 4th June 2008 by Clive Webster in Taipei

The last of the LGA775 chipsets has been launched - we check out what Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Foxconn and others are going to be offering

P45 is being touted as the most important chipset release of the year, and every manufacturer wants a piece of the action. Richard Stewart, UK Marketing Manager for MSI, was on hand to offer an explanation. 'Everyone's excited about P45 as the P-series of Intel chipsets takes such a large market share. Therefore it's really important to get it right first time." Almost all the motherboard manufacturers have gone to town with eye-catching additions to their premium P45 boards, and we've shot a selection of those that were on display at Computex, Taiwan.

P45 is the last LGA775 chipset, and so the motherboard manufacturers know it has a huge potential audiece - anyone with a perfectly good Core 2 CPU. The chipset includes a range of modern features. It's available in both DDR2 and DDR3 flavours, includes PCI-E 2.0 and support for dual graphics (though currently only CrossFire is supported). Intel has also added support for Turbo Memory (codename Robson) which caches data from regularly used applications in a dedicated chunk of flash memory connected to the P45 Northbridge.

P45 is joined, as usual by an integrated graphics sibling, the G45, which Intel claims has "a new graphics core that's 3x faster than the [previous] G3x-series". There's also the cheaper P43 and G43 chipsets which feature fewer PCI-E lanes, so dual graphics isn't an option.

MSI
MSI has six P45 (and deriviative) motherboards at launch, with two more designs in the pipeline. The first Combo board has six memory sockets, allowing support for either DDR2 or DDR3 on the same board while MSI couldn't tell us much about the second.

MSI was keen to explain that it had used premium materials in its premium P45 boards, including the DrMOS VRM and power management technology, High-C capacitors and new CircuPipre Northbridge heatsink designs (the P45 Platinum features a palm leaf-like heatsink using six heatpipes). MSI showed us a demo where the VRMs on the new P45 Platinum ran almost 20 degrees C cooler than those of a previous generation VRM cooler.

MSI has also introduced a motherboard with a Northbridge waterblock for the first time - the P45 Diamond. This block passes the liquid through it twice to maximise cooling. Stewart told us that the board will come with tubes, and with connectors that will fit any water-cooling kit.

Gigabyte
Gigabyte is also innovating with its P45 boards, with the GA-EP45-EXTREME using a heatsink so large that it looks like an expansion card and has to be screwed to the back of your case. The large copper heatsink is designed to conduct coolness into the PC case, helping to keep the temperatures of CPU and its cooler down. John Hung, Managing Director UK/Ireland for Gigabyte, also pointed out that the primary PCI-E graphics slot had moved away from this large heatsink and the CPU so as to avoid freezing when using liquid nitrogen with the GA-EP45-EXTREME.

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Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6

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Comments

Mini me

Does anyone know whether there are any micro-ATX P45 based boards in the works?

Comment by rjfowler79 at 1:39pm 15th June 2008

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Great job Clive!

Some great pics in there, fascinating read. @Cogwulf re the Gigabyte board, agreed the heatsink might be overkill if your air cooling as the residual air from the CPU HSF will be used by this large sink to assist the rest of the heatpipe system. Many people have removed the heatpipe systems and fitted their own larger sinks or waterblocks because if you overvolt them more than a tad, things can get too hot, especially for long term running. If you're watercooling then no, water won't do all the work. Asus include fans to cool the heatsinks for their watercooled boards like the Blitz and Maximus when you're watercooling as there is no residual air from the CPU HSF and they DO over heat if you overvolt them. Maybe this large sink will eliminate the need to use additional air cooling for the separate sinks when water-cooling.

Comment by combatus at 1:10pm 5th June 2008

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this week

I think some shops might have got it yesterday, and most shops will probably have it by the end of the week. But it looks like everywhere has sold out through pre-orders.

Comment by Cogwulf at 12:57pm 5th June 2008

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cant wait

does anyone know when the asus P5Q-Deluxe will be released

Comment by burdenja at 12:48pm 5th June 2008

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Actually its designed to conduct coolness into the PC case...

it sucks all of the cold out of the CPU and northbridge so that you can put a can of beer on top of the case to keep it cool :¬/

Comment by Cogwulf at 11:45am 5th June 2008

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who the hell is going to buy that Gigabyte board?

if you use it as a passive cooler, smaller heatsinks work perfectly anyway. If you use it for water-cooling, the waterblock is doing all the work and that huge heatsink is doing nothing. Also, if the point of it is to conduct heat into the case, why not just use a single heatpipe to do this?

Comment by Cogwulf at 11:38am 5th June 2008

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P35 Drops

Presumably we'll be seeing the P35 boards dropping in price soon then? Could be time to pick up some bargains.

Comment by countstex at 9:11am 5th June 2008

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I want

The P5Q board reviewed, single pci-e which is the boyo, and plenty expansion slots, decent cooling, and at only about 80~90 quid. Should be good for overclocking :D AHHH

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 8:58am 5th June 2008

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Cool.

I am looking forward to a CPC review of Asus P5Q Deluxe! Also just noticed "MSI has six P45 (and deriviative) motherboards at launch, with two more desings in the pipeline." Designs... ;o)

Comment by NickMC07121989 at 10:19pm 4th June 2008

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I'm waiting

for DFI to bring out their P45 chipset. My plan is to wait until Nahelem comes out and the 775's start dropping in price, then get the P45 LanParty board with cheap DDR3 (will upgrade that when the price for those drop) and a Penryn CPU. My philosophy has always been to go for the best of the previous generation, so I'm finally gonna put it into practice and my wallet will love me for it XD.

Comment by TWeaKoR at 10:37pm 4th June 2008

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Wow wow we wa

I want that Asus Maximus II Formula! It looks soooo cool! But I think Ill wait till the new Nehalem boards surface lol. (And the Nehalem CPUs too obviously XD)

Comment by Zac3200 at 10:43pm 4th June 2008

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P45 v G45

Are the only differences between the P45 and G45 related to the on-board graphics and use of the PCI-E slots? i.e. are they equally overclockable? If so, the G45 would make a great MoBo for running Folding@Home where performance graphics are not required .....