Tom's Hardware > News > Special > Events > CeBIT 2008: Gigabyte 2, High-End X48 Motherboards, 790i SLI unleashed.

CeBIT 2008: Gigabyte 2, High-End X48 Motherboards, 790i SLI unleashed.

3:35 PM - March 7, 2008 by Bert Toepelt and Daniel Schuhmann - source: Tom's Hardware US

Gigabyte is showing two new high-end motherboards based on Intel's X48 chipset, namely the GA-X48T-DQ6 and its new flagship, the GA-X48-DQ6.

Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6

Gigabyte's new flagship carries the name GA-X48T-DQ6 and uses Intel's X48 chipset. Although the board only handles DDR3 memory, it supports memory speeds of up to 1900 MHz. FSB1600 CPUs are welcome as well. Two PCI-Express slots with 16 lanes each are available for ATI's CrossFire while a Realtek ALC889A HD chip provides audio output. Thanks to the new "Dynamic Energy Save" functionality, the voltage regulation modules are supposed to switch themselves off when the system only draws little power.

Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6

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The GA-X48-DQ6 is also built around the Intel X48 chipset but still supports the less expensive DDR2 memory standard up to speeds of DDR2-1200. It, too, is ready for FSB1600 CPUs and provides two x16 PCI-Express slots for ATI's CrossFire. Both X48 boards offer connectivity for up to eight S-ATA devices.

Gigabyte is unveiling a new motherboard based on Nvidia's 790a SLI chipset at its CeBIT stand. The GA-790SLI-DQ6 features two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots as well as one PCIe 1.0 x16 slot.

The GA-790SLI-DQ6 allows users to create a 3-Way-SLI system and supports Hybrid-SLI as well.

Gigabyte's GA-790SLI-DQ6 board is built around Nvidia's 790i SLI chipset

Gigabyte pride itself on using high-quality components and uses long-lived solid capacitors on this board as well. The 790i chipset already supports 45 nm CPUs (Penryn and Wolfdale) as well as DDR3-1600 and FSB1600. In addition to dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, the board also features a Realtek ALC889 HD audio chip with an especially good signal to noise ratio.

The board is especially easy to cool, since the north and southbridge as well as the voltage regulation modules are connected via heatpipes, obviating the need for separate fans for these components.