Intel Updates BoneTrail with X48 Chipset

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Intel will update its flagship high-end desktop motherboard, known as the DX38BT, or BoneTrail, with its X48 chipset. Intel guidance points to a Q2'08 release, possibly as early as April.

Planned to enter the market at the same time as the other competing X48 solutions, the DX48BT2 will feature the ICH9R southbridge in place of the newer ICH10R, which hasn't been released yet. The ICH10 series will be reserved for motherboards like the DFI LanParty UT X48-T3R. This is an interesting move by Intel, since it allows Intel to offer its board partners a feature to differentiate themselves from standard Intel motherboards.

The X48 chipset is a carefully selected X38 variant that allows for a higher FSB. Since the X48 is pin-to-pin compatible with the X38, BoneTrail 2 wasn't redesigned and uses the same PCB as the DX38BT.

BoneTrail 2 features support for dual x16 PCI-Express 2.0 slots and possibly also allows to split one of the x16 slots in half to provide 8 lanes to the third PCI-Express slot, making available a 16-8-8 lane configuration. This feature, however, has not been officially confirmed by Intel.

Other known features are support for 8 SATA ports, a FSB 1600MHz and official support for DDR3-1600.

Intel has built some interesting high-end boards lately that although don't meet the needs of enthusiasts as well as the boards of companies like Asus and DFI, have proven to be more successful than previous in-house designs. For example, Intel's BadAxe 2 was a moderate success among overclockers - something not usual with Intel branded boards - due to its good build quality and refined BIOS options for overclocking. Intel's BoneTrail 2 may prove to be a success if Intel manages to follow its newly founded philosophy of catering to enthusiasts.
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News Source: http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Updates+BoneTrail+with+X48+Chipset/article10926.htm
 
INKster said:
Rumor has it that the 790i Ultra SLI is actually pretty competitive against X48, but we'll see.
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And how many fans will I need to cool all those chips? My biggest gripe about NV chipsets is heat. 790 doesn't look to improve in that area, in fact it looks worse to me.

I bought a cheap P35 board recently (abit IP35-e) and have been somewhat disappointed with it's overclocking performance, so I'm considering switching to an X38/48 board. If someone puts out a decent DDR2 X48 soon, I'm all over that. Otherwise it's time for a DFI X38 T2R board. I know Asus has the Rampage Formula in the works, but I'm not a big fan of Asus boards. Over-priced and gimmicky IMHO. Though the Formula line has done well so far, so we'll see. I'd rather buy from DFI, Gigabyte, or abit, but both Gigabyte and abit have had their share of bad boards and bugs this time around that I'll have to look elsewhere for X38/X48.
 
Sxotty said:
I am honestly surprised if that is all there is to it. I thought it would have more than links to forums where people complain.


That was your response to people complaining about ATI drivers. So I was just thinking there might be review sites, news etc.. about problems they faced.
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You want me to google "nvidia chipset problem" or "6x0/7x0 problem" for you? Everything that's been stated is well-known amongst NV chipset users. I have 3 close friends on 680i boards that swear they'll never use NV again because of how crappy they are.

Anyway, I won't be responding to this particular line of discussion again. I'm not going to get into an argument over something every enthusiast but you apparently knows.
 
ShaidarHaran said:
You want me to google "nvidia chipset problem" or "6x0/7x0 problem" for you? Everything that's been stated is well-known amongst NV chipset users. I have 3 close friends on 680i boards that swear they'll never use NV again because of how crappy they are.

Anyway, I won't be responding to this particular line of discussion again. I'm not going to get into an argument over something every enthusiast but you apparently knows.
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I read long ago (last year) when there was the data corruption issues on the 680 boards. Then I read they were fixed.

I have an intel based board so I have not spent time crawling through the woes of people with Nvidia boards. I have looked randomly at some reviews since then and never saw anything further mentioned. I do not see why it is a problem to suggest that a reputable site say something about it.

The 680 data corruption was covered and it was fixed supposedly.

I am not saying there is not problems, but I was not aware of them.

Further people complain vociferously and often. I had an nforce 2 board (nf7-s) and it was one of the best boards I ever had. Back then people complained about data corruption as well. I never had a problem with it though. It also did not make the news sites. ( I had some nf3 boards as well, but they were not as good to be honest).

The 680 did make the news sites and as such I determined it was a real problem.

When you google for 780 problems you find nothing but forum posts. That is not terribly conclusive to me as anything you google for will have problems in forum posts.
 
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