Intel recently launched three new motherboards -- the Intel Desktop Board DX48BT2 Extreme Series (formerly codenamed 'Bone Trail 2'), DG35EC Classic Series (formerly codenamed 'Eva Cove'), and D945GCLF Essential Series (formerly codenamed 'Little Falls').

The boards, individually aimed at the extreme gamer, the mainstream multimedia user, and the entry-level PC users, enable a number of features for today's PCs such as greater PC performance, clearer definition video and low-powered technologies.

The DX48BT2 board offers the 1600 MHz front side bus and memory support providing powerful performance and extreme overclockability. The card supports Intel Core 2 Extreme processors featuring quad or dual-core processing and a faster 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz FSB. It is built with the Intel X48 Express Chipset with ICH9R that is validated for chipset-level overclocking.

There are two DIMM sockets designed to support up to 4 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz memory or four DIMM sockets designed to support up to 8 GB of DDR3 1333/1066/800 MHz memory. The board has 2 IEEE 1394a ports and 12 USB 2.0 ports, dual full-speed PCIe 2.0 slots + x4/x16 PCIe slot and 2 PCI expansion slots, and 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports.

Further included in the DX48BT2 board are Intel Matrix Storage Technology, and the Dolby Home Theater. This product will also be a key component for workstation class system builders.

The company claims that the DG35EC Classic Series board is built with sharpest performing integrated graphics supported on Intel architecture. Based on GMA X3500 integrated graphics, the board supports a range of processors including Intel Core 2 Quad and Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Besides delivering outstanding performance and stability, the integrated graphics and connectors meet a variety of digital needs including 1080p video playback for movie clips, media streams and the latest generation of HD videocameras, without the need for an add-in video card. The board is the first to have integrated Microsoft DirectX10 capability and it also supports OpenGL 2.0.

D945GCLF board belongs to a new category of computers called Nettops -- a new family of affordable desktop computing devices purpose-built for Internet-centric usage models. The desktop board is an affordable motherboard that integrates a single unit of compute with a microprocessor, chipset, motherboard, and heat sink.

For more PC news, visit PC World. Story copyright PC World Communications, Inc.

Whitepapers

• The Trend from UNIX to Linux in SAP(r) Data Centers
• Secure Wireless Printing Options
• Improve Virtual Storage TCO by Comparing Vendors
• Making IT Invisible
• Best Practices for VMware ESX Server
• Virtualizing Storage for VMware Success

View more DATA CENTER whitepapers

Webcasts

• Branch Office Trends and Best Practices
• Data Protection and Application Availability for Your VMware Environment with Veritas NetBackup and Cluster Server for VMware ESX
• Making NetBackup Highly Available with Storage Foundation HA
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• Tips and Techniques for Remote Data Backup and Delivery
• WAN Optimization Landscape

View more DATA CENTER webcasts

Special Reports

• Executive Guide: Storage Heats Up
• Symantec State of the Data Center Report
• Data Centers: At the center of the action
• Executive Guide: Virtualization Reality Check
• Executive Guide: Data Center Decisions
• Get More From Your WAN

View more DATA CENTER special reports