Gigabyte

Gigabyte really surprised us during Comdex, as they were one of the only two manufacturers that actually demonstrated a running i850 board. On the DDR end, they also have several DDR solutions ready for AMD processors.

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The pictures above show the GA-7DX, one of Gigabyte's Socket-A DDR solutions. It uses the popular combination of AMD's 761 North Bridge and VIA's 686B South Bridge. Thus, it supports 200/266 MHz FSB AMD processors and up to 2GB of DDR SDRAM.

The GA-7DXC, which looks identical to the 7DX, will only support 200MHz FSB AMD processors and PC1600 DDR SDRAM. The South Bridge is also the VIA 686B South Bridge. The reason for eliminating the 266MHz processors and the PC2100 DDR SDRAM support is probably to reduce the price. However, we are not aware of AMD releasing a version of the AMD 761 that only supports a 200 MHz FSB. Meanwhile, everything on the 7DXC appears identical to the 7DX, so it's not quite clear what is going on here.

As we mentioned, Gigabyte was one of only two manufacturers that we saw demonstrate a working Pentium 4 motherboard. The GA-8TX, pictured above, was the board Gigabyte used. It supports Pentium 4 processors and up to 2GB of RDRAM. It features an AGP Pro slot, 5 PCI slots, and one CNR slot.

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The above is the GA-7AM, Gigabyte's Socket-A DDR solution using the ALi MAGiK1 chipset. It supports AMD's 200/266 MHz FSB processors and 2GB of DDR SDRAM. That 2 DIMM limit rears its head again as far as attaining the 2GB limit of the chipset. The 7AM is a micro-ATX board, but we expect a standard ATX version to come along soon as well. Besides the GA-7DX (AMD 760 chipset) and the GA-7AM (ALi MAGiK1 chipset), Gigabyte also has DDR for Socket-370 processors. The GA-6RX is a standard ATX board featuring 4 DIMM slots for a total of 2GB DDR SDRAM, an AGP Pro slot, 5 PCI slots, and an AMR slot. The micro-ATX version, known as the GA-6RM, features just 2 DIMM slots.

At the Gigabyte booth, we also spotted the GA-6OXE, which features the new Intel i815EP chipset. The i815EP chipset is similar to the i815E chipset, except that it does not have the integrated i752 graphics. Therefore, it should bring down the price of the motherboard for those that won't be using the integrated video anyway (ie most AnandTech readers). The price differential is not known at this point, but it will likely be relatively small.

Microstar

The Microstar booth was very close to the Gigabyte booth, and coincidently they happened to be the only two manufacturers that demonstrated working samples of Pentium 4 motherboards. At the other end of the Microstar booth, we were able to find Microstar's Socket-370 DDR solutions as well as a couple of new products for AMD's Socket-A platform.

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The 850 Pro is Microstar's i850 based Pentium 4 board.. It also has 5 PCI, 1 CNR, 1 AGP Pro, and 4 RIMM slots. Like other i850 boards, the maximum support memory configuration is 2GB of RDRAM.

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The Pro266 Master is their DDR solution for Socket-370. It uses the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset and has three DDR DIMM slots and two SDR DIMM slots, supporting up to 2GB of DDR SDRAM. Just like the 850 Pro, Microstar also includes the AGP Pro slot. Interestingly, we're seeing a trend towards more integrated USB ports on motherboards, with MSI pushing out to 6 on the Pro266 Master.

There is another flavor of the board called the Pro266 Plus. As the name implies, it also uses the Apollo Pro266 and even has almost the same design as the Pro266 Master. The differences come in that it only has three DDR DIMM slots and 6 PCI slots compared to 5 for the Pro266 Master.

MSI continues to expand their K7 line of motherboards, now with the K7 Master-S, which features the AMD 760 chipset. It supports 200/266 MHz FSB AMD processors and has 4 DDR DIMM slots, supporting up to 2GB of DDR SDRAM. It also has an on-board SCSI controller and an AGP Pro slot.

The name K7 Master-S is quite misleading as it is very similar to the K7T Master, which features the VIA KT133 chipset, on-board SCSI, and IEEE 1394 Firewire. Therefore, we wouldn't be too surprised if its name changes before it hits the streets.

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Besides the K7 Master-S, Microstar also had implemented the ALi MAGiK1 chipset for yet another Socket-A DDR product, known as the MS6375. It has two DDR DIMM slots and 3 SDR DIMM slots, an AGP Pro slot, 5 PCI slots, and 1 CNR slot.

Another interesting board Microstar will be releasing is the 815E Master-S. Just like other boards in the Microstar Master series, the 815E Master-S also includes an on-board SCSI controller and an attractive 6 PCI slots expansion slots configuration. This continues that trend of pushing more towards the high-end market, even though this is Intel's "value" chipset.

Shuttle

Compared to other companies, Shuttle has fewer DDR solutions - only two for Intel processors. We did not see any i850 solutions either, but we did see some interesting products that show Shuttle is clearly focused on OEM system builders.

This is the AV31, one of the two DDR solutions from Shuttle. It uses the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset and has 4 DDR DIMM slots and 6 PCI slots.

The AV32 is very similar to the AV31, but it has 2 DDR DIMM slots and 2 SDR DIMM slots, giving users the flexibility to stay with their older PC100/PC133 SDRAM. It also has 5 PCI, 1 ACR, and 1 AGP slots.

Here we have the FV22 from Shuttle. If you look carefully, this board does not have any expansion slots at all. It uses the VIA PL133 chipset, which has integrated S3 Savage 4 video. They use the 686A South Bridge, which features a total of four USB ports. It also has on-board sound as well as a LAN controller. Therefore, we can see that this board is designed solely for OEM builders looking to build extremely small and extremely cost effective products - possibly even some set-top boxes could use such a product. We expect the price of the board to be quite cheap, since everything is integrated and it is in the Flex-ATX format.

This is the MV16E, which also uses the VIA PL133 This time, the South Bridge is the VIA 686B, giving it Ultra ATA 100 support.

The board above, the MV17E, is very similar to the MV16E, except that it uses the VIA PM133 chipset. Both the VIA PL133 and the VIA PM133 chipsets have S3 Savage 4 video integrated in the North Bridge, but the PM133 chipset supports an extra external AGP device if you want to upgrade later. Remember that both the PM133 and PL133 are based on the core design of the VIA Apollo Pro 133A.

Transcend

At this year's Comdex, Transcend demonstrated two sets of DDR solutions, one for AMD and one for Intel. They did not announce a lot of new product seven though they were one of the first manufacturers to have a working Socket-370 DDR board. Together with their good history in the memory market, we can expect to see more from Transcend this coming year with regards to DDR development

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The TS-APR3 is Transcend's Socket-370 DDR solution. Transcend actually demonstrated the board during Comdex running 3DMark smoothly. It uses the VIA Apollo Pro266 chipset with 1 SDR DIMM slot and 3 DDR DIMM slots, supporting up to 1.5GB of DDR SDRAM. It also features 5 PCI slots and 1 ACR slot.

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This is the TS-ALR4, Transcend's Socket-A DDR board using the ALi MAGiK1 chipset. The 3 DDR slots can support up to 2GB DDR SDRAM.

Conclusion

There you go. That's our peek at what we can expect from different motherboard manufacturers over the next few months. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit ASUS and Soyo at Comdex, so we do not have full details on what they will be releasing. We do know that ASUS has a Pentium 4 board ready to go, as well as DDR solutions based on VIA, ALi, and AMD chipsets.

The most obvious thing for the next few months is that it will be the era of DDR and a lot of manufacturers see the opportunities that go along with this new era. VIA and ALi released chipsets supporting DDR SDRAM for Intel and AMD processors. At the same time, AMD also has their 760 chipset ready to couple their processors to DDR memory. All the companies we visited have at least one kind of DDR motherboard, and most of them actually have several different models to reach different markets.

Motherboards using the Intel i850 chipset will be available soon to support the recently launched Pentium 4. However, supplies will be quite limited for the time being due to high costs. One of the reasons behind those high costs is the expensive RDRAM memory that is required for use on these boards. With the i820 all but a complete failure, companies have become a bit more cautious when it comes to dealing with anything RDRAM related. The other problem is the high cost of the i850 chipset itself, as well as the strict PCB requirements that conspire to make i850 boards cost double or triple that of boards based on other chipsets.

Gigabyte and Microstar jumped out to be the first two manufacturers to demonstrate i850 solutions. ASUS should also be one of the first to market with their P4T, and of course Intel has their own design that will mainly show up in OEM systems. We did learn that most other companies would soon release their i850 motherboards, or at least are planning to do so early next year.

Despite all this new technology, there is still a huge market for VIA KT133 and Intel i815E motherboards. We're seeing fewer motherboards with the original versions of these chipsets, but rather a lot of movement towards the reduced cost or more integrated VIA KL133, VIA KM133, VIA PL133, VIA PM133, and the Intel i815EP variants.

In short, we expect to see a very competitive motherboard market again next year, both at the high-end and low-end. We will continue to follow up with each company in order to bring you reviews on all the latest products as they become available.