MSI P55A Fuzion

Lucid have been quite insistent on pushing their Hydra GPU Load Balancer chip onto MSI for a product to sell.  Despite the nature of the drivers and lack of supported video game titles, MSI are releasing the P55A Fuzion, with an onboard Lucid Hydra chip, at some point this July we believe.

With a predicted price of $159, the Fuzion is essentially the little brother to the Big Bang Fuzion, but with USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s.  Against other P55 boards of similar price, this puts the P55A Fuzion in direct competition with the ASUS P7P55D-E and the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3P.  However, this does make it the cheapest Lucid Hydra enabled motherboard on the market, should you wish to take the plunge.

ECS P55H-AK

ECS are desperately trying to break into consumer markets, so we were set upon with their new P55 board. As part of the ECS Black series, the PCB comes in pure black and white, and offers three PCIe x16 Gen 2.0 slots spaced for tri-GPU setups, 4 USB 3.0 slots, 2 SATA/eSATA 6Gb/s ports, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 7.1 channel HD audio.  Extra PCIe lanes come in the form of a PLX chip, located between the first and second PCIe slots.

What is most unusual about his motherboard is a 4-pin molex connector situated beside the DDR3 slots.  Depending on the purpose of this molex connector (it seems in a weird position to provide extra power to the GPU layout or the CPU) this may or may not inconvenience users, depending on case and cable management.

Biostar TH55XE

The TH55XE from Biostar is an oddly coloured H55 micro-ATX board also on display at Computex.  Using a black PCB with orange, white, and yellow components, this is board aimed at the HTPC market.

With support for Core i3/i5/i7 processors, 4 DDR3 DIMM slots and Realtek ALC888 8+2 Channel HD Audio, Biostar believe the motherboard could make a perfect combination for an in-home entertainment system.  However, as seems to be the case constantly with Biostar, the combination of PCI and PCIe slots may not be to anyone’s taste. The PCIe x16, PCIe x1, PCI, PCI arrangement will frustrate users wanting an x1 audio card and a double slot or large passive GPU - we'd much rather like an PCIe x1, PCIe x16, PCI, PCI arrangement. 

Even though Sandy Bridge is at least another 6 months away (if not Q4 2010 then H1 2011), motherboard manufacturers cannot wait to show off their concept design goodies.  We've selected a few worthy of your attention.

ECS P67H2-A + P67H2-A2

Of the three 1155 boards at Computex from ECS, the P67H2-A represents their flagship model, and is slated to have four DDR3-2600 slots, 2x SATA 6Gb/s, 2x USB 3.0, 20x USB 2.0 (that's right, twenty!), dual Gigabit Ethernet and three PCIe Gen 2.0 slots.  The layout does benefit tri-GPU users and part-time folders in terms of cooling. 

For dual or single GPU users however, the P67H2-A2 looks the better mainstream board - more SATA ports, with four being SATA 6Gb/s, and an overclocking knob.  From 0-9, ECS state that each notch will increase an overclock by 5%, meaning a possible 45% overall overclock.  ECS won't let on if this is pure base clock increasing, or is coupled with voltage increases and suitable RAM clocking, but we wonder if they missed a trick, by not putting it all the way to 11.

MSI H67MA-GD65

Now that a significant proportion of the motherboard market is geared towards smaller motherboards of the micro-ATX and mini-ITX variety, manufacturers are already putting resources into their smaller form factor products - and as a result, MSI had a concept micro-ATX board based on the H67 chipset on display at Computex.

Featuring USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s and back panel HDMI/DVI-D/D-Sub connectors, as well as an array of Power/Reset/Clear CMOS/OC Genie board buttons, the two x16 PCIe Gen 2.0 ports are set three slots apart rather than two, allowing better cooling opportunities, but at the expense of a lot of USB headers if long dual slot cards are used.

Gigabyte P67-UD7

Recent X58 policy with Gigabyte has been to add water cooling into the heatpipe system, chuck in a few hundred phases (or at least 24), and plug the board full of PCIe slots - as seen with the X58A-UD7 and X58A-UD9.  Well this time, they're preparing at least one socket 1156 version, possibly in time for Sandy Bridge release.

 

There has been some confusion online as to whether this board is the UD7 or the UD9 with a massive '7' on the board and in UD7 livery.  Apart from getting our image direct from Gigabyte, for comparison with the X58 lineup, the UD7 has two PCI slots, whereas the UD9 does not have any.  Perhaps the words 'UD9' light up certain enthusiasts’ eyes, as well as dollar signs in those of Gigabyte executives.

J&W MINIX™ 890GX-USB3

J&W is a motherboard manufacturer that we suspect many North Americans would not have heard of.  Based in Taiwan, they have put together an Mini-ITX 890GX + SB850 AMD package featuring USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, a Radeon HD4290 with 128MB DDR3 onboard memory, core unlocking, dual Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI/DVI-D/D-Sub ports, and a mini PCIe slot for WiFi Cards or SSD.

With onboard RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 (which supports the SATA 6Gb/s) and a PCIe x16 Gen 2.0 slot for a beefier graphics card, J&W have literally tried to fit everything possible in the small form factor.  As a result though, DDR3 SO-DIMM laptop memory is required, rather than standard DDR3. 

So, fancy a 6-core mini-ITX system, with USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, onboard RAID, and support for multiple video outputs?  Initial pricing is estimated at $180, which is quite a lot for a mini-ITX board, but few other mini-ITX boards can boast such an array of features.  There is also an issue of North American supply - J&W are fairly active in Europe and Asia, and could expand into North America if demand for their products is high enough.  A good product at the right price will always encourage demand, so we can't wait to see if this board performs as good as it sounds.

ECS A890GXM-AU

Winner of the Computex 2010 'Best Choice, IC and Components' Award, the A890GXM-AU from ECS is also a board worth considering for the future if you plan on an AMD upgrade route but want a full ATX sized motherboard.  Similar to the J&W, ECS combine a 890GX + SB850 platform with a HD4290 and 128MB GPU DDR3 onboard, core unlocking, 5x SATA 6GB/s with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 supported, and dual Gigabit Ethernet.

USB 3.0 however is supplied via a PCIe 1x card, and the back panel contains Display Port/HDMI/DVI-D/D-Sub connectors as well as 6 USB 2.0 ports.  The A890GXM-AU offers three PCIe Gen 2.0 slots in an x16/x16/x4 configuration, however the third PCIe is directly under the second.  Audio is supplied via a Realtek ALC892 HD Codec, with 7.1 Channel output through the rear panel.  This board currently retails at $120 (after a $15 Mail-In Rebate).  ECS also market this board with their ‘15 micron gold’ paraphernalia – this is in relation to the PCI/PCIe slots, which have 3x as much gold on the pin connectors than most other boards – according to ECS, this reduces the resistance between the connects, allowing for cleaner signals to travel through, as well as improving the longevity of the socket if components are being put in and taken out frequently.