Intel presents new P45 en G45/43 motherboards

Intel has presented a number of new motherboards, based on the P45 and G45/43 chipset. Apart from that, a new mini-ITX board based on the Atom processor will also be released. The introduced boards are intended for different users, as the boxes display the "Extreme", "Media" and "Essential" series.

The Extreme motherboard, the DP45SG, is based on the Intel P45 chipset and features four DDR3 memory slots. There are two PCI-Express x16 graphics card slots available, but because the chipset can only handle 16 lanes, they will decrease to an 8x/8x configuration in Crossfire. The board also has three PCI slots and two PCI-E x1 slots. There are six SATA ports, of which one eSATA. The floppy and IDE plug are not present on the board.

In the "Media Series", Intel reveals two G45 motherboards, one of the ATX form factor (DG45ID), the other of the micro-ATX (DG45FC). The boards seem to have similar specifciations, both support DDR2 memory and have 6 SATA connectors. The mATX model, DG45FC, lacks two DDR2 slots and a PCI-e x16 slots, compared to the ATX version. It does however support infrared receivers, a thing that will come in handy for media centers. Thanks to the new GMA X4500HD graphics chip, the boards can also handle HD video with a bit of a slower CPU.

There's also a cheaper board, based on the G45 chipset. This board, named DG43NB, is compatible with all S775 processors but has only two DDR2 memory slots. Apart from the graphics card slot, there are also three expansion slots of both PCI-E 1x as PCI. This model does have an IDE connector, making it possible to connect older hard disks and DVD drives to the motherboard as well. Intel bundles the board with Acronis True Image, which allows the creation of complete back-ups of the operating system.

For the Atom processor, Intel shows the D945GCLF motherboard, based on the antique 945GC chipset. This board features onboard video and 2+2 channel audio. The system can be equipped with up to 2 GB of DDR2 memory and thanks to the two SATA ports and IDE connector, up to four hard disks can be connected. The extra PCI slot of this mini-ITX board should provide expandibility options.

Tags: atom crossfire ddr2 ddr3 esata sata microatx

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