Sapphire to launch high-end Intel X58 and P67 motherboards

Sapphire are a leading manufacturer of graphics cards, especially in the UK supplying the masses with the latest AMD based cards including the newest 6900 series cards that have been sweeping the nation. They are closely regarded as AMD’s biggest partner when it comes to the graphics card market place.

It seems as though Sapphire want a bigger piece of the pie and thus has started to introduce a high-end set of Intel based motherboards; one of AMD’s biggest rivals.

With Sandy Bridge the latest “hot thing” for consumers, it only seems fitting that Sapphire snatch it up, but they do seem to believe (just as Gigabyte do) that the socket 1366 market isn’t dead yet and have introduced the first board in their range; the Pure Black X58.

As the name suggests, the colour scheme includes mass amounts of blue and black across the cooling, memory slots and expansion slots too. We also see a dark coloured grey/black PCB being used, all featuring the X58 chipset.

The board will support Intel LGA1366 processors including the extreme range such as the 980X for consumers with too much money in their wallets. It features the standard 6 module triple channel memory setup, the ability for multiple graphics card solutions in a CrossFire configuration at x16, x8,x8 and x4 as well as a legacy PCI slot.

Storage wise, we will see a set of SATA 6Gbps connectors using a Marvell controller, Bluetooth connectivity and USB 3.0 connectors to keep up with the expanding market.

The board also favours overclockers with advanced buttons for powering up, reset and BIOS, has voltage points and LED indicator for easy troubleshooting too. Stability wise, we are expecting the same investment that Sapphire have in their high-end graphics cards with Sapphire Diamond Black chokes and solid capacitors, which will aid the user, especially when overclocking.

Other products that Sapphire are due to release include a motherboard for the LGA1155 socket dubbed the Pure Black P67 Hydra, which as the name suggests, will support the latest P67 chipset for Sandy Bridge processors and whilst specs are still very sketchy, the design should be something similar to the X58 board but will support a Lucid Hydra chip which will allow multiple GPU configurations to be taken to the next level.

No news on pricing and availability as of yet, but our sources tell us that the boards are completed and are at the production stage, so keep your eyes open for these hitting the retail market very soon.

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