To support the socket 2011 and the quad channel operation Intel launches today also the X79 Chipset. Similar to socket 1155, only one chipset on the mainboard that regulates it all. Logic as the PCI-Express controller is integratd in the CPU die.  Less chipsets on our boards is good as it normally should reflect in a lower cost. Also we no longer need heatpipes running all over our boards connecting northbridge en southbridge.

Socket 1155 only had 100Bclock speed set and this allowed for RAM dividers from 800,1066, 1333, 1600,1866 way up to 2133Mhz. We saw a lot of 2400Mhz dividers in biosses, but none of them worked with the retail SB CPUs.

Intel now has got official support for 2667Mhz, But there's more, you can select an extra Bclock multiplier in the bios to go from 100 to 125 Bclock and even 165 Bclock. But don't immediately think this will boost the speed of all the components linked to the Bclock. Intel uses a buffer to regulate it all. But what it allows is a whole new set of ram dividers : 1000-1777-2221-2400-3000... However the 1.65x multiplier function did not work on our boards...

Now comes the lesser part of this chipset. At start Intel overwhelmed us with integrated USB3.0 controllers and up to 14 S-ATA connectors. When we look at the Intel Siler board ( included in the press kit ) we don't spot much of them promised features. Only 4x S-ATA 300 and 2X S-ATA 600 connectors on board. USB3.0 is no longer supported, so the manufacturers need to rely again on external chips for added S-ATA connectors and USB3.0. What the reason behind this stepdown is, noone realy knows.

For the quad channel rams there's still XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) version 1.3. We have seen ASrock introduce this memory support already a while back in august for their socket 1155 Z68 boards. What it all boils down to is that you have control of even more ram settings to fine tune it all. The most important vendors have quad channel kits XMP1.3 ready in all the speeds, quantities and colours you can imagine :)