EVGA Preps Dual-Socket Mainboard for Gaming Systems

From X-bit Labs: Just when everyone thought that dual-processor platforms for consumers were dead, EVGA, a well-known supplier of graphics cards and mainboards, revealed plans to unveil a motherboard for two microprocessors aimed at gamers with no limits in mind and budget.

At the Consumer Electronics Show EVGA plans to demonstrate its Intel X58-based motherboard designed for two central processing units in LGA1366 form-factor. The mainboard, which image has been published in XtremeSystems forums, sports two processor sockets, twelve DDR3 memory slots (6 per socket), seven PCI Express x16 slots for graphics cards and other add-in-cards as well as numerous additional controllers that provide functionality necessary for gamers, e.g., 7.1-channel audio controller, Nvidia’s PCI Express hubs to optimize performance of multi-GPU setups and so on.

The mainboard comes in extended ATX form-factor, hence, will be incompatible with the vast majority of consumer cases. Besides, end-users will have to obtain Intel Xeon 5500-series processors for the motherboard unless Intel launches special-edition Intel Core i7 processors that support dual-processor configuration.

Both Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. tried to popularize 2-way systems for consumers 2-4 years ago. However, both AMD QuadFX as well as Intel V8 platforms failed to become popular even among performance-demanding end-users as well as boutique PC makers who sell systems that can cost $5000 and upwards, since those machines either were not fast enough considering their price or could not demonstrate their full potential due to software limitations.

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