Intel's X48 chipset arrives on shelves, reminds users of the X38

For those of you looking to build your ultimate super fantasy dream system, the goal may have just gotten a little closer. According to some tipsters and the zany builders at Tom's Hardware, Intel's X48 chipset is on the street (and mobos) and just waiting to take your breath away... maybe. According to Tom and co., the new configuration may not be that far of a cry from the previously released X38, adding only an improved northbridge and "official" support for FSB-1600 bus speed, though they note that this was technically available in the X38 as well. Tom runs the new entry through a battery of comparisons, so you can get a much clearer idea of what this puppy does. Is this new chipset the answer to overclocker's prayers, or just a waste of an additional $65? Only burning silicon knows for sure.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Dani @ Mar 24th 2008 9:13AM]

Not that I want to pee on anyone's kebab, but isn't this news about a month old?

[r3loaded @ Mar 24th 2008 9:18AM]

Yes it is. Are you new to Engadget? :)

[Dani @ Mar 24th 2008 9:20AM]

hehe, I've seen articles going back a couple of days, but this is almost prehistoric :)

[BowserUSC @ Mar 24th 2008 5:32PM]

Cute avatar.

[CT A @ Mar 24th 2008 9:32AM]

Would you like some cheese with that wine?

[CT A @ Mar 24th 2008 9:32AM]

Meant for Dani...


Nvm that Joke didn't work anyways.
I=EPOCH Fail.

[Dani @ Mar 24th 2008 10:36AM]

Cheese and wine is fab!

I quite like some American cheeses like Sonoma Jack it goes great with Sauvignon Blanc.

That said, some Swiss and a bottle of Asti and I'm happy :)

[Kurian @ Mar 24th 2008 9:34AM]

Ah yes. Screw everyone who bought a 680i board by making the retail CPUs incompatible with 680i (while the pre-order units worked since there was no other board at the time) and then push your Intel crapset which gets totally pwned by nForce.

[aardvark sandwich @ Mar 24th 2008 9:48AM]

That is a godly avatar.

[Casper42 @ Mar 24th 2008 12:25PM]

Huh?

680i is replaced by 780i for 1600 Support and 790i for 1600 + DDR3
All those are from nVidia

X48 is a direct replacement for X38
Both of which are Intel

So what does Intel releasing the X48 have ANYTHING to do with the 680i and its support for newer CPUs?

[Kurian @ Mar 24th 2008 12:38PM]

Intel screwed over everyone who bought 680i boards who had plans of upgrading to a Q9xxx.
The 680i MCP has full support for the 45nm Core 2s, a.k.a. the Q9xxx series.

When Intel started shipping the QX9650 against preorder several months ago, majority of people were putting them in 680i boards such as the Striker Extreme and the P5N32-E SLI, because they were the best choice and are better than Intel's crappy mainboards any day.

When they finally released a handful of the CPUs in retail, it was found that NONE of them would boot on a 680i board. nVidia then made a statement saying that though the 680i MCP supported the 45nm CPUs, the board manufacturers hadn't implenented it properly and hence a circuit change is required to make them work in current 680i boards. The "issue" has been fixed in the 780i boards.

But then how did the preorder QX9650s work? The reason is that the retail CPUs have been modified such that they become incompatible with this improper implementation on the 680i boards.

Its widely speculated that Intel did this to strike back at nVidia for not licensing them SLi for their boards last year. Not that any enthusiast who would buy SLi is gonna get a POS Intel board any way.

[Abuzar @ Mar 24th 2008 7:22PM]

A real enthusiast that doesn't want SLI knows that you get better performance out of Intel chipsets anyway...

[Kurian @ Mar 25th 2008 8:15AM]

Yes, enthusiasts prefer the 0.5% performance gain when using Intel chipsets over a 1.5GHz overclock on other chipsets. The 0.5% gain outweighs not being able to overclock at all on the Intel.

[Abuzar @ Mar 25th 2008 3:20PM]

Are you KIDDING ME?

Now that X38 has matured it offers the best overclocking, the best performance, and the best stability. Nvidia chipsets are used because they FORCE them on us for SLI.

[OneLove @ Mar 24th 2008 10:33AM]

whats the use of building an "ultimate super fantasy dream system" when the new stuff comes out every hour.

[Richard Lai @ Mar 24th 2008 10:34AM]

For some reason when I read to "mobos" I saw "moobs" instead.

You know, "man boobs"?

I need to sleep.

[Scott Barlow @ Mar 24th 2008 1:51PM]

Supermicro threw their card on the table with their announcement as well. Although the chipset has been announced for a while, that doesn't mean it's mass-produced the same day. Today marks the day that it's generally available to the public:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080324/clm033.html?.v=101

[Ubuntu 7.10+WindowsXP @ Mar 24th 2008 2:42PM]

I honestly couldn't care less. I am an AMD man....right now at least. I may be switching to Intel on the next mass computer upgrade, but we will see. Reguardless, the chipset will be nForce or AMD/ATI. If I did it right now nForce 780i or the AMD 780G.

Notice that Intel was never a choice in the matter. :)

Intel Chipset free for 9 years. ;)