Where Are The Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 Motherboards?

[TheBeagle]

Well, I suppose it's time to submit this posting and find out when this latest iteration of Gigabyte board will become available. The interesting thing is the alleged continuation of DDR2 memory slots and other components from the X38 board. I sure hope that Gigabyte does a better job with BIOS revision developments than they have done so far with the X38 board.

I know that there is one early review article out there on the X48 board with DDR2 memory, but the silence from the other customary array of reviewers is somewhat unusual. Maybe everyone else has NDAs so they can't talk - yet. It would be nice to see a comparative review between the X38 board and the X48 board, both using DDR2 memory sticks - maybe 8GB with Vista 64 - maybe also w/SP1 thrown in for good measure.

Best regards to everyone - Blessed Christmas! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[KenAF]

The X48 will be released some time between January 6 and January 20.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Ken.

Thanks for the response, but could you share your source of information and whether or not it will be a DDR2 board, that is, if you have that info.

Best regards to everyone - Blessed Christmas! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Salamandar]

X48 = X38.1 !

So lame :roll:

 

[Capt Caveman]

I do not believe X48 mobos will be DDR2 boards.

 

[eklock2000]

It's about time Mr. TheBeagle...

Thank you for your consistently meaningful, sincere, useful posts on all topics.

I'm pretty much done with the 680SLI-DQ6 Board and am very much looking forward to the next high-end product. Looking forward to another great thread.

Happy Holidays.

Sincerely,

EK2K

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. EK2K and Everyone.

It was just a matter of time for someone to initiate a Thread about the X48 boards, so I thought, what the heck, I might as well be the one to do it. Hopefully, our colleague, Gary Key, will have some time to give us some insights about the new batch of X48 boards once he gets out from under a likely NDA and attends to more pressing personal matters. It will be interesting to see what (if any) significant improvements are cranked into the X48 boards. One would expect some level of better compatibility with the Penryn CPUs, but aside from that, I sure would like to see Gigabyte fully complete a production cycle on one of their boards before they abandon it from a newer toy.

BTW, I am sure that most of you are aware of Gary's personal family situation. His little girl, her name is Angela, has been diagnosed with cancer. She has had several operations to remove those growths, and is now undergoing various therapies, including radiation. Gary and his family need our thoughts and prayers. This is never more true than now at the advent of Christmas.

While we are all sometimes quite self-absorbed in our own issues with computers, etc, just imagine, if you can, what facing a demon like cancer in your child might be like if that situation presented itself at your doorstep? May I respectfully suggest that for those of us of faith, let us make Angela (whose name is the derivative of Angel) our Christmas special intention. May I also suggest that each one of our members and readers alike, send Gary a PM and tell him, each in your own way, that you are thinking about him, his family and especially Angela.

The power of prayer and positive thought is beyond our ability to truly comprehend. This web site reaches around the whole world. Let us make Angela's restoration to health our personal cause and make sure that each time we visit this web site, that we take a moment to think of her and to ask Him to heal her little body. It is what the Christ Child would want us to do, and that selfless act of kindness and compassion would be in the true spirit of Christmas.

Best regards to everyone - Blessed Christmas! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: TheBeagle
Hello Mr. Ken.

Thanks for the response, but could you share your source of information and whether or not it will be a DDR2 board, that is, if you have that info.

Best regards to everyone - Blessed Christmas! TheBeagle :beer:

Hello Mr Beagle,

DDR2 is far from dead. Gigabyte will release 2 high-end X48 mobos just like they did with the X38. The new boards are the DDR2 only GA-X48-DQ6 & its DDR3 version the GA-X48T-DQ6.

As the writing between the mem slots indicate, the GA-X48-DQ6 is definitely a DDR2 only mobo.

 

[Fallen Kell]

What is it with all these boards and the sockets being so close to the top of the board? The bigger coolers will not fit on these in cases where the power supply is directly next to the board (which is a LOT of cases), or cases that are inverted....

 

[eklock2000]

...and the rumor mill churns!

http://www.fudzilla.com/index....=view&id=4671&Itemid=1

"But worst of all is the fact that it seems like DDR3-1600 will only work with 1,600 or 1,066MHz FSB, with no support for 1,333MHz bus CPUs. This seems like a bit of a problem for Intel, since those with 1,333MHz FSB processors won't be able to use this chipset with fast DDR3 memory."

Peace,

EK2K

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Afternoon Mr. EK2K and Everyone.

That's an interesting tidbit of "news" that is being bantered about on that Fudzilla web sit. However, we have been given a "preview look" at a X48 prototype board that shows DDR2 support, so I have to question the representations of that Fudzilla posting and its underlying "Intel slide."

However, what I am interested to know about is whether or not Gigabyte (and maybe some other board manufacturers as well) are likely to have multiple versions of a X48 board, and depending on where someone lives, they will only be able to get "their designated" version of that board. Such a region specific availability is certainly not unknown for Gigabyte to use (they've done it in the past) and Plextor has done it as well.

So, if and when a member has some solid info on board availability with DDR2 support, I'd certainly appreciate hearing about it.

BTW, Newegg had dropped their price again for G'Skill 4GB PC2-8000 memory kits (2x2GB) to $114.00 USD. That's a damn good deal on those sticks. I'm running 8GB of them in my rig right now, and they're rock solid stable.

Also, don't bother to buy any of the OCZ Reaper-X HPC (new version) PC2-8000 memory sticks with the external heat pipes, unless you only want to populate one pair of memory slots. They are a nice product, but are too wide for 4 sticks to fit on any of the boards I have/had, since the cooling pipes cause the body of the stick to be just a bit too fat to allow the same type of stick to be inserted into the adjoining memory slot. That's really a shame, since it seems like a nice product, but certainly won't work in a majority of the boards I know of.

Best regards to everyone - Blessed Christmas! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: TheBeagle
Good Afternoon Mr. EK2K and Everyone.

That's an interesting tidbit of "news" that is being bantered about on that Fudzilla web sit. However, we have been given a "preview look" at a X48 prototype board that shows DDR2 support, so I have to question the representations of that Fudzilla posting and its underlying "Intel slide."

However, what I am interested to know about is whether or not Gigabyte (and maybe some other board manufacturers as well) are likely to have multiple versions of a X48 board, and depending on where someone lives, they will only be able to get "their designated" version of that board. Such a region specific availability is certainly not unknown for Gigabyte to use (they've done it in the past) and Plextor has done it as well.

So, if and when a member has some solid info on board availability with DDR2 support, I'd certainly appreciate hearing about it.

I've just had a look over at heise.de and there are a lot of shops in Germany that are taking pre-orders for Gigabyte's GA-X48-DQ6 & GA-X48-DS5 mobos. Both are DDR2 only. Since Germany is not a ?secondary? market I would expect for at least the high-end DQ6 ver to become available worldwide.

 

[TheBeagle]

Greetings & Salutations To Everyone!

I wish to extend to everyone a sincere hope that each one of you enjoys a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. We all have something to be thankful for, and I especially am thankful for reasonably good heath and a wonderful wife.

Best New Year's Regards To Everyone!! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Everyone.

Just a quick note to inquire if anyone has heard when the GA-X48-DQ6 boards will released for sale? I saw a couple of late reviews, but nothing concerning availability in the USA. If anyone has some straight scoop on that issue, I'd appreciate to hear about it. Thanks.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[imported_boe]

I know I'm probably building about 3 systems for my friends when the GA-X48T-DQ6 comes out but so far I haven't seen an exact release date - just sometime Q1 and some guesses.

 

[imported_boe]

No one heard any firm exact date or week yet?

 

[imported_boe]

OK - this isn't an exact date but I guess the X48 agreement for Intel is mid february and Gigabyte is already shipping to dealers so hopefully in a few weeks.

 

[dingetje]

for me x48 doesn't have much to offer over p35....i would be much more interested in the p45 / g45 boards....hopefully coming in q2-2008 ?

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Afternoon Everyone.

Gigabyte (Taiwan) has finally posted product information on their upcoming GA-X48-DQ6 board here: X48. Interestingly, that same info does NOT appear on the USA web site for Gigabyte (?) - at least not as of the writing of this post.

I'd be very interested to know whenever someones sees this item actually for sale in the USA. The Taiwan web site indicates that the X48 board utilizes DDR2 memory sticks, so that will be a blessing to save some $. Also, G.Skill is about to release DDR2 1066 (2GB) memory sticks in the very near future at Newegg. That should certainly provide some additional headroom for OCing the X48 board, especially in conjunction with the new Q9450 CPU.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Everyone.

Well placed, and quite informed sources indicate that the X48 boards will arrive on or about March 18th. The rumors about Intel withholding the official release date for the X48 chipset at the request of some of major board manufacturers appears to be true. That hold was to allow sufficient time to purge the X38 boards from the supply chain. The existing supply of X38 boards should dwindle to a trickle by mid-March, so the release date of the 18th of March appears to be very likely.

Best regards to everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)!! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[kevinhill16]

Thanks for the info on the release of the board. Is there any talk on how much the GA-X48-DQ6 will cost?

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Mr. Kevin.

I haven't seen a price yet, but I would guess about @300 USD (Revised Guess). Of course some of the online distributors who get the first boards will likely squeeze all the bucks they can get out of the initial round of buyers. I intend to put a new Q9450 CPU, together with 4 sticks (2GB) of PC8500 (1066 - 8GB) of G.Skill memory (I just got the memory yesterday) in this new board and see how it runs.

I am hoping for a measurable reduction in thermals from the combination of the X48 board and the new Q9450 proc, since I utilize a standard sized Antec case, and it gets a bit crowded in there with 6 hard drives, a 8800GTX, and an assortment of other cards, etc. So anything to reduce the thermals and still maintain performance is a blessing.

BTW, Newegg had a heck of a deal going on G.Skill PC8500 4gb memory kits starting last Friday. The regular discounted price is $169 for 4GB of 1066 memory, but if you use a Promo Code of: EMCACABH at the checkout, they will take another $20 off the price. That is also free shipping and no sales tax. If you are going to buy two kits (8GB) you need to place separate orders for each kit in order to get the extra $20 discount on each kit.

I was using the G.Skill PC8000 2GB sticks up until now together with my Q6600 (G0) and they work fine and ran cool. But I think that since the new Q9450 procs are reported to be capable of 4GHz on air cooling, I'll need the extra headroom of the faster memory to balance out the whole rig. I'll let you know how it runs when I get it put together.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Everyone.

Here's the first SKU listing for the GA-X48-DQ6 board: Zip Zoom Fly that I have seen. They have the board for sale (but currently out of stock) for $299.00 USD. That likely means that the other major distributors (ClubIT, Newegg, mWave, etc) will also have a SKU for this board within the coming week. There are reports beginning to emerge that the major board manufacturers are shipping their X48 boards right now, for release on or about next Tuesday (March 18th). We shall see.

Best regards to everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)!! TheBeagle :beer:

 

[NicColt]

thanks for all your info beagle, this seems to be the board to get for me to replace my asus p5k black eye edition.

I have ati in xfire and external esata disk to feed.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Everyone.

Well, the X48 boards have finally appeared. They're for sale here: ClubIT @ $319.99 USD, and here: ZipZoomfly @ $308.00 USD. Newegg still hasn't posted a SKU for any x48 boards, but I'm sure it won't be too long before they have them listed as well.

Now we just need Intel to release the Q9450 procs and we'll be ready to rock-n-roll! I will update this item as more vendors offer the X48 boards for sale.

Best regards to everyone. Happy Easter!! TheBeagle :beer:

PS. Please don't forget to remember our colleague's (Gary Key) little girl, Angela, in your thoughts and prayers on the Easter holiday! Last I heard her cancer was in remission, and we will all pray it stays that way. God Bless Gary and his family.