Gigabyte has launched a new motherboard that begs the question, who needs PCI slots anyway? Built around Intel's flagship X58 chipset, the GA-X58A-UD9 is home to seven PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, but not one PCI, PCIe x1 or any other expansion slot for that matter.
Powering the slots is two Nvidia nF200 chips, which deliver support for four-way SLI or CrossFire setups. The XL-ATX motherboard is also fitted with six DIMM slots ready to tackle DDR3 2200+ RAM, 12 SATA ports (two of which support 6Gb/s), two USB 3.0 ports, and dual gigabit Ethernet.
Additionally, the GA-X58A-UD9 boasts a 24-phase power design with "mutual back-up to each 12 phase," an onboard debug LED for simplified troubleshooting as well as power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons. Overclocking features include dual BIOS ROMs, hardware overvoltage control IC, an overvoltage and temperature reminder, and more.
We haven't spotted a price for Gigabyte's new board, but somewhere beyond $350 seems plausible, as the company's GA-X58A-UD7 already runs that territory.
