Foxconn Quantum Force X79 Motherboard Gets Pictured

Motherboard makers are starting to get ready for the upcoming release of Intel's first Sandy Bridge-E desktop processors and one of the first to showcase an LGA 2011 solution for these CPUs is Foxconn with its Quantum Force X79.

A pre-production version of this board has also been showcased at Computex fair in June of this year, but, since then, Foxconn has made a few changes to the layout of its X79 offering.

These include the rearrangement of some of the expansion slots, a finalized design for the heatsink over the X79 chipset, and a slight rearrangement of the area next to the front-panel headers.

Just like most other LGA 2011 motherboard that we have come to see until know, the Quantum Force X79 is equipped with four DIMM slots situated right above and bellow the CPU socket.

Right next to these, Foxconn has placed the board's expansion slots, which include four PCI Express x16 slots, a PCIe x4 slot as well as a legacy 32-bit PCI slot.

Only two of the PCI Express slots available work in an x16 mode, as the remaining two have only 8 PCIe lanes routed to them.

The motherboard is however compatible with 3-way Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFireX graphics card setups.

Storage is provided by no less than 14 SATA ports, but some of these will be removed in the final version of the board.

Other features include USB 3.0 connectivity, support for the enterprise version of Intel's Rapid Storage Technology (IRST), and a 14-phase CPU PWM with DrMOS MOSFET transistors.

Intel's Sandy Bridge-E processors are expected to debut in mid-November and the initial CPU batch will include three chips, two featuring a six-core design and a quad-core model. The Foxconn Quantum Force X79 is also expected to debut in Q4 2011. (via VR-Zone)

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