1
Introducing the Motherboard
Chapter 1
Introducing the Motherboard
Introduction
Thank you for choosing the X58B-A motherboard. This motherboard is a high
performance, enhanced function motherboard designed to support the LGA1366
socket Intel
®
Core
TM
i7 processor for high-end business or personal desktop markets.
The motherboard incorporates the Intel
X58 Northbridge (NB) and Intel ICH10R
Southbridge (SB) chipsets. The Northbridge supports Intel
®
QuickPath Interconnect
(Intel
®
QPI) of 4.8 GT/s to 6.4 GT/s supporting different routing lengths. The memory
controller supports DDR3 memory DIMM frequencies of 1333/1066/800. It sup-
ports six DDR3 sockets with up to maximum memory of 24 GB. DDR3 Maximum
memory bandwidth of 32 GB/s in triple-channel symmetric mode assuming DDR3
1333 MHz. High resolution graphics via two PCI Express slots, intended for Graphics
Interface, is fully compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification revision 2.0.
Additionally, one PCI Express x4 slot is supported, fully compliant to the PCI
Express Base Specificaiton revision 2.0 as well. It supports the ATI CrossFire
TM
Technology that allows you to install GPU graphics cards.
The ICH10R Southbridge on this motherboard supports one PCI slot which is PCI
v2.3 compliant. In addition, two PCI Express x1 slot is supported, fully compliant to
the PCI Express Base Specification revision 1.1. It implements an EHCI compliant
interface that provides 480 Mb/s bandwidth for twelve USB 2.0 ports (six USB ports
and three USB 2.0 headers support additional six USB ports). The Southbridge sup-
ports six SATA ports with maximum transfer rate up to 3.0 Gb/s each. It supports
Intel
®
Matrix Storage Technology, providing both AHCI and RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10
configuration.
The motherboard is equipped with advanced full set of I/O ports in the rear panel,
including PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, one CLR_CMOS button, two eSATA
ports, one 1394a port, two LAN ports, six USB ports, one optical SPDIFO port and
audio jacks for microphone, line-in and 8-ch line-out. Additionally, one Heat pipe
heat sink is supported for NB, CPU & SB heat dissipation.
In addition, this motherboard comes with an LED for debug, a power on button, a
reset button and a CLR_CMOS button. The processor can be overclocked when CPU
Over-clocking Func. is set to Enabled in M.I.B (MB Intelligent BIOS).