Intel's new motherboard in NZ soon

By JUHA SAARINEN

The largest chip maker in the world, Intel, has launched new motherboards which will appear in personal computers in New Zealand shortly.

Computer buyers can expect much from the new boards, using the new chip sets code-named Alderwood and Grantsdale respectively. There will be plenty of new technology, high performance, and added value.

However, much of the new stuff will render the current generation of hardware obsolete, so it cannot be re-used in the new boards.

Apart from Intel, Alderwood and Grantsdale-based boards will be available from manufacturers such as Abit, Gigabyte, MSI and Foxconn, all available in New Zealand.

Here's a breakdown:

Video: PCI Express debuts: Adios, Advanced Graphics Port (AGP); the new generation of motherboards come with the PCI Express bus or connector for video cards. While PCI Express offers an increase in bandwidth that, for instance, 3D computer games can benefit from, it is not compatible with older AGP video cards.

Sound: High Definition Audio: Intel is now putting "Azalia" eight channel (7.1) surround-sound on the boards, thus providing high-end audio that was available only through expensive add-on cards in the past.

Networking: built-in WiFi: The bundled wireless networking with the new motherboards will undeniably woo many buyers. Basically, it provides a WiFi access point, a device that you would normally have to buy separately.

Note, however, that the actual wireless module won't be available until the third quarter of this year.

Storage: More capacity and performance, plus fault-tolerance.

You can never have enough disk space, so Intel had doubled the number of Serial ATA connectors on the new boards to four.

These let you set up hard drives in different types of arrays, for increased capacity and performance, as well as fault-tolerance.

A cool new disk array feature is the Matrix RAID which can provide fault-tolerance as well as high performance, but requires only two hard disks. Past drive array solutions needed at least three drives to provide fault-tolerance, and ideally four.

Memory: Intel is introducing a new memory type, Dual Data Rate 2 (DDR-2) with the new boards, which offers increased DDR over the older generation - 8.5 gigabytes per second compared to 6.4 - and runs at a lower voltage.

The high-end 925 motherboards will be able to use only DDR-2 memory.

However, the 915 boards can use both the older DDR and the newer DDR-2 modules.

Processors: The bread and butter business for Intel is still microprocessors, so it is not surprise that the new boards are accompanied by faster variants of its Prescott and Extreme Edition chips.

The new Prescotts run at 3.4 and 3.6 giga-Hertz respectively, and will go into top-end systems. Where money is no obstacle, the 3.4 giga-Hertz Extreme Edition with its large cache and even larger price, can be used instead.

You cannot use the current generation of Pentium 4 processors in the new boards. Intel has introduced a new socket which is not compatible with anything apart from the new processors.

No NZ recall of chip sets: Intel ran into problems with the new chip sets almost immediately after launching them and is recalling some of boards it sent out.

Dan Anderson, Intel's PR manager for Australia and New Zealand, says the problem was caused by "incomplete removal of thin film in on the die pad area" which in turn stopped systems from starting up, or made them hang or crash.

However, Anderson said the number of faulty chips was small - a few thousand - and none of the products shipping now were affected.

Asked if New Zealand boards would have to be recalled, Anderson said it was "unlikely, but admittedly not impossible, that NZ consumers will even see the problem", but advised customers who think they may have been affected to contact their system manufacturer.

He added that the recall would not cause "significant delays" in shipping the new gear.