GIGABYTE announced its latest motherboard based on Intel’s ‘Basin Falls’ architecture and targeted at workstation users, the GIGABYTE MW51-HP0 Xeon-W (Basin Falls) Motherboard. The ‘Basin Falls’ single-socket platform for workstations offers a wealth of I/O options, including multiple PCIe lanes to support graphics, storage and USB options, as well as direct SATA and USB ports.
GIGABYTE’s new Xeon Skylake-W motherboard utilises the full complement of 48x PCIe lanes direct from the CPU. They can support up to 4 x GPU cards or multiple x8 and x16 add-on cards. Also, GIGABYTE’s engineers have designed densely-packed SATA and USB options. Those are based on direct and PCIe connections from the chipset, leading to a massively flexible workstation board.
“GIGABYTE is well equipped to provide flexible, high-quality solutions to all segments of the motherboard market”, said Etay Lee, GM, GIGABYTE. “With a wealth of experience in from consumer boards right up to cloud and HPC deployments, and this new platform from Intel, GIGABYTE is well placed to address the specific needs of workstation users.”
Rich I/O Options
Intel’s new generation Xeon ‘Skylake-W’ is a single-socket CPU that provides 48 PCIe lanes from the CPU and 16 further PCIe lanes from the chipset. GIGABYTE has utilised these to create a feature rich board delivering a real punch in graphics and multiple connectivities through add-on card sockets.
Multiple Storage And Connectivity Options
This board boasts 8x USB 3.0 ports, plus 2x USB 3.1 (Type-A and Type-C), integrated on the rear of the board with the dual 1GbE ports. The board is also complemented with a VROC port to enable RAID for NVMe storage on board.
It’s Just the Beginning
This motherboard is GIGABYTE’s initial offering on Intel’s latest ‘Basin Falls’ Skylake-W platform. That is the official statement which is copied directly from the press release. That means that we can expect more Xeon Skylake-W SOHO boards from the company in the future.
MW51-HP0 Feature Highlights
- Intel Xeon W-series Processor Family
- Intel C422 Express Chipset
- Quad Channel RDIMM/LRDIMM DDR4, 8 x DIMMs
- Intel VROC ready
- ASMedia 2142 USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB controller
- Realtek ALC1150 HD audio codec
- 2 x GbE LAN ports (Intel I210)
- 8 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports from C422, supports SATA DOM
- 2 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports from Marvell 88SE9172 controller
- Ultra-Fast M.2 and U.2 with PCIe Gen3 x4 interface
- 4 x Full speed PCIe Gen3 x16 slots; total 7 x expansion PCIe x16 slots
With such highlights, you might want to check out the full details and specifications. The official product page is live, so you just need to click to learn more.
