By Kaunda Chama in Italy

Technology vendor Intel has launched three new motherboards: The Intel Desktop Board DX48BT2 Extreme Series (formerly codenamed ‘Bone Trail 2’), the DG35EC Classic Series (formerly codenamed ‘Eva Cove’), and D945GCLF Essential Series (formerly codenamed ‘Little Falls’).

The boards and aimed at the extreme gamer, the mainstream multi-media user, and the entry-level PC users respectively.

“From ultimate gaming bliss, to crisp high definition, to the most-affordable internet-centric desktop, Intel continues to push the boundaries of world-class desktop offerings,” says Tom Rampone, Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group VP, and Channel Platforms Group GM. “As the demand for desktops across the board moves from strength to strength, we are also quickly moving towards more feature differentiation and innovation down our product roadmap.”

For extreme gaming performance, the Intel Desktop Board DX48BT2 Extreme Series board unleashes the fastest native 1600 MHz front side bus and memory support providing powerful performance and extreme overclockability.

Supporting Intel Core 2 Extreme processors featuring quad or dual-core processing and a faster 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz FSB, it is built with the Intel X48 Express Chipset with ICH9R that is validated for chipset-level overclocking.

There are two DIMM sockets designed to support up to 4 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz memory or four DIMM sockets designed to support up to 8 GB of DDR3 1333/1066/800 MHz memory.

The board has 2 IEEE 1394a ports and 12 USB 2.0 ports, dual full-speed PCIe 2.0 slots + x4/x16 PCIe slot and 2 PCI expansion slots, and 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports. Further included in the DX48BT2 board are Intel Matrix Storage Technology, and the Dolby Home Theater.

The Intel Desktop Board DG35EC Classic Series board is built with sharpest performing integrated graphics supported on Intel architecture. Based on GMA X3500 integrated graphics, the board supports a range of processors including Intel Core 2 Quad and Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Besides delivering outstanding performance and stability, the integrated graphics and connectors meet a variety of digital needs including 1080p video playback for movie clips, media streams and the latest generation of HD videocameras, without the need for an add-in video card.

Intel claims that this is the first board to have integrated Microsoft DirectX10 capability and it also supports OpenGL 2.0.

The Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF is an “affordable” motherboard that integrates a single unit of compute with a microprocessor, chipset, motherboard, and heat sink.

Ideal for traditional channels to build and package into a full PC system for under $300, these desktop boards are targeted at entry-level computer users in the emerging markets, as a second or basic home PC for mature markets, or customised for unique usage models in vertical markets such as home-lifestyle, banking or education.

The D945GCLF will use the new Intel® Atom Processor and will be available towards the second-half of the year.