Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs are just around the corner and Gigabyte has teased us with three of the boards that will be on offer once the new processors finally hit.
Leading the charge will be the P67A-UD3R. Based on Intel's P67 chipset and using the LGA 1155 socket, the board will feature everything you'd expect from a higher-end model. This includes support for SATA 6Gbps, a pair of USB 3.0 ports and CrossFireX, though disappointingly the second slot will be electrically limited to PCIe 2.0 x4 in a dual-card configuration.
As far as we can tell, the P67A-UD3 will include a very similar - though slightly toned-down - feature-set to the P67A-UD3R. We don't know too many details, but we do know that it will revert to Gigabyte's standard blue and white colour scheme, instead of the R's sleek black finish.
Of course, no new family of boards would be complete without an m-ATX model. The H67MA-UD2H fills this requirement and manages to squeeze most of the same features - including CrossFireX support - into a significantly smaller package. Being based on the H67 chipset, you can also use the integrated graphics core built into the Sandy Bridge CPUs, should you chose to skip a discrete graphics-card altogether.
Each of these boards also include a handful of Gigabyte's exclusive technologies and design tweaks. Not only will they all use the Ultra Durable 3 design - which integrates an extra helping of copper into the PCB for better heat distribution - but they'll feature DualBIOS for improved protection from critical failure. The boards will also be equipped with powered USB ports, allowing devices to charge even when the system is powered down.
At this point, we don't have any precise details on availability or pricing, but we expect these boards to launch alongside the Sandy Bridge CPUs in early January.
