ASUS Z7S-WS Skulltrail pictured.

Azza · 4 Feb 2008 at 16:44

Source

All hardcore gamers and hardware experts will be very pleased to know that ASUS is working on a Intel 5400 + Intel ESB2E powered workstation motherboard. The Z7S-WS, just like Intel's Skulltrail platform which is all over the news today, adopts two LGA 771 processors, FB-DIMM DDR2 memory (6x slots for up to 24GB memory), and has 2x PCI-e x16 and 1x PCI-e x8 slots. According to the source of the news we should expect the Z7S-WS to come in March for USD $627.

Thats going to cost a lot over here.

SBD · 4 Feb 2008 at 16:49

Here is something that will be more suited to us, using socket LGA775 cpus

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/02/04/first-inqpressions-intel

I hope they loose most of the fans on this one lol

19ninety · 18 May 2008 at 11:10

(Forgetting the cost of buying and loading the board out - we're all aware of that by now...)
i gotta ask, and will say now I havent done a ton of reading up on this board, but given the hype and what not over ddr3 and the need for even faster memory etc - what kinda of limitations will the FB-DIMM have on this board as a Oc and gaming platform? With DDR3 becoming the new standard memory this year, would it not have been better to release a server and Gaming version, the gaming version supporting memory which would allow a more hard core OC

dont flame, its was just something that crossed my mind after quickly reading about the skulltrail and isnt something i can answer on my own

NickK · 18 May 2008 at 11:28

Remember this is targeted at the 'cheap' workstation rather than overclockers/gamers. Hence the cost, the cost of memory and CPUs that go in it.

I was looking at skulltrail vs. MacPro recently both have the horrendous cost of FB-DIMM to take into account when getting 4GB sticks..

Cob · 18 May 2008 at 12:30

Has anyone here actually bought a Skulltrail?

pingwing · 19 May 2008 at 01:48

Has anyone noticed the (what i assume is) Northbridge heatsink is really really close to where your primarly gfx card would be.....

Yeah the point of not having ddr3 is this is aimed at people who need 8 cores for designing n stuff so the target market needs lots of ram not fast ram (unlinke the gaming market)

Always thought dual socket boards are really really cool though! (i wanted a dual opteron system,.... and i have a dual pentium 2 which is funny)

mdjmcnally · 19 May 2008 at 16:27

I wouldn't say that this is aimed at the same market as Skulltrail as no nvidia chipset on there for SLI.

Skulltrail is the enthusiast, must have best at all costs market, I would say that this aimed squarely at the workstation market,