Introduction
With ATI confirming that their Crossfire multi-GPU technology is supported by Intel's i955X core logic, i955X boards that actively advertise support for Crossfire are making the rounds. ECS are one such vendor, adding the PF22 Extreme to a large array of mainboards, mostly great it must be said, to have flown forth from their impressive Chinese factory of doom in ShenZhen. One of the most impressive things I've seen in my years doing this stuff, the PCB production facilities and mainboard assembly factories are where today's mini review focus is being made right now, at the time of writing.The PF22 Extreme pairs i955X northbridge with Intel ICH7R south, Intel PCI Express-based Ethernet controller, another from Realtek on the PCI bus, HD Audio support from southbridge and ALC880, and lots of USB, Firewire and SATA. Supporting DDR2 only, the board accepts LGA775 processors including Pentium 4, Pentium D and Celeron, including all current Extreme Edition chips.
Today's first look will go over the spec, board layout and some performance, before our full review next week covers everything else. Looking for an Intel mainboard that does Crossfire so you can get your gaming rocks off? The PF22 might be just the thing. Onwards.
