Remember the SABERTOOTH 55i motherboard we took a close look at this time last month? Turns out ASUS is now ready to launch the board as part of its all-new "TUF (The Ultimate Force) Series" range.
The ATX-size SABERTOOTH 55i, pictured above, is said to be built using components that passed military-style testing and is "specially developed to meet the heavy computing demands of power users and perform well even under extreme conditions".
In addition to military-certified capacitors and MOSFETs, the board's heatsinks are covered in a premium coating that ASUS has dubbed CeraM!X. The ceramics-based composition promises improved heat dissipation thanks to a 50 per cent larger surface area. Adding to the board's cooling potential, there's a "CoolMem! Fan Frame" that'll house most 40mm or 50mm fans to provide direct memory cooling.
As for the chipset itself, the board is based on Intel's P55 and offers support for Intel Core i5/Core i7 LGA1156 processors. There's a duo of PCIe x16 slots supporting both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX configurations, and four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 16GB of RAM.
It's certainly a cool-looking board, but priced at £176.58, it's almost as expensive as the feature-packed ASUS Maximus III Formula. Then again, the latter doesn't claim to work in temperatures ranging from -10°C to 80°C.
ASUS lists the SABERTOOTH 55i's complete specification as follows:
| Model | SABERTOOTH 55i |
|---|---|
CPU |
LGA1156 socket for Intel Core i7/Core i5 Processors |
Chipset |
Intel P55 Express |
Memory |
4 x DIMM, max. 16GB, DDR3 2000/1800/1600/1333/1066MHz, |
Expansion slots |
2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode) |
3 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 (2.5GT/s) |
|
2 x PCI |
|
Multi-GPU |
Supports both NVIDIA Quad-GPU SLI Technology and ATI Quad-GPU CrossFireX Technology |
Storage |
Intel P55 Express Chipset |
LAN |
Realtek 8112L PCIe Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2 |
Audio |
VIA VT2020 10-channel High Definition Audio CODEC |
USB / IEEE1394a |
14 x USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 8 ports at back panel) |
TUF Exclusive Features |
Power Design |
Form Factor |
ATX Form Factor, 12 inches x 9.6 inches ( 30.5cm x 24.4cm ) |
