Rumor: Intel's Z68 Express Chipset Launching May 11th

Posted 04/22/2011 at 7:43am | by Paul Lilly

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Sandy Bridge is sitting pretty in the eyes of system builders now that the design flaw that affected initial shipments of early 6-series chipsets is a thing of the past. Looking ahead, things are about to get even better. Intel's Z68 Express chipset aimed at power users will bring some performance-oriented features to the table, and according to the latest rumor mill chatter, the chipset's launch is less than three weeks away.

News and rumor site Fudzilla claims to have confirmed a May 11th launch, which comes three days after previous rumors pegging the release on May 8th. We'll have to wait and see, but the second week of May is shaping up to be a safe bet.

Intel's Z68 Express chipset supports Sandy Bridge processors, which in and of itself isn't anything special. But unlike other Sandy Bridge chipsets, Z68 opens up overclocking for not only the CPU and memory, but the integrated processor graphics as well. Of course, overclocking integrated graphics has limited appeal, so the other big feature Z68 brings to the table is LucidLogix's Virtu graphics switching software. What this does is allow users to access Intel's Quick Sync transcoding acceleration technology even when running a discrete graphics card.

Finally, Z68 is also said to support SSD caching. This lets users hook up a low-capacity SSD to a system equipped with a larger mechanical hard drive for a boost in overall performance.

Image Credit: MSI