Intel X48 Express chipset was first promised to launch in January 2008 and the mainboard manufacturers received engineering samples of this core logic set last year. Then the launch was delayed until the second half of March, so we have already seen quite a few of engineering samples of mainboards based on this chipset by now.

It is quite hard to find differences in the technical specifications between the new Intel X48 Express and its predecessor. It also supports all new LGA 775 Intel processors including quad-core ones, works with second generation PCI Express interface, supports DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM, comes equipped with Intel ICH9 South Bridge. Looks like the only feature distinguishing this core logic set from Intel X38 Express is the official support of 400 (1600) MHz FSB, however we all understand perfectly well that this is a purely formal difference. Even some Intel P35 Express based mainboards did support this bus frequency already, not to mention X38 Express based ones. By support we certainly mean the availability of appropriate memory dividers that could allow it to work with 400MHz FSB at the nominal frequencies of 800, 1066 and 1333MHz. Because even the mainboards based on older chipsets, such as i965 and i975 could easily work at these and even higher frequencies, but only incase the memory frequency was increased accordingly.

So, Intel X48 Express chipset may be regarded as a formally improved X38. We are going to look at a new MSI X48 Platinum mainboard today from this particular stand point. We will discuss its PCB design, features and functionality, BIOS options and overclocking friendly abilities.