The last few months have seen the launch of several different enthusiast-branded motherboards from ASUS and Foxconn, and a couple of more will be showing up this week at CeBIT.

Every time a trade show or press release rolls around, it seems like there is at least one enthusiast-branded motherboard in the throw. Republic of Gamer motherboards started the recent trend of specialized “gaming” motherboards, and more recently Foxconn has been ramping up their Quantum Force line. There have always been motherboards designed especially for enthusiasts, but never have they been branded or marketed so aggressively. Universal abit’s flagship MAX offerings and MSI’s Platinum line are essentially motherboards designed for the enthusiast, but these products are fundamentally the same as their lesser brethren. The Republic of Gamers and Quantum Force series from ASUS and Foxconn, respectively, often represent an entirely revamped feature set (although most ROG motherboards are only marginally “better” than their “Deluxe” counterparts.

The beginning of CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, has already seen the launch of two new enthusiast-branded motherboards. The latest addition to the Republic of Gamers series is to be called the “Pinot Noir”. If you think naming a motherboard after a type of wine is a bit odd, then you are far more forgiving than us, because we think it is totally stupid. Pinot Noir will be the nForce 790i product in the Republic of Gamers series, and will feature a very unique-looking water cooling system. The entire water cooling system, which cools the northbridge, southbridge, and VRM areas of the motherboard, looks a lot like something you would see in a Transformers movie rather than on a vine in eastern France.

Foxconn’s Quantum Force Dreadnought is also based on the upcoming nForce 790i SLI chipset, but appears far tamer than the Republic of Gamers offering. The motherboard features 8-phase power regulation and two removable BIOS chips, among other things. The Dreadnought also offers a built-in watercooling feature for the northbridge, which is optional thanks to the active convection cooling system that is already in place.

ASUS and Foxconn have launched several new products to their enthusiast-branded motherboards in the past month. Foxconn’s Quantum Force Destroyer and Quantum Force BlackOPS motherboards have popped up various locations recently. The Destroyer will be based on NVIDIA’s MCP72XE chipset and support AMD processors and Hybrid SLI technology. The BLACKOPS first reared its ugly head at the 2008 International CES. It is based on Intel’s X48 chipset and has been used to break all kinds of records through its impeccable support for AMD’s CrossFireX technology. On the Republic of Gamers end, ASUS’s Rampage X48 showed up at CES, along with the Striker II Formula nForce 780i. The boards feature only incrementally different feature sets from their less-expensive counterparts, but are still worthy additions to the enthusiast-branded family.

Foxconn’s Quantum Force line debuted with the P35-based Mars motherboard last year. The board launched to mixed reviews, but its quality and the promise of an enthusiast-level series from a company as capable as Foxconn had pretty much everyone giddy.

We fully expect to see even more of these boards and possibly a few of other interesting motherboard developments coming out of CeBIT this week. Stay tuned.

Source: techPowerUp

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