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Nvidia MCP73 motherboards launch today
Author: Phil CogarPublished: 25th September 2007
Biostar's micro-ATX TF7150U-M7 will use the GeForce 7150 / nForce 630i combo, AKA MCP73U. This is a single chip solution.
While integrated graphics may not sound exciting to some, the MCP73 boards feature both HDMI and DVI connections with HDCP support as standard. Other features of the chipset include: PCI Express, RAID capabilities, 3Gbps SATA connections, integrated Gigabit Ethernet connection, integrated HD audio sound, and will support up to 4GB of DDR2.
Biostar and Inno3D are poised to be the first manufacturers to ship MCP73 motherboards out the door - at least, they're the first to drop announcements into our inboxes. Biostar is offering up the TF715U-M7, TF7050-M7, and GF7050V-M7 while Inno3D offers the SL73UM-HDMI.
All four motherboards are in the micro-ATX form factor and have two DDR2-800 DIMM slots, four SATA 3Gbps ports, a single PATA port, four USB ports on the rear panel, DVI connection, VGA connection, and an HDMI connection.
Starting with Biostar's offering, the top-end TF715U-M7 will use the GeForce 7150/nForce 630i chipset combination and support processors with a 1,333MHz FSB, four rear and six front USB connections, and an independent gigabit Ethernet controller.
Stepping down one notch, the TF7050-M7 will have most of the features of its big brother but it will use the GeForce 7050/nForce 620i combo. Missing from this board will be two front USB connections and an independent gigabit Ethernet controller. It will use the chipset's gigabit Ethernet controller instead of featuring an independent one.
At the bottom of the list sits the GF7050V-M7 which will use the GeForce 7050/nForce 610i chipsets. The board will only support 1,066MHz CPUs but will be overclockable up to 1,333MHz. Ethernet connectivity will be slightly downgraded as it will only have a 10/100Mbps connection.
Inno3D's SL73UM-HDMI uses the GeForce 7050/nForce 620i chipset combination which supports a 1,333MHz front side bus and sports two additional USB ports on the rear panel with four more on the front. Like the TF7050-M7 from Biostar, it will use Nvidia's integrated gigabit Ethernet controller.
There's been no discussion of the board's media playback capabilities in any of the documentation we've received. However, given that the boards feature HDMI and DVI ports in addition to HDCP support, we dug a bit deeper. After speaking to Nvidia, we learned that the mGPUs (motherboard GPUs) don't feature the company's VP2 video processor for accelerated HD video playback. As a result, HD playback will depend on the speed of your processor - this is something we'll have to test once we get boards in-house.
Prices aren't currently available but don't expect them to break your wallet.
Sound like a good purchase for an upcoming SFF computer? Let us know what you think about these motherboards over in the forums or in the comment section below.
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Comments (16)Stats: 0.025 seconds
Thats what I was thinking... and isn't the 790 chip coming out soon?
I'm sorry? We spoke to an Nvidia rep directly - he's a good friend of ours :P
I've got the Gigabyte ones too :)
It was under embargo until 9AM PST yesterday. The article was published when it was allowed to be published. In fact, the Inno3D information came from a press release itself mate.
"Nvidia MCP73 motherboards launch today
25th Sep, 14:45 Nvidia's MCP73 series of motherboards are being released out into the wild today with offerings from Biostar and Inno3D being made available."
Please, tell me, what time is the one in bold? Is GMT, is other? I am asking because I really don't know. I don't want to be "the bad guy" but I think some info leaked before NDA ended... Anyways, is not the first nor the last time...
Peace...
One actually jumped the gun by almost two weeks, but as I already knew the MCP73 release date I triple checked before allowing anything to be published... Hence, why you didn't see a story published on MCP73 over a week ago.
Also, there were several stories written across the web about MCP73's launch the evening before and several more about the press releases sent out by the various motherboard manufacturers yesterday morning. I've certainly been upset about sites breaking embargoes in the past but when something is as widely reported as this was, it's hard to say that anyone has broken an embargo. :)
Regardless of what you're quoting, we have very close relations with Biostar, Inno3D and Nvidia. We were given clear permission from Nvidia to publish when we did - hence, we did not break an NDA. I appreciate that you may have some resentment towards those sites who choose to disrespect those (I think we're in a similar vein), but I assure you we didn't try to jump any guns on this one. :)