I'm sure you've caught wind of the various revamped interfaces slated for debut in the coming year, such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s. Naturally, as consumer electronics begin to sport these next-generation parts, motherboard makers will jump to provide the necessary connectivity. In fact, Asus has been working on motherboards with each spec – though some projects fizzled out. The company didn't give up altogether though, recently unveiling the P7P55D-E Premium, the first motherboard to unite USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s.
If the P7P55D-E Premium sounds familiar it's probably because it shares many parallels with the $280 P7P55D Premium, which only has SATA 6Gb/s. Alongside the third-generation SATA and USB ports, Asus' P7P55D-E Premium will feature support for Intel LGA 1156 processors, up to four DIMMs for a total of 16GB DDR3 2200MHz (OC) RAM, two PCI-E 2.0 x16, x1, and PCI slots with support for SLI as well as CrossFireX. Also integrated are a PATA host adapter, dual Gigabit Ethernet, an IEEE1394a port, and an assortment of USB 2.0 and SATA 3Gb/s connectors.
The board also boasts a slew of other goodies, including onboard power on and reset buttons, and a ton of Asus-specific technologies. The only thing it's missing is Light Peak – but that will come in due time. There's no official pricing, but it's fair to assume that it will debut at $300 or more.