The folks at Collaler.com have scored some pictures of MSI's 890FX-GD70 motherboard. Shot from various angles, the images reveal a remarkable six PCI-Express x16 slots, leaving room for only one legacy PCI slot. As its name indicates, the board uses AMD's 890FX chipset which brings native SATA 6Gb/s support, and there appears to be six (white) next-generation SATA ports along with one (blue) port that is presumably SATA 3Gb/s.

MSI's new motherboard sticks with the company's often used black and blue color scheme. Other visible features include four DDR3 DIMM slots, a five-phase digital DrMOS, various on-board overclocking functions, and a NEC controller chip which, at the very least, handles a pair of USB 3.0 ports on the rear I/O panel.


The 890FX-GD70 is based on AMD's upcoming high-end Leo platform, which will be headlined by the company's six-core Thuban processor and consist of an 890FX or 890GX northbridge with SB850 southbridge, and Radeon HD 5000-series graphics. An exact release date for the 890FX chipset is not available, but the Thuban chips are expected to arrive in the second quarter of next year. More details will likely emerge during next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES).