An Easy MB Question

[Old Hippie]

I see the term "Reference board" when discussing some upper tier MBs from Asus and Gigabyte, and maybe some others.

What is a reference board, and how does it fit into the scheme of things?

TIA!

 

[Zinn]

Reference boards are boards that are designed and engineered by the chipset manufacturer, produced by a common contractor, usually Foxconn or Flextronics, and then sold to distributors who rebrand the exact same boards as their own and sell them for a profit.

I have only seen this term apply to boards with NVIDIA chipsets. If you look at the BFG, XFX and EVGA 680i boards, they're exactly the same. I have never seen boards using Intel chipsets doing this...

 

[Old Hippie]

I 'see' said the blind Old Hippie.

So it's not just premium boards, but all boards in all price ranges? Then BFG, XFX and EVGA should be considered MB resellers?

 

[McCartney]

It's all 680 nforce based chipsets that can only run 45nm dual cores.
Nvidia and intel have some war going on so nvidia respun the 780i and made it compatible for the new 45nm quads are coming... Atleast thats what hte rumor is

 

[Old Hippie]

Thank You, Gents!