FOXCONN officially launched the eagerly awaited BLACKOPS motherboard in 18th of April. Based on the Intel® X48 chipset and including unique features for extreme overclockers and enthusiasts, BLACKOPS is the second motherboard in the Quantum Force series.

“We are proud to be bringing to market aproduct of this quality – not only have we incorporated unique features neverseen before on a motherboard, but we have created a platform which is highly tunable and will certainly continue to set performance records, as we have seenin various trials over the past months” Greta Kuo, QF Product Manager, stated.

First demonstrated to media at the CES Showin Las Vegas, back in January, tried and tested by numerous overclocking teamsand enthusiasts, and demonstrated once again at last month’s CeBIT exhibitionin Germany, BLACKOPS will soon be available for enthusiasts all over the world.

Unique features for enthusiasts

BLACKOPS brings several firsts to market,and heralds major improvements in critical areas of motherboard design, including BIOS, power delivery and cooling – the revered trinity of overclocking.

The new Quantum BIOS is a quantum leap over the previous generation Gladiator BIOS found on the MARS motherboard. The new BIOS menus are intuitive and user friendly, organized ingroups of inter-related settings. Not only are there many more voltage options,but they are arranged into groups relating to the different areas that they affect … CPU, Memory, FSB, etc. Notable additions to the tweaking options are CPU PPL and GTL for quad-core overclocking – expected to be widely-used byoverclockers pushing their Core™2 Extreme and Core™2 Quad processors.

In the cooling stakes, the 4in1 Quantum Cooler is an all-copper NB-SB-VRMheatpipe solution with a difference; thanks to bundled accessories, the NorthBridge (NB) section of the cooler can be quickly adapted for passive or activeair cooling, water cooling or even extreme LN2 or dry ice cooling! According to Peter Tan, Quantum ForceTechnical Consultant, the 4in1 Quantum Cooler “is the most adaptable andeffective cooling solution ever integrated onto a motherboard”.

New power regulation offers better stability and higher output capability

The 8 phase Digital PWM provides more robust power delivery, standing up to the demands of enthusiastsand overclockers. Quantum Force engineers have spent 3 months finely-tuning and optimizing this digital system so that itoperates with better power efficiency, has a faster and more stable response tochanges in power consumption, and delivers higher current output capability tosupport extreme overclocking.

“There is no doubt that the 8-phase Digital PWM found on BLACKOPS can sustain the massive demands which will be placed onit by enthusiasts and extreme overclockers... it can even do this whilstgenerating less heat switching between different voltage requirements withgreater speed and reliability” asserts Peter Tan.

Audio circuits separated for improved audio fidelity

The new SONAR daughter Card provides professional quality audio forgames, movies and other multi-media content. Separating audio circuitry fromthe motherboard improves signal quality and eliminates interference from power regulation components. The integrated Realtek ALC885 provides 8 channels of High Definition Audio (HDA) with an impressive 106dB SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio).

Unique accessories for enthusiasts

BLACKOPS includes a range of accessories designed toprovide additional convenience and performance enhancements for overclockers.In addition to the 4in1 Quantum Cooler accessories (which include a NB fan,extension tower for LN2 cooling and water cooling block), BLACKOPS owners willalso receive variable resistors for volt-modding,the Quantum Lap motherboard tray forconvenient workbench access to all parts of the motherboard, and the Quantum Flow kit – which improves airflowaround installed VGA cards. The Quantum Flow fan can be installed in ahorizontal or vertical position, and lowers temperatures around multi-VGA rigs by around 5ºC.

Safety and convenience for overclocking

Onboard CMOS reset and power on/offbuttons, a 2-digit LED debug display and the OC Recover feature all combine tospeed up recovery time from unsuccessful overclocking attempts, whilst the new Twin BIOS feature safeguards against BIOS corruption and enables hot-swapping of BIOS chips.

Meanwhile, the BoostSwitch header, conveniently located on the motherboard near the CPU socket, enables hardware selection of CPU clock speed without entering the BIOS.

Pricing & Availability

The BLACKOPS motherboard will be available in retail channels this month, priced around US$400.
For further information about Quantum Forceand the BLACKOPS motherboard, go to http://www.quantum-force.net

Product page: http://www.quantum-force.net/Products/P000000002/

*This text is directly from quantum.force.net*

Accessory













You will get:
-Benchtable
-120mm Fan with Blue leds
-Soundcard
-Quick install quide, Driver cd, Manual,
-6 S-ATA cables + power adapters, backplate, Raid disk, zipties, floppy and ATA cables
-USB + Firewire expansion card.

You will also get:
-Dry ice tube, for the NB.
-Waterblock fittings
-2x variable resistors just for the fun
-Quantum Force sticker and 6x water tattoos
-Dog tags (identifiers)

I like those dog tags a lot (identifiers)

Next post will be full of pictures about the motherboard itself.