The unwanted younger brother of the X38, the (Sarcasm alert!) new and feature rich X48 chipset is close to being ready for release but as some Rumorville citizens claim, it may be delayed. Details about the X48 have already been leaked onto the interweb and those didn't help X38 motherboard sales despite Intel sending signals that the new chip will be more expensive and thus in a different class compared to the X38.

Given the slight confusion around the X48 some motherboard makers that have a large stock of X38 boards are apparently asking Intel to wait a little longer before officially releasing the X48. If Intel will agree the X48 launch, which was slated for January could be delayed by one or two months. The delay could happen if Intel also delays the release of the QX9770, the 1600 MHz quad-core CPU. We believe that's not very likely but we'll just have to wait and see what Intel decides.