Skulltrail. If you hang around these parts, you've been hearing that codename bandied about for the better part of a year now. Not only does it have the distinction of being, quite probably, the single coolest codename known to all of geekdom, but it's also attached to the sort of hardware required to back up the copious bravado it implies. You see, Skulltrail is a high-end desktop PC platform based on workstation-class chips taken from Intel's Xeon parts shelf. We're talking about some wicked numbers here, such as dual sockets, eight cores, four graphics card slots, and dual 1600MHz front-side buses with a total of 25.6GB/s of bandwidth.

Of course, Xeon-based workstations have long sported impressive stats, but they've rarely set PC hobbyists' hearts aflutter for various reasons. Chief among them: buttoned-down motherboards with very little tweakability, foreign expansion options, and limited feature sets. We ran into these problems when we reviewed Intel's powerful-yet-frustrating V8 "media creation platform" last May. When your mobo's BIOS seemingly equates changing the CAS latency with opening up a liquor store in Riyadh, you know you're in the wrong neighborhood. Miraculously, though, some folks inside of Intel managed to wrangle approval to do something about that problem, and Skulltrail is the result: a truly tweakable motherboard coupled with unlocked Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors clocked at 3.2GHz, primed for use with both SLI and CrossFire. We probably have AMD to thank for Skulltrail's existence. When it couldn't keep up with Intel by delivering four cores per socket, the firm hatched its Quad FX scheme and pledged to make enthusiast-class dual-socket motherboards a part of its long-term technology direction. That direction was to include an upgrade to dual quad-core Phenom processors as soon as they became available. Of course, AMD has since canceled Quad FX and failed to provide the promised upgrade path for owners of Quad FX systems, but Skulltrail was already deep into development by the time AMD peed down its leg. End result: Intel makes good on its answer to AMD's promises. I can live with that.In a nutshell, this thing is loaded. Intel has backed up the specs with additional goodness where possible, too. For instance, the D5400XS's eight-channel audio is Dolby Home Theater capable, which means it supports both Pro Logic II and Dolby Digital Live encoding.

In some ways, of course, the D5400XS's workstation-class foundation is inescapable, but Intel has made accommodations where possible. Although it uses Xeon-style LGA771 processor sockets, the mounting holes around those sockets use LGA775-style spacing, so they should be compatible with desktop-class coolers, including the more exotic varieties involving liquid cooling or phase-change. Similarly, cramming all of the D5400XS's features onto a standard ATX-sized board would be nearly impossible, but the 13" x 12" board is small enough to fit into an EATX-ready enclosure like the Cooler Master Cosmos.