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Seven $260-$320 X79 Express Motherboards, Reviewed

Tags:
  • Connectivity
  • Bandwidth
  • Motherboards
  • Devices
  • Processors
  • Product
Last response: in Reviews comments
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 3:00:04 AM

With 40 lanes of PCIe 3.0 connectivity to host all of our high-bandwidth devices, LGA 2011 certainly qualifies as a premium processor interface. Today we examine seven X79-based motherboards that offer high-end features at a more palatable price.

Seven $260-$320 X79 Express Motherboards, Reviewed : Read more

More about : 260 320 x79 express motherboards reviewed

a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 3:16:07 AM

Update: C2 CPU is now here!
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4
a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 4:13:49 AM

So when will we see results with a C2?
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 4:29:59 AM

jprahmanSo when will we see results with a C2?
It's going to take around a month to prepare another roundup...so I guess good news comes with bad news, sorry.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 5:36:49 AM

:o  foxconn boards are pretty good.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 6:47:35 AM

amuffinfoxconn boards are pretty good.
They've been making decent enthusiast boards on-and-off for a while.
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January 12, 2012 9:17:48 AM

Quick coment on looks only (I know its specs that count not looks but oh well)
ASRock X79 Extreme6/GB - very nice all black looks better than gigabytes atempt
Asus P9X79 Pro - new baby blue they use on all the boards... not for me
ECS X79R-AX - looks like my old pentium 2 board with the white slots
Foxconn Quantumian-1 - i like i like gives a feeling of the ROG ASUS boards
Gigabyte X79-UD3 - rip of from the ASRock X79 Extreme6/GB (lol) plus the southbridge heatsink looks old fasion and ugly.
Intel DX79SI - now this board for me looks good actualy more than good looks the best :)  must be the scull lol
MSI X79A-GD65 8D - also very nice love the blue + Black.

If you have one of the boards and i insulted it, wasnt the intention, just my view of the board>

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-1
January 12, 2012 10:31:04 AM

My only question is.. Why do you guys need 6 freaking $1050 processors? Good golly gosh!
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 12:24:01 PM

Great descriptive article.

One thing I'm not sure of is the acceptance and actual usage of eSATA. While practical at some level, is anyone actually using this MB feature or is this one of those things the MB producers can skip out on like parallel and serial ports? I'm not sure enthusiasts are all that into using their eSATA ports?

Personally, I think this is one of those money saving opportunities MB producers should consider.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 12:46:32 PM

After the X58 anal pounding, you would be a moron to buy a X79. It's life is predicted to be even shorter than X58.
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January 12, 2012 12:47:59 PM

Actualy i agree with you ubercake, i have never used my E-sata, and with usb 3.0 out doubt anyone still uses E-sata if they have before.
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a c 717 V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 1:42:43 PM

CrashmanUpdate: C2 CPU is now here!

Here -- where? You guy's may have gotten an early release, but how's that been working far? The official re-release is January 20th to retail. The reason I state this is because the track record has been less than stellar and in some cases often a 'miss-match' the the retail versions; thereby (WE) get ambiguous impressions and folks buying habits are incorrectly forged.

From the results I've seen, read so far, a ±2FPS~±3FPS can all fall within the margins of error; run the tests 3-4 times.

Then the reasons for 'choices' as 'best', IMO best must have 8xDIMM, 3-WAY, decent audio, good OC'ing, and adequate plus fast SATA ports. Asus P9X79 Pro and Intel Intel DX79SI, while I appreciate a budget 4-WAY Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 no one wanting 4-WAY is going to choose it.

- my 2 cents.
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a c 717 V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 1:49:26 PM

Oppsy, I meant ASUS P9X79 Pro and ASRock X79 Extreme9.
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January 12, 2012 1:50:34 PM

Personally I'd go for the Intel for long term stability if their track record is anything to go buy.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 3:43:50 PM

heroictofuPersonally I'd go for the Intel for long term stability if their track record is anything to go buy.


My D975XBX board is still holding strong after like 6+ years of owning it. It's currently sitting in my HTPC.

I'd definitely go for the Intel for that reason alone, but I've been really impressed with Gigabyte and the way my Z68 system turned out.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 4:00:41 PM

I think this platform is just to expensive for the result in most tasks even for most users/gamers, and workers for the exception of those that actually need this for a server/workstation. A standard i7 2600k or a cheaper i5 2500k is just fine and good enough for most use even a overclocked i7 920 still has enough to get the job done.
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a c 717 V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 5:19:20 PM

josejonesHow much better are these new X79 mobos over say the 990's? Are the X79's really that much better and worth all the money? Is there a comparison between them around?When will AMD be coming out with mobos with PCIe 3 support? http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] s-promised

1. Not much better, I decided not to mothball my 980X and instead to only replace my GPU's with GTX 600 series when available and then with 3GB vRAM.
2. Not much with clock-to-clock comparison; e.g. 4.5GHz to 4.5GHz. Sure the SB/SB-E is slightly faster but in most resolutions none of them really impede or bottleneck.
3. (link) well it seems I was right PCIe 2.x versus PCIe 3.x -> http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-r... the GPU's cannot saturate x8 PCIe 2.x so it will be quite a while if not years before PCIe 3.x gains ground to make it useful.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 5:46:52 PM

Nice article, though I think it lacked a few things that would have made it spectacular. I would have loved to see pci-e 3.0 actually being compared to pci-e 2.0 using the 7970 at 5760x1080. I think it'd show that pci-e 2.0 does indeed suffer from bottlenecks at multi-monitor resolutions. I would have also loved to see the ECS 4-way SAS controller tested using 4x ssds. I understand that this functionality isn't guaranteed, but as someone that's considering a LSI RAID card it would have been great to see how this onboard solution fared.
Nice review though and I understand how both of these things were outside the scope of what was being done.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 5:56:23 PM

geekapprovedAfter the X58 anal pounding, you would be a moron to buy a X79. It's life is predicted to be even shorter than X58.

I see what you're saying, but during BF3 my good trusty ole i7-960 and my two GTX580s are all hitting 100% at times (until BF4) running on ultra with AA and AA transparency cranked. I'm getting over 100fps at 1080p. I'd say that's a good equipment pairing considering I'm going on year three. If that's what an anal pounding is all about... Thank you sir may I have another!?
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 6:24:18 PM

ubercakeGreat descriptive article. One thing I'm not sure of is the acceptance and actual usage of eSATA. While practical at some level, is anyone actually using this MB feature or is this one of those things the MB producers can skip out on like parallel and serial ports? I'm not sure enthusiasts are all that into using their eSATA ports?Personally, I think this is one of those money saving opportunities MB producers should consider.
I agree, but a few people don't and they do occasionally scream.
morneActualy i agree with you ubercake, i have never used my E-sata, and with usb 3.0 out doubt anyone still uses E-sata if they have before.
That's why I agreed :) 
josejonesHow much better are these new X79 mobos over say the 990's? Are the X79's really that much better and worth all the money?
Buy an AMD board for AMD processors, an Intel board for Intel processors, and then relax.

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January 12, 2012 7:09:51 PM

Thanks jaquith.

So, it's pretty clear to everyone I've talked to about PCIe 3 that it's pretty much useless for gamers in regards to GPU's at least for now. However, where is the benefit to PCIe 3 then?

It's weird to me that AMD chose to make the 79xx GPU's with PCIe 3 support for no apparent reason since 1. there's no benefit and 2. AMD still has not come out with a single motherboard or CPU with PCIe 3 support. AMD has never even mentioned them.

My understanding is that everything in the chain must all be PCIe 3 in order to get 'true' PCIe 3 support or, it can only be as good as the weakest link in that chain i.e. mobo, chipset, CPU, GPU etc. So, who would really benefit from PCIe 3 then? What type of work would benefit best from PCIe 3?

I'd really like to see Tom's do an article on PCIe 3 to explain what it's really used for. Gamers don't seem to understand that PCIe 3 is not really about them. Some of us have work to do - I use Adobe CS, photoshop, and loads of stuff for my business almost every day - would that benefit from PCIe 3 or no?

jaquith1. Not much better, I decided not to mothball my 980X and instead to only replace my GPU's with GTX 600 series when available and then with 3GB vRAM.2. Not much with clock-to-clock comparison; e.g. 4.5GHz to 4.5GHz. Sure the SB/SB-E is slightly faster but in most resolutions none of them really impede or bottleneck.3. (link) well it seems I was right PCIe 2.x versus PCIe 3.x -> http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/for [...] ew-21.html the GPU's cannot saturate x8 PCIe 2.x so it will be quite a while if not years before PCIe 3.x gains ground to make it useful.

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January 12, 2012 7:45:27 PM

25 pages to tell me that Asus and Gigabyte make the best motherboards. Obvious conclusion is obvious.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 7:47:59 PM

josejonesI'd really like to see Tom's do an article on PCIe 3 to explain what it's really used for. Gamers don't seem to understand that PCIe 3 is not really about them. Some of us have work to do - I use Adobe CS, photoshop, and loads of stuff for my business almost every day - would that benefit from PCIe 3 or no?


I'd like to see this as well. It really seems there's no real direct benefits from it yet until we start seeing GPUs and CPUs that can support it. The fact that Intel built PCI-E 3.0 into IB and SB-E chips when people who are building new 2500K systems won't upgrade immediately is really puzzling at best.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 7:48:35 PM

gsacks25 pages to tell me that Asus and Gigabyte make the best motherboards. Obvious conclusion is obvious.


I thought the exact same thing. :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol: 
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 7:49:38 PM

g-unit1111I'd like to see this as well. It really seems there's no real direct benefits from it yet until we start seeing GPUs and CPUs that can support it. The fact that Intel built PCI-E 3.0 into IB and SB-E chips when people who are building new 2500K systems won't upgrade immediately is really puzzling at best.
It's kind of like the AGP 8x standard, by the time the bandwidth was needed everyone was on PCIe.
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a c 717 V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 7:51:48 PM

If I only had a dollar for all the PCIe 3.x vs PCIe 2.x, I even suggested a sticky. The problem is/was folks felt the PCIe 3.x was their savior and nothing I could say otherwise would convince them.

RE 'Chain' correct, all or none.

The only use is once other chipsets are PCIe 3.x 'clean' and the 'shared' bandwidth issues are fixed/improved. Mravell (SATA), NEC/others (USB), etc. IMO one of the reasons for small variations in performance -- doodas galore. Heck I'm looking forward to SATA Express - http://www.sata-io.org/technology/sataexpress.asp ; SSD's have had the fastest jump in both speed and bandwidth over the past year+.
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a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 8:05:19 PM

jaquithIf I only had a dollar for all the PCIe 3.x vs PCIe 2.x, I even suggested a sticky. The problem is/was folks felt the PCIe 3.x was their savior and nothing I could say otherwise would convince them.RE 'Chain' correct, all or none.The only use is once other chipsets are PCIe 3.x 'clean' and the 'shared' bandwidth issues are fixed/improved. Mravell (SATA), NEC/others (USB), etc. IMO one of the reasons for small variations in performance -- doodas galore. Heck I'm looking forward to SATA Express - http://www.sata-io.org/technology/sataexpress.asp ; SSD's have had the fastest jump in both speed and bandwidth over the past year+.
So long as most onboard controllers use a single PCIe lane, transition to 3.0 sounds good. After all, we're trying to connect multiple devices to a single 5Gb/s lane right now. The problem of course begins that these devices are connected to the chipset, which is still PCIe 2.0, and even after that problem is solved it will probably take a while to get the controllers up to speed.
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January 12, 2012 8:52:42 PM

Yeah, I thought PCIe 3 was a good thing too, I mean, it doubles the bandwidth - how could that not be a great benefit. however, I knew nothing about it, really. I'm still learning but, I'm not a gamer either.

"I asked OpenGL programmer Terry Welsh, from Really Slick Screensavers, for his thoughts on PCI Express 3.0 and GPU processing. Terry told me “PCI Express was a great boost, and I'm happy with them doubling the bandwidth anytime they want, as with 3.0. However, for the types of projects I work on, I don't expect to see any difference from it."
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-3.0-pci...

I'd like to see SATA 4 and 'Hyper Transport 4' as well and it's passed time for both.
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Anonymous
a b V Motherboard
January 12, 2012 9:14:37 PM

Nice......now looking forward to the HD 7970 review!
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a c 150 V Motherboard
January 13, 2012 12:06:02 AM

I'm one of those who found eSATA useful. I've used an external hard drive dock with an eSATA connection to clone numerous drives.
I've pretty much retired that dock though, now that I have a case with a SATA dock built into it (Enermax Hoplite); in fact I used it tonight to clone my boot drive onto a new 120GB Mushkin Chronos.

On to the topic of this article, I don't see myself ever getting X79, since I mostly play games on my PC, and my limited "pro" uses thus far are not at all dependent on that much speed. I'm also doing just fine with a single GTX560Ti. The value simply isn't there for me. If X79 and S2011 push the prices of Z68 and S1155 down some though, I'm all for it :-).
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January 13, 2012 7:02:49 PM

If I was going to do 4 way SLI, I would by the high end motherboard
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a b V Motherboard
January 14, 2012 2:26:20 PM

amazing review!!!!!!
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January 18, 2012 12:03:50 PM

I am disappointed that no EVGA X79 motherboards where among this grouping for testing
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a b V Motherboard
January 18, 2012 7:09:13 PM

It should be a crime to sell boards at these ridiculous prices. My initial choice was the Asus Deluxe or WS, after looking at their price tag, the only board affordable in their line up is the stripped down vanilla version. And that is still quite a lot. Back in 775 days you can get a ROG board for less than $300.
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a b V Motherboard
January 18, 2012 8:50:06 PM

robert3892I am disappointed that no EVGA X79 motherboards where among this grouping for testing
You should ask EVGA why they didn't want their X79 SLI included, and give us the answer!
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February 9, 2012 12:07:13 PM

Is it possible to install Server2008 R2 in motherboards with X79 chipset? And can I install vmware ESX ?
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April 8, 2012 5:33:44 PM

I would like to see ram specifications for the motherboards. Max ram, #slots, max frequency, support ECC or not. Thank you.
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April 9, 2012 6:59:02 PM

I want to see Asus' ROG motherboard included... Rampage 4 is supposedly the "best of the best"... is it worth it?
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April 20, 2012 7:22:37 PM

Kind of ridiculuous to criticize ASRock customer service and also mentioning that you so often love ASUS products when everyone who has purchased ASUS products knows they by far have the worst customer service of ANY hardware manufacturer. I have EVGA,ASUS,MSI and INTEL products in my builds ASUS is still the worst, EVGA would have to get credit for best Cust. Service reputation. Please correct or amend your review to include these facts
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