Intel Outs DX79SI Extreme Series Motherboard Details
Intel has published details about its DX79SI Extreme Series Sandy Bridge-E motherboard on its website a bit earlier than anyone expected.
According to the product brief, the board will be supporting both AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI configurations via three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, include eight DIMM slots, two Firewire and 14 USB 2.0 ports, as well as two SATA 6.0 Gb/s and four SATA 3.0 Gb/s connectors. There is no native USB 3.0 support, however, as Intel takes that route via a separate NEC controller to support this feature in two available ports. Also, there are two PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and still one remaining PCI interface.
Intel will be marketing this board toward "champion gamers" and enthusiasts "who live to push their systems way beyond the limits." The DX79SI will come Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility, an Express Installer as well as ESET Smart Security 5 Antivirus.
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8 DIMM slots is pretty overkill for a gamer.
Hooray for, "champion gamers", everywhere! /s
what is the point of 14 usb2 ports?
keyboard (mine is ps2, i believe thats the name)
mouse
stick (mine can be a usb, but not its basic connection, its old as hell)
pad
external hdd (better with usb3) 2
mic
tablet
really i only have 6 things, and 2 of which would benefit from usb 3 how can usb 3 still not be a standard port in new motherboards?
8 DIMM slots is pretty overkill for a gamer.
they use the word enthusiasts
i would personally load up 32gb of ram in that, and set probably 24gb of that to ram disk
... you could cram 64GB of ram on that puppy if you used 8GB sticks. Move over SSD, and welcome back Ram drives!
Seriously though, what can this possibly offer a gamer that 1155 SB cannot? Games are still only designed for 4 cores and 4GB of ram. I suppose this has more PCIe lanes, but considering we have not tapped out the 16x slots (unless you count the 590 which might), you do not need that many PCIe lanes to be effective, you just need them well distributed. Sure, some day future games could take advantage of this kind of hardware, but so long as the console crowd must be appeased on current gen hardware, then this will not happen.
What I really see this for is content creation. Imagine complex cad or video work on something like this. It would be a dream come true, and would push the system to it's max. throw a few revo drives, and some high end workstation graphics, and this would really let content creators push their work through much faster.
wow, an recent intel motherboard that is actual competition to other high end motherboards, great!
Everything is not made for gamers...but everything should be
I saw a video on this a while back, or just the development team.
It sounds awesome.
This looks like a solution for a problem that does not exist. I mean really (8) DIMM slots and (14)USB ports - for what purpose?
This looks like a solution for a problem that does not exist. I mean really (8) DIMM slots and (14)USB ports - for what purpose?
Well, 8 dim slots @ 8gb dims per slot is 64gb of ram, 14 usb ports would let me get rid of 2 USB hubs..... all you need is Windows 7/64 or linux and you are gold.
My Q6600 is suppose to support more than 64gb of ram and that never happened, it is great to finally see some movement.
Seems like a nice board even when i hate intel =D cool stuff anyway
The picture shows 6 USB2 ports and what look like 2 USB3 ports... http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1708/ ??
what is the point of 14 usb2 ports?keyboard (mine is ps2, i believe thats the name)mousestick (mine can be a usb, but not its basic connection, its old as hell) padexternal hdd (better with usb3) 2mictabletreally i only have 6 things, and 2 of which would benefit from usb 3 how can usb 3 still not be a standard port in new motherboards?
You don't own a printer? I don't know about 14 ports, but using more than 6 is a piece of cake.
2 printers - b&w laser, color inkjet
mouse
keyboard
1 external HD
gamepad
mp3 player
cell phone - easier than bluetooth, and BT doesn't charge
UPS
garmin gps watch
Nothing particularly exotic there, and that's 10 peripherals. A more relevant complaint than too many USB ports, is why an enthusiast targeted board only has 6 SATA ports?
and it will cost twice as the competition -^
This looks like a solution for a problem that does not exist. I mean really (8) DIMM slots and (14)USB ports - for what purpose?
SB-E is and always has ben marketed towards enthusiasts, workstations and entry level servers. For enthusiasts, its all about more and more. For workstations/servers, more RAM = better.
As for USB, I have had people ask for tons of them. Never know why but some people need them somehow. Tons of USB external HDDs?
Well, 8 dim slots @ 8gb dims per slot is 64gb of ram, 14 usb ports would let me get rid of 2 USB hubs..... all you need is Windows 7/64 or linux and you are gold.My Q6600 is suppose to support more than 64gb of ram and that never happened, it is great to finally see some movement.
Thats a limitation of the mobo and memory though. DDR2 topped out at 2GB DIMMs for the most part. DDR3 is already at 4GB DIMMs standard, 8GB DIMMs are moving up and 16GB DIMMs are in servers.
SB-E can actually support up to 192GB total per mobo as the quad channel supports up to 3 DIMMs per channel meaning 12 slots at 16GB each or 192GB. This mobo will push 128GB physically. I wonder what the limitation will be on it though.
As for Windows 7, it does depend on the version Home Premium is limited to 16GB, Pro and up is 192GB.
and it will cost twice as the competition -^
And when the competition has something that competes with it, it will cost just as much.
i think it is underpowered for what it is aimed at but overpowered for what it will be used for. what i think it is aimed at is the workstation class of computers which will actually need all that RAM and power for what they do but for like gamers the stuff which has been coming out i do not see any games using 6+ cores, 4+ GB of memory and etc. with what they are having but with workstation applications and sever applications boards like this will probably be used for low end servers and higher end work station used for like animation, CAD, and the like. it is to much for a gamer but to little for an application and/or VM sever.
Only three problems that may be a problem with this board:
That northbridge heatsink is a little too close to the #1 PCI-E slot. Why an NEC usb 3.0 chip, this is minor of course as 3.0 has yet to really take off. And, why firewire?
Oh and if you complain about the 8 dimm slots, ur nuts, or not serious...
Everyone can use more RAM...
8 DIMM slot.. The more RAM the better.
Memadax: Really, everyone can use more RAM? I'm guessing you've never checked your task manager to see how little you use.
This is a fail on the magnitude that Skull Trail was. Realistically, virtualization is just about the only real-world scenario where you can use, let's say, 16GB of RAM. You'd still be hard pressed to use 64GB of RAM even with virtualization, being that you're not going to easily have more than 6 VMs running on a single Sandy Bridge-E CPU.
A fool and his money...
But where the hell is the floppy connector? Its a MUST for hardcore enthusiasts! lol
... you could cram 64GB of ram on that puppy if you used 8GB sticks. Move over SSD, and welcome back Ram drives!Seriously though, what can this possibly offer a gamer that 1155 SB cannot? Games are still only designed for 4 cores and 4GB of ram. I suppose this has more PCIe lanes, but considering we have not tapped out the 16x slots (unless you count the 590 which might), you do not need that many PCIe lanes to be effective, you just need them well distributed. Sure, some day future games could take advantage of this kind of hardware, but so long as the console crowd must be appeased on current gen hardware, then this will not happen.What I really see this for is content creation. Imagine complex cad or video work on something like this. It would be a dream come true, and would push the system to it's max. throw a few revo drives, and some high end workstation graphics, and this would really let content creators push their work through much faster.
Radeon 79xx reportedly will support PCIe 3.0, so it's good to offer your customers ability to Crossfire them in 16x/16x 3.0 mode.
I think this is the latest one after the long time. I have been waiting for the release of some new model Motherboards for the past years.
Still only 2 SATA 6Gbps?
Memadax: Really, everyone can use more RAM? I'm guessing you've never checked your task manager to see how little you use.This is a fail on the magnitude that Skull Trail was. Realistically, virtualization is just about the only real-world scenario where you can use, let's say, 16GB of RAM. You'd still be hard pressed to use 64GB of RAM even with virtualization, being that you're not going to easily have more than 6 VMs running on a single Sandy Bridge-E CPU.A fool and his money...
I wouldn't call skulltrail a failure. It was never intended for mass useage, only a benchmarking platform. How many motherboards of the time had 2 cpu slots for xenons, and 4 pci-e x8 slots? Records were broken on that board.
Sounds great, but what's exactly the point of including PCIe 3.0 support when Sandy Bridge-E CPUs themselves are supposed to only support 2.0/2.1? Ivy Bridge-E will support it, but won't that come out by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013?
Still only 2 SATA 6Gbps?
If I made controller chips/cards I'd tell Intel to never supply more than 2 sata III ports, or at least, only pairs of 2... otherwise, I'd stop supplying them chips completely and get all my friends together with it too, so the enthusiast group of consumers will still want aftermarket sata iii raid controller boards.
That's just me and while I do have a very basic understanding of the real reasons behind it, I'm no expert
8 DIMM slots is pretty overkill for a gamer.
You're probably also the who goes out and preaches about you don't need this, you don't need that. Well how about your favorite board maker makes you a plain board with all the parts that you don't need, slap some bling and charge you a premium? I bet you will be the first person in line to buy it!
8 DIMMs.
Because SB-E has a 4 channel memory controller. Thus 4 channels x 2 DIMMs per = 8
You don't own a printer? I don't know about 14 ports, but using more than 6 is a piece of cake.2 printers - b&w laser, color inkjetmousekeyboard1 external HDgamepadmp3 playercell phone - easier than bluetooth, and BT doesn't chargeUPSgarmin gps watchNothing particularly exotic there, and that's 10 peripherals. A more relevant complaint than too many USB ports, is why an enthusiast targeted board only has 6 SATA ports?
wifi printer, i dont have it hooked up to a computer at all i believe, i forget if my littler brother has a direct connection or not.
and i believe the wording in my post was bad. i didn't mean that it has to many ports, but of all those ports, no usb3?