EVGA Launches the X79 Dark Motherboard

News
By Tarun Iyer
published

The EVGA X79 Dark is a re-imagination of the company’s X79 platform and is intended to be a “landmark platform for PC enthusiasts everywhere.”

EVGA has launched its flagship socket LGA 2011 motherboard that features an E-ATX form factor, draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 6-pin PCIe and two 8-pin EPS inputs and utilizes a 12-layer PCB, 12+2 phase VRM to power the CPU, a 4-phase VRM for the memory and individually power-gated PCI-express slots.

The X79 Dark features a single PCI-express x4 slot and five PCI-express 3.0 x16 slots (arranged in 1x16, 2x16, 3x8 or 4x8) that supports 4-Way SLI / CrossfireX. The motherboard also includes eight DIMMs with support for up to 64 GB of DDR3-2400, six SATA 6.0 Gb/s, 4 SATA 3.0 Gb/s and two eSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports.

With regard to connectivity, the X79 Dark features two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports, 8 Channel Realtek HD Audio, Bluetooth V2.1, 10 USB 2.0 ports (six rear panel, four onboard) and six USB 3.0 ports (four rear panel, two onboard).

The EVGA X79 Dark motherboard has a retail price of $399.99. Users can also take advantage of EVGA’s X79 Upgrade Promotion whereby owners of the X79 Classified, X79 FTW and X79 SLI motherboards can upgrade to the X79 Dark for $150, $200 and $250, respectively.

Tarun Iyer
See more Motherboards News
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mapesdhs
    Hard to see the appeal of this when the ASUS P9X79-E WS offers x16/x16/x16/x16,
    though the EVGA is quite a lot cheaper, and perhaps the tradein promo will be handy
    for those with older EVGA X79 boards. Tarun, how many of the 6gbit ports are coming
    from the Intel chipset? It's the use of Marvell controllers which spoils the SATA3 setup
    on many boards.

    Ian.

    Reply
  • UVB076
    AND it includes a BIOS from 8 years ago! YAY!
    Reply
  • ubercake
    Nice looking board.
    Reply
  • warezme
    so, it's limited to 8X for 4 way SLI? why bother.
    Reply
  • bentonsl_2010
    Why bother when the CPU socket will be updated next year. 400.00 wasted
    Reply
  • sna
    11078904 said:
    Hard to see the appeal of this when the ASUS P9X79-E WS offers x16/x16/x16/x16,
    though the EVGA is quite a lot cheaper, and perhaps the tradein promo will be handy
    for those with older EVGA X79 boards. Tarun, how many of the 6gbit ports are coming
    from the Intel chipset? It's the use of Marvell controllers which spoils the SATA3 setup
    on many boards.

    Ian.

    It is not a REAL 16x/16x/16x/16x .. the CPU 40 lanes is 16x/16x/8x REAL , the two PLX Chips makes each 16X splits into two VIRTUAL 16X giving you (16x/16x)/(16x/16x)/8x which means SHARING.

    you don't feel it because no GPU uses the full Bandwidth of 16x PCIe 3.0 ... but once you saturate the lanes , the Virtual 16x/16x will run as 8x/8x

    performance wise , the virtual 16x/16x/16x/16x will give you the same benchmarks of the 8x/8x/8x/8x using the same cpu

    and it is WORSE in Haswell with PLX chips the Haswell gives only 16 TOTAL lanes .

    it is NOT REAL.

    the REAL thing is how many Lanes the CPU is giving you.

    40 lanes here and that's 16x/8x/8x/8x or 16x/16x/8x

    there are no cards that needs more than 8x PCIe3.0 even the Titans. and in case a 2xTitan Card is out which might need more than 8x , it will be limited to 2 cards and will use 16x/16x only.

    PLX is 2x 16X sharing one 16X bus with 16X connection for both.

    The ONLY way to have REAL 16x/16x/16x/16x is to use a dual CPU xeon Motherboard , each Xeon will give you 40 lanes !!! total 80 Lanes this will give you TRUE 4 way SLI 16X and a spare 16X as well that can be split into 8x/8x for cards

    16x/16x/16x/16x and 8x/8x , 6 slots , 80 lanes !!!
    Reply
  • sna
    11081917 said:
    Why bother when the CPU socket will be updated next year. 400.00 wasted

    IvyBridge-e are coming.
    Reply
  • sna
    11080300 said:
    so, it's limited to 8X for 4 way SLI? why bother.

    because there is no card that saturate even 8x PCIe3.0 today.

    and by the way , the Haswell 4-ways SLI is not real . it is sharing the 16x lanes the CPU has on 4 16x using PLX chips, giving you fake 8x/8x/8x/8x .. all those FOUR are switched using the PLX chip and are ALL on 16X , the True things is 8x/8x/0/0 using haswell , the PLX takes each 8x and share it between TWO Virtual 8x

    it is NOT REAL. the CPU has ONLY 16 lanes , you cant get more lanes from the skies.

    the "e" chips give you 40 lanes. which is REAL 16x/8x/8x/8x no sharing

    it is about the CPU not the Motherboard.

    the PLX chip just ALLOWS you to "Share" and add more cards. they don't give you REAL more lanes.
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    11083653 said:
    It is not a REAL 16x/16x/16x/16x

    I don't see how any of that remotely matters when the same data is being sent to all the cards,
    so the speedup is genuine. It's the same concept that permits x8/x8/x8/x8 on the ASUS P7P55
    WS Supercomputer.

    Ian.


    Reply
  • sna
    11089357 said:
    11083653 said:
    It is not a REAL 16x/16x/16x/16x

    I don't see how any of that remotely matters when the same data is being sent to all the cards,
    so the speedup is genuine. It's the same concept that permits x8/x8/x8/x8 on the ASUS P7P55
    WS Supercomputer.

    Ian.


    nope . it is a FAKE LANES. it is sharing.

    and you will know it once VGA CARDS can Saturate more than 8x ... once the VGA cards need more than 8x PCIE 3.0 , they will slow down.

    they are NOT Giving you 16x/16x/16x/16x .. bandwidth .. they are giving you thr possibility to use 4 cards in 16X electrical connection with SHARING. that's all.

    it is called switching ! not real . and you are paying for nothing in real life.

    the Fastest GPU TODAY does not need more than 8x PCIe 3.0
    Reply