Asus P9X79 Deluxe

The priciest motherboard in our roundup, the Asus P9X79 Deluxe seems like a expert place to start, as information technology should set up the bar for all other X79 boards.

The P9X79 Deluxe has extensive multi-GPU back up, including three-manner SLI and 4-manner CrossfireX. There are four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, though only iii of them are actually usable. The second and tertiary slots are placed adjacent to each other, making the third slot as well cramped for dual-slot cards. With 3 cards, the board provides full x16 bandwidth to the primary and secondary GPUs, while the tertiary is limited to x8.

The board packs eight DIMM slots for a max. memory configuration of 64GB. The lath supports retentiveness frequencies of 1866, 1600, 1333 and 1066MHz while 2400 and 2133MHz are possible via overclocking.

Asus has improved its board'south storage capabilities past expanding on X79's 2 6Gb/s SATA and four 3Gb/s SATA ports. The Marvell 88SE9128 controller has been used to provide 2 more than 6GB/due south SATA ports (color-coded white). The ASMedia ASM1061 controller is also used to provide two eSATA 6Gb/due south ports (colored light-green) on the board'south I/O panel.

Asus has network connectivity well covered with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as a wireless solution. The wired jacks are powered by Realtek 8111E and Intel 82579V controllers, both of which are 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) rated. The integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/thou/northward is complemented by support for Bluetooth V3.0+HS.

Like virtually every X79 based motherboard we've seen, audio is delivered via the 8-channel Realtek ALC898 codec which touts jack detection, multi-streaming, front console jack-retasking, accented pitch 192kHz/ 24-scrap true BD lossless audio, Blu-ray audio layer content protection, DTS Ultra PC II and DTS Connect.

As noted, the X79 chipset doesn't behave USB iii.0 support, but Asus has rectified the situation with three of its own ASMedia ASM1042 controllers and the VIA VLI VL810 USB three.0 Super-Speed hub, powering eight ports.

The board boasts an industry-leading Digital 16 + 4 Phase CPU power design with two banks of ten phases. The beginning bank sits above the CPU socket and the second is behind the PCB adjacent from the starting time.

As unusual as this seems, information technology's common for X79 motherboards. The xvi + 4 design means there are 16 phases for the CPU and 4 phases for the Organisation Agent. There'due south besides a Digital two + ii Phase for the DIMM slots.

The P9X79 Palatial'due south fanless heatpipe works well, operating at safe temperatures with minimal airflow provided by the case. Asus Q-LED helps detect bug, while the Q-Code diagnostic brandish is also very useful. For those using the board on a test bed, its EZ On/Off buttons are handy, as is the red CMOS reset push. Asus' UEFI BIOS EZ Style is user friendly, while an advanced way supplies a vast spectrum of options for the more adventuresome type.

Between its excellent build quality and healthy feature set, the P9X79 Deluxe is difficult to dislike. The real question: is it worth $380?