Sandy Bridge-E and X79 – The ASUS P9X79 PRO Review
by Ian Cutress on November 14, 2011 3:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- X79
Board Features
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA2011 |
| CPU Support | Intel Second Generation Core i7 Sandy Bridge-E |
| Chipset | Intel X79 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100.0 - 100.3 MHz |
| Core Voltage | Auto, offset and manual, 0.8 V to 1.7 V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 12x to 57x |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.20 V to 1.99 V |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1T to 3T |
| Memory Slots |
Eight DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB Up to Quad Channel Support for DDR3, 800-2666 MHz |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe Gen 3 x16 2 x PCIe Gen 3 x8 2 x PCIe Gen 2 x1 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 4 x SATA 3 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Onboard |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps (Marvell) 4 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH) 2 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH) w/ SSD Caching 6 x Fan Headers 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x Front Panel Audio Header 1 x S/PDIF Out Header 4 x USB 2.0 Headers 1 x USB 3.0 Header 1 x EPU Switch 1 x TPU Switch Power / Reset / Clear CMOS Buttons + Debug LED |
| Onboard LAN | Intel Gigabit 82579V |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC898 |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
2 x CPU Fan Header 4 x Chassis Headers |
| IO Panel |
6 x USB 2.0 4 x USB 3.0 1 x BIOS Flashback Button 1 x Intel Gigabit Ethernet 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out Connector 2 x Power eSATA 6 Gbps Bluetooth v2.1 Audio Jacks |
| BIOS Version | 0709 |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
The Intel NIC is very welcome on a high end platform, as well as one of the later models of Audio Codec by Realtek, which is represented in the DPC Latency performance. The BIOS Flashback feature (Update BIOS via USB without CPU or DRAM) is an excellent feature I hope ASUS ports to all future chipsets, as well as the SSD Caching option even though it is not part of the X79 specifications. Six fan headers is always good, as well as Debug LED and power/reset buttons, however as mentioned previously I would have liked another Ethernet port.
As always, ASUS motherboards have a 3 year warranty.
In The Box
IO Shield
Manual
Driver CD
1 x Long SLI Cable
1 x Rigid Tri-SLI Connector
6 x SATA cables, locking, right angled
Q-Connectors
While ASUS have spent money on the cables and the SLI connectors, on a product at this price, I would have liked to see a long CrossFireX cable and a USB 3.0 front bracket.
Software
Software installation, as always with ASUS, is straightforward. Clicking Install-All on the CD menu under the Driver section does the drivers, and then once again under the Software for software. ASUS bundles Google Chrome and Norton Antivirus with the CD as well which annoyingly ask to be installed – users have to deselect them if they do not want them. Daemon Tools Pro is also on the CD, though users have to install it individually.
The main stalwart of ASUS software is still here, under a slightly redesigned ASUS AI Suite II. With the depth of X79 and all the new features ASUS have added, we have to get to grips with the whole software. Overclocking function is nothing spectacular here, with Auto Tuning and slider adjustment being identical to previous implementations. With the advent of DIGI+ VRM for the memory, we now get options to adjust this, as well as the DIGI+ for the CPU.
Energy efficiency options also get a revamp in their modes, and in terms of fan controls, each of the four chassis fan headers are double-ramp adjustable, and the two CPU fan headers act under the one control.
The two new areas of ASUS brand technology come in the form of ASUS USB 3.0 Boost, and ASUS SSD Caching. Let us go over each one in turn.
ASUS USB 3.0 Boost
Readers of this year’s content may cast their minds back to the several ASRock boards I have reviewed, and their XFast USB software. This was a simple bit of software that modified and optimized the Windows7 USB driver to allow for faster operation. ASUS have gone in a similar theme, but taken it several steps further.
On the simple end, there are multiple USB protocols to use. Windows, by default, uses BOT – a simple linear process protocol for file transfer. By a simple rewrite of the driver, such as the ASRock implementation, a motherboard manufacturer can implement a ‘Turbo’ mode, which acts like a more multithreaded environment.
Now, if the USB device or enclosure has certain classes of controllers (LucidPORT USB300-REV2, ASMedia ASM1051E, ASMedia ASM1051U, ASMedia ASM1054), a protocol known as UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) can be implemented. This protocol is more efficient, and allows multiple, concurrent commands, rather than the linear BOT sequence. This is what USB 3.0 Boost is aimed at.
Initially, each USB 3.0 device will need to be set to Turbo or UASP as required, but devices are remembered for repeat use. Unfortunately, I do not have access to a device to test this UASP performance; however I was able to see it in action at a recent ASUS event.
ASUS SSD Caching
Users of Intel’s Z68 Smart Response Technology that were dismayed when SRT was not a part of the X79 specifications will be overjoyed to see something similar to Intel’s operation on ASUS’ X79 range. By placing two compatible drives (typically a mechanical HDD and a formatted SSD) in the appropriate SATA ports, the software and hardware implementation will let the SSD act as a cache, in order to improve loading times to the mechanical HDD, just like Intel’s RST.
The potential here is possibly using any extra RAM as a cache. With the abundance of 4x4GB kits for use in such a system, from my own personal experience, almost half of that would never be used – the most memory I’ve ever used is 7.9 GB, which included a hundred or so internet tabs, background software, and whilst playing F1 2010 at full settings. If ASUS were to license a RAMDisk software technology to allow users to create a RAMDisk, and then use that in an SSD caching technique, then we are on to a winner. Even better if a user has decided to fill up the memory slots with 32 GB. Admittedly, this would be lost every time the system is rebooted, and would have to be remade, but for users who leave their system on all the time for various reasons, it could provide useful.
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ASUSTechMKT - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
No problem i will look into it and let you know.bradcollins - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
I've bought the Asus P9X79 Deluxe board now and it works perfectly. I can force the multiplier up to the 33x max of the cpu but no matter what settings I try, I can not get the 1.25x multiplier to work, the board does not post after setting it to 1.25 or 1.66. Even with the multiplier set to 20x. I updated the bios to the new version on your site and it hasn't made a difference.Can you get the right person to email me at otama@ihug.co.nz? Maybe an update needs to be made to support Xeons at 1.25x or 1.66x base clock?
Other than that, the board is brilliant :)
ASUSTechMKT - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link
This is not a UEFI limitation or bug the Xeon CPUs do not support strap changes.
msroadkill612 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
am i missing something - why would an enthusiast give up 1/3 of the silicon for crap intel graphics - wouldnt they go an I7 & discrete gpuSB just doesnt make sense to me - the mainstream market it targets can live w/ a slower cpu but must have decent graphics. Ignorance aside, they want a lot more for a lot less.
when this hits the shelves in quantity - llano mobos & apuS will be mature, cheap & better - my pick anyday.
jecs - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I upgraded to SB 2600k/ASUS MOBO/Quadro from day one this year and I am not ready to upgrade again maybe until next year. But as I use this machine for 3D modeling/rendering almost exclusively I am interested in a Xeon class workstation as my next machine. With this SB-E platform I wonder if this is a new class of entry Xeon workstation. But what are the advantages and disadvantages? I mean isn't it overlapping with single socket Xeon workstations? Fortunately I can wait until next year to compare side by side what I will get from each. I can think on ECC memory on a Xeon, but what else?SSD catching on a workstation machine will be solved with at least an 128 SSD for the system and important applications, so I see no real problem there. USB3 could be a problem next year as more devices may be available. So I can see some confusion in what really is this platform target if the price in the same as a Xeon workstation.
Please Anand I would like to see a system to system comparison in the future.
RegGam - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
"Please Anand I would like to see a system to system comparison in the future."Yes! Spec reviews and pictures are nice and all, but real system to system comparisons for different workloads would be hella more useful. And, when you do so, please enable the max feature set that one system is capable of.
For example, enabling the use of the differentiating features like RAM cache during your benchmarks would give readers a good idea of how ASUS' system outperforms (or not) Gigabyte's board. Also, soup it up with ASUS SSD cache and overclock.
abeeftec - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
"The XMP profile was easy enough to enable with the XMP mode. For more performance, I pushed the board on to the 2400 MHz strap, which booted at auto values of 10-11-10 2T, and was completely stable. Moving towards the 2666 MHz strap caused failed boots. The nearest strap while on the 1.25x ratio was only at 2333 MHz, suggesting that 2400 MHz on the 1.00x strap is a safe memory overclock. "What? 1600Mhz Memory overclocked to 2400Mhz?
Also, I have a Gigabyte Assassin board and the Strap appears to coincide with the Bclk and PCIe. Not memory!
So any upping the gear ratio over 1.00x causes Boot failure.
Does anyone know if the K series is the cause of this. What I mean is, Does the 3930K strap the Bclk/PCIe and the X series Straps the Bclk/ Memory? Not having purchased the 3960X causes a bit of confusion because this area on my board is all Bclk/PCIe related.
Bclk/PCie Clock Control - Manual
Host Clock Frequency - 100.00Mhz
Processor Base Clock (Gear Ratio)- 1.00x
Bclk/PCie Clock Evaluation-100.00Mhz
Changing the Processor Base clock(Gear Ratio) to 1.25x Changes the Bclk/PCIe Clock Evaluation to- 125.00Mhz which causes a 3930K CPU to change to a Frequency of 4.0Ghz from 3.2Ghz with a Multiplier of 32.
My confusion is that Anand said that one touch OC overclocks this way. And that he was able to boot using the 1.25x Gear Ratio and that it has to do with Memory! Well you can clearly see by my board layout that it doesnt have anything to do with Memory.
ASUSTechMKT - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link
CPU Strap adjustment ( BCLK ) does affect memory dividers. While you have a GB board for more information check out our OC guide which details information on how the strap affect dram scaling and the dividers that are present.
CPU has 4 straps: 100, 125, 167, 250: 1:1, 1:1.25, 1:1.67, 1:2.5 respectively
When you select 125MHz BCLK with 125 strap, 125mhz is given to cpu and internally it gives it’s own PCIE/DMI Controller 125 / 1.25 = 100MHz.
When you select 129MHz BCLK with 125 strap, 129mhz is given to cpu and internally it gives it’s own PCIE/DMI Controller 129 / 1.25 = 103.2MHz.
When you select 122MHz BCLK with 125 strap, 122mhz is given to cpu and internally it gives it’s own PCIE/DMI Controller 122 / 1.25 = 97.6MHz.
In regards to the memory divider if you look at the memory dividers applied ( once the board has reposted with the new strap you will see your dividers are different.
In regards to the K part it works exactly the same way.
markgerazzi - Saturday, November 19, 2011 - link
I'm having a hard time deciding between this and the GA X79 UD5The machine I'm having will be running the 3930k processor, with 32gigs of ram for audio production.
Strongpoints:
Asus:
-Better soundcard apparently, which may not matter in the long run
-Better fan control
-More USB 3.0
Gigabyte:
-Great OC button right on the mobo for when I wan't to switch things off before booting up
-3D bios
Other than those things everytthing looks to be the same...
Any pointers?
Thanks!
ASUSTechMKT - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link
We offer the TPU switch ( which offers an actual higher default quick OC option ) this can be executed directly on the board, in the UEFI or within windows so flexibility is superior for whenever you feel you want to execute this OC.How is the 3D UEFI superior? Their range of adjustments are considerbly reduced compared to our UEFI and in regards to recovery options like our USB Bios Flash back they do not offer anything. If you really take a look at the small features and big features I feel our baords offer superior value plus I do n ot see GB providing feedback. I welcome any questions you may have.
Additionally keep in mind that in the first year of ownership our warranty does offer APS service ( advanced replacement ) meaning if you did have an RMA we would provide a board before you sent in your faulty board.