Intel DX79SI Review: The Default X79?
by Ian Cutress on November 18, 2011 1:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- X79
Board Features
| Intel DX79SI | |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA2011 |
| CPU Support | Intel Second Generation Core i7 Sandy Bridge E |
| Chipset | Intel X79 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100.0 MHz |
| Core Voltage | Default, 1.000 V to 1.920 V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 5x to 65x |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.20 V to 1.99 V |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots |
Eight DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB Up to Quad Channel Support for DDR3, 1066-2400 MHz |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe Gen 3 x16 1 x PCIe Gen 3 x8 2 x PCIe Gen 2 x1 1 x PCI |
| 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 |
4 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH) 2 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH) 4 x Fan Headers 1 x S/PDIF Out Header 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x Front Panel Audio Header 4 x USB 2.0 Headers 1 x USB 3.0 Header 1 x Remote Thermal Probe Header 1 x IEEE 1394a Header Power / Reset / Clear CMOS Buttons + Debug LED Board Status LEDs |
| Onboard LAN | Dual Intel Gigabit 82579L + 82574L |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header 2 x Chassis Headers 1 x Auxillary Header |
| IO Panel |
6 x USB 2.0 2 x USB 3.0 1 x Back2Bios 2 x Intel Gigabit Ethernet 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out Connector 2 x FireWire / IEEE 1394a Audio Jacks |
| BIOS Version | 280 - 10/19/2011 |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
Everyone who cares deeply about Ethernet options will be pleased to see dual Intel Gigabit NICs onboard; however there is nothing too much to shout about in general in terms of what is available here. Perhaps an additional two USB 3.0 ports on the back panel, or more SATA ports by a controller would be a welcome addition to the consumer product.
In The Box
Unfortunately, there seems to be a large discrepancy in terms of what’s in the box compared to my media sample and what exactly Intel are going to ship with the DX79SI. Personally, I have:
Intel ‘Skull’ themed mouse mat
Two slot length SLI connector
Long SLI connector
Thermal Probe
In terms of what should be included, according to the manuals:
Bluetooth/Wifi Module
Driver CD
User Manual
Despite all this, we see a distinct lack of SATA cables provided. With a significant proportion of HDDs being sold as OEM, sans cables, it is a shock to see a product without cables being provided.
Software
Again, for some reason due to this media sample, my range of installing drivers and software was limited to what I could download from the Intel pre-release website. This required a manual installation of the chipset drivers, LAN drivers, USB 3.0 drivers, and so on. While not exhaustive by any means, I hope the driver CD in the retail package has an ‘Install All’ option.
In terms of software, the only one currently available to me is the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU), which is essentially their overclocking software. There are no fan controls for the OS, or ability to change the power modes here. However, the XTU is a well designed piece of software with aesthetics to match.
The core piece of XTU is the manual tuning. Almost all of the BIOS settings for the CPU are adjustable here in terms of sliders, with simple cancel buttons to return to default values. Any changes you make here should turn up yellow, indicating a reboot is required to apply the changes (unless you select an option in the BIOS which allows you to change the CPU multiplier on the fly).
As mentioned previously, the lack of OS fan controls is one major aspect which lets this board down as an overall consumer product. Hopefully this will change in future.
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acompsys - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
Check this out ....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0uXWmlMOgg
mooninite - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
*eye squint*Not sure if troll...
Alurian - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
But does having a skull on a motherboard seem like a jinx to anyone else?DanNeely - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Intel used Skull Trail as it's ultra performance branding in the past; this I suppose is a hommage to it.halo37253 - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
I have the intel DX58SO board sadly, got it in a used combo deal so not complaining about the price. Though the bios's tend to be riddled with problems and have problems OCing. While I can overclock my I7 920 to 4.2ghz on this board (pretty good clock but most boards can do it) at only 1.38V. But doing so brings on some of the bios or maybe even the motherboard itself. Can't have S3 sleep turned on at all because when you wake it up it resets the v-core back to stock and system freezes. Or sometimes it will hang at boot and just restart and boot fine or just take long time to post. System is fully stable intel burn test and 24/7 prime. At newest bios but that may be the problem, just really haven't felt like trying out a bunch of different bios yet. And poor placement of sata ports are a big let down as well.The Boards also tend to be made up of lower quality parts and tend to have less power phases. They also tend to have the least performance. I would have to go with a gigabyte motherboard, had the ep45-ud3p and loved it. Gigabyte boards are also known to be the best overclocking motherboards, what is important to me cause I like to have the best performance I can get with the lest amount of money spent.
Viceroy_Fizzlebottom - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Interesting, I've have the exact same motherboard paired with a core i7 920 and never have had a single issue with it.Samus - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
I have an Intel X58 board with my i7-920 and its been solid as a rock for 3 full years. Of course it cost $300 back in 2008, but, honestly it was worth it. Even today my PC is faster than 95% of the market.Clorex - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Mentioned in the original i7 3960x review:"Users running dual-GPU setups can enjoy the fact that both GPUs will have a full x16 interface to SNB-E (vs x8 in SNB). If you're looking for this to deliver a tangible performance increase, you'll be disappointed:
Modern GPUs don't lose much performance in games, even at high quality settings, when going from a x16 to a x8 slot."
But here we see that the extra bandwidth for the second GPU really shows, with the X79s pulling ahead of the P67/Z68 in Dirt 3 and Metro 2033. Does this mean that X79 might make sense for multi-GPU setups?
halo37253 - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
I think you would start to notice with 3-4 gpu setups.I would love to see a 3way for 4way sli on this board. like 3/4 580s in sli. Compare it to the old lga1366 in same 3-4 way sli setup. If you can try to get the old i7 and new i7 at the same clock so we can see how much performance per clock increases.
Denithor - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
This would be an interesting test, to see how efficient these chips/chipsets are at managing the overhead from 3-4 GPUs.