Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition review
MSI Clutch GM51 Wireless mouse review
ASUS ROG STRIX B760-F Gaming WIFI review
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition mouse review
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Headset review
Ryzen 7800X3D preview - 7950X3D One CCD Disabled
MSI VIGOR GK71 SONIC Blue keyboard review
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor review
FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W (ATX 3.0, 1000W PSU) review
Addlink S90 Lite 2TB NVMe SSD review

New Downloads
Intel ARC graphics Driver Download Version: 31.0.101.4148
GeForce 531.29 WHQL driver download
CrystalDiskInfo 9.0.0 Beta3 Download
AMD Ryzen Master Utility Download 2.10.2.2367
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.3.1 WHQL download
Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.6.1
CPU-Z download v2.05
AMD Chipset Drivers Download 5.02.19.2221
GeForce 531.18 WHQL driver download
ReShade download v5.7.0


New Forum Topics
Intel's Desktop Processor Roadmap 2024 SHows Arrow Lake-S Returning with Intel 800 Series Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 531.29 WHQL driver Download & Discussion Red Dead Redemption 2 failing to launch, Exit code 0xc0000005 Review: ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition Leaked Photographs of Alleged GeForce RTX 4060 (Ti) Founders Edition Card Designed to Fit Two PCIe Slots AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.3.1 WHQL - Driver Download and Discussion Question about how DDU works? Negative LOD Bias and DLSS Fake Samsung 980 Pro SSDs on the Rise: Beware of Counterfeit Drives 3060ti vs 6700xt a year later




Guru3D.com » Review » ECS X79R-AX Extreme review » Page 4

ECS X79R-AX Extreme review - The X79 chipset

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 11/23/2011 03:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

Tweet

 

The X79 chipset

Sandy Bridge-E needs a new accompanying chipset, X79 is what it's called. For those that are wondering, the internal codename for this chipset is Patsburg. Compared to X58 with a Gulftown processor there are obviously significant changes, since the Northbridge is housed inside the actual processor these days. That means that Sandy Bridge-E will connect directly to the X79 Express chipset through the DMI interconnect.

X79 Express chipset has been the topic of much discussion over the months as specs simply did not seem to finalize. Fact remains that is seems the chipset has been downgraded. Two of the changes might explain what we told you earlier, we think the PCI Express 3.0 storage uplink to the CPU was canceled out and Intel decided to cut out four SATA/SAS 6Gbps ports. And that brings us to a chipset that resembles P67 very much.

In the end you will only two SATA 6 Gb/s ports and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports supported natively by the chipset. So that is six in total for which you may configure RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 if that pleases you.

Motherboard manufacturers can, and likely will add Marvell, ASmedia and JMicron controllers to get that number up as for the most high-end chipset this seems a little too 'mainstream'.

USB ports then; this is just weird, the chipset only supports USB 2.0, not 3.0. A choice we do not understand for Intel's best offering anno 2011. You get 14 ports made available to you. USB 3.0 support once again will need to come from 3rd party controllers with extra core logic and thus overall costs mounted onto the motherboard.

Overclocking with Sandy Bridge-E

Good news for Sandy Bridge-E based platforms is overclockability. The original Sandy Bridge processors at the default baseclock (BLCK) were rather horrible to overclock. It has a lot to do with how the processor deals with the embedded graphics subsystem. If you were lucky you'd be able to increase the baseclock maybe 5 to 10 MHz multiplied at best. This is why the K and now X model processors have been introduced, easy overclocking by increasing the multiplier up-to a multiplier of 57.

This feature of course remains the same for Sandy Bridge-E with the X (Extreme) and K models. However, you should be able to overclock on the baseclock a little better now as well thanks to a new buffer chip that allows for 33 MHz increments.

Meanwhile we'll all still overclock based on the multiplier as it is 10x more easy and efficient to do so. We have limited overclockability as we are using an engineering sample motherboard that is not yet finalized. But even with that in mind it did not stop us from trying. We'll show you the overclocked results throughout the article. Regardless, the results will be flabbergasting.

ECS X79 Motherboard




22 pages « 3 4 5 6 next »



Related Articles
ECS X79R-AX Extreme review
Today we take a look at the new motherboard from ECS, the X79R-AX Extreme. We'll throw in a decent photo-shoot and a benchmark suite at the product and get an indication what performance is like with the Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E). Admittedly I was a little shocked when the motherboard arrived, as it is probably the most feature rich X79 motherboard we've had in our labs.

© 2023