At the end of last year, two CPUs, the i7-3930K 6C12T Core and the 3960X, were released at the same time with the X79 chipset
More recently, the Core i7-3820 was launched as the third CPU, mainly due to differences in the architecture and price of the 4C8T
This appeared to give the entry-level LGA 2011 series a chance to compete with the high-end LGA 1155 series in the marketplace
Based on the cost of these two high-performance platforms, they fall within purchasing range of high-end PC consumers
The X79 chipset can be used with the LGA 2011 platform, and the environment is crowded with many brands of motherboards
In terms of options and prices, this has indirectly given greater flexibility to the X79, a development that is more beneficial to consumers
Now, we will share our findings on the X79-based X79R-AX that was released by ECS, a product positioned as part of the Black Series
ECS has launched two models in the X79 space, the X79R-AX and the X79R-AX Deluxe
There should be some netizens who together with me will feel the X79R-AX Deluxe is the more high-end version, yet in fact, the X79R-AX is the higher level version
A glance shows that the X79R-AX uses black as the main color with white and gray as style accents
The dimensions meet the 305mm x 244mm ATX form factor, allowing the choice of a wide range of cases
The X79 is part of the Intel Extreme platform, and the price is a few levels higher than the mid-range to high-end Z68 chipset, but the specifications are almost all higher level
Included Accessories
English user manual, a quick start installation manual, an IO shield, an optical disk with driver software, a USB 3.0 front panel and a mobile connect wireless
An SATA cable that connects to external eSATA devices, a protective plastic cover for the IO interface, SLI bridge
Lower Left of Motherboard
4 X PCI-E X16, supporting up to 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology
Bandwidths of X16 + X8 + X16 + X8
2 X PCI-E X1
Dual LAN chip, the Realtek RTL8111E
The audio chip is the Realtek ALC892, with 8 channels supporting HD Audio technology
Bottom Right of Motherboard
The X79R-AX allows the addition of quite a few SATA expansion ports, from right to left as follows
Two gray SATA ports supported by the X79 chipset with SATA3 specifications
Four white SATA ports supported by the X79 chipset with SATA2 specifications
The above can be paired to set up RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10, depending on the highest performance SATA device that has been installed
Four gray SATA ports enabled by the ASM1601 chip with the SATA3 SAS specification, supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10
Two gray SATA ports enabled by the ASM1601 chip with SATA3 specifications, supporting AHCI
(Simultaneously pressed) the Power/Reset/clr CMOS button and troubleshooting LED lights, to the far left in the front is the black USB 3.0 expansion port
Top Right of Motherboard
24PIN power input, and below, six crossed round terminals allowing users to directly measure the voltage of the hardware with a multimeter
Top of Motherboard
The CPU uses 14 MOS drivers for the power supply combined with a very tactile thermal module that helps the MOSFET dissipate heat
To the right and left are four DDR3 DIMMs supporting 1600/1866/2133/2400/2500 of memory with maximum capacity of 64GB
DDR3 exceeding 2400 meets the OC specification, supporting the latest four-channel technology
IO
One Clear CMOS button
One PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
Six USB 2.0 ports (Red/Black)
Two eSATA3/USB 2.0 ports (red)
One Wireless LAN dongle
One Bluetooth dongle
Four USB 3.0 ports (blue)
Two RJ-45 Ethernet ports
Six audio jacks
