ASUS P9X79 Pro

Introduction

Its always exciting seeing new products coming to the market. Just a month ago, Intel released their latest X79 chipset and the new LGA 2011 socket Sandy Bridge-E architecture. This new architecture brought two new processors to the shelves: the Core i7 3960X and the 3930K. Enthusiast and extreme users have been long awaiting this development since the 6-core 980X Gulftown CPU/X58 chipset combination first hit the market in early 2010. As always, the X79 release started a race for all the major motherboard manufacturers, each competing for the #1 spot in the motherboard market. ASUS seems to be pretty confident about hitting the mark with their latest X79 chipset motherboards. Today, we're going to take a look at the ASUS P9X79 Pro motherboard, checking out its features and an overall motherboard design that ASUS is proud to show off. 

When we first heard about the ASUS P9X79 Pro motherboard, we knew right off the bat that it would most likely be an excellent motherboard, but we did not actually think that ASUS will be able to put so many features onto a single motherboard. Some of the key features for this motherboard include: Dual Intelligent Processors 3 with New DIGI+ Power Control for DRAM and CPU Power calibration, ASUS SSD Caching, BT GO! (Bluetooth), USB BIOS Flashback, UEFI BIOS, USB 3.0 Boost, USB 3.0 front panel support and much more. We were actually most impressed by the overall board design, which includes 8 DIMM memory module slots that work in quad-channel operation, and well spaced PCI-Express slots that allow for up to 3-way SLI or CrossFireX configuration. With a new power design, ASUS also allows for a much superior fan control through their BIOS and through their AI Suite II software.

We'll expand more on the features and overall board design through this review, and we'll take the board through rigorous testing to see how it performs compared to its competition. Currently the ASUS P9X79 Pro motherboard is available for $329.99 at Newegg.com, which is a surprisingly midrange-level price for an enthusiast board.

More information about the latest X79 chipset and the Sandy Bridge-E architecture can be found HERE.