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Joined: 11 May 2006
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 Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:00 am Post subject: Gigabyte and the X79 Refresh |
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Intel's Sandy Bridge-E platform is slated to be with us well into 2013. Thus if you want the highest performing system with no expense spared, there is only one way to achieve this - through the X79 chipset. This chipset has been with us since November, and typically eight months into a chipset we get a new set of motherboards based on feedback and updates. Such is the case when we met with Gigabyte today, who showed us their top end X79 refresh board.</p>
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Rather than simply reuse the X79 chipset, Gigabyte have gone a different way with the X79S we saw. Using the server based C606 chipset, a motherboard manufacturer has access to a variety of different features - SAS ports, full Xeon support, and also ECC memory. By using a server chipset, we now have a total of 14 SATA ports on board, with 8 of them being certified for SAS use. Combine this with 8 DIMMs and ECC support, and what you have on your hands is a really nice workstation product.</p>
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The heatpipe design connects together the chipset, and both the VRM heatsinks. The backpanel gives us two NICs - one Intel and one Atheros, and also a trio of buttons on the side. The top one, marked OC, should presumably give a factory set overclock. The button underneath lets users switch between BIOSes (useful if the system is in a case), and the third button is a simple ClearCMOS.</p>
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<div>Gallery: Gigabyte and the X79 Refresh<div>  </div></div></p>
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Source: AnandTech
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