Introduction

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Although a lot of attention is paid to ASUS's "Republic of Gamers" brand of motherboards, ASUS still releases some pretty serious products within its "normal" brand offerings. ASUS has sent us one of those products, based on the Intel X79 Express platform, aptly named the P9X79 Deluxe.

The P9X79 Deluxe is the high-end product that forms the real basis for the other P9X79 boards released just a short while ago, all of which boast a pretty hefty lineup of features. Quite a few of these features are found throughout the entire lineup of ASUS motherboard products, like VRM control and BIOS design, something that ASUS has spent considerable effort optimizing over the past 18 months or so, but there is also a few new ones, too. Will the P9X79 Deluxe live up to the standard and hype ASUS themselves created?

Specifications

<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Specifications</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CPU SUPPORT:</th>
<td>2nd Gen Intel Core i7 processor family for the LGA 2011 Socket</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">POWER DESIGN:</th>
<td>CPU Power: 20 Phase <br />
PCH Power: 1 Phase <br />
Memory Power: 2+2 Phase <br />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CHIPSET:</th>
<td>Intel X79 Express </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">INTEGRATED GRAPHICS:</th>
<td>Not Applicable</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">MEMORY:</th>
<td>8 x DIMM, Max. 64 GB, DDR3 1066 to DDR3 2400
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">BIOS:</th>
<td>ASUS UEFI CrashFree BIOS 3 with 64 Mb Flash ROM </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">SLOTS:</th>
<td>4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (x16/x8/x/x16 or x16/x8/x8/x8) <br />
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">HDD CONNECTIVITY:</th>
<td>2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (Intel X79) <br />
4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s (Intel X79) <br />
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (Marvell 9128)<br />
2 x Power eSATA 6.0 Gb/s (ASMedia ASM1061)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">NETWORKING:</th>
<td>1x Realtek 8111E PCIe Gigabit LAN <br/>
1x Intel 82579V PCIe Gigabit LAN</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">PORTS:</th>
<td>12 x USB 2.0 ports (4 at back panel, 8 at front panel)<br />
8 x USB 3.0 ports (6 at back panel, 2 at front panel) <br />
2 x eSATA port <br />
2 x RJ45 LAN connectors <br />
1 x Audio port with 6 audio jacks <br />
1 x SPDIF Output(Optical)<br />
1 x BIOS FlashBack Button<br />
1 x Bluetooth Antenna<br />
1 x Wireless Antenna<br />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">AUDIO:</th>
<td>Realtek ALC898 HD CODEC</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">FORM FACTOR:</th>
<td>ATX Form Factor (305 mm x 244 mm)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">FEATURES:</th>
<td>

Dual Intelligent Processors III
ASUS SSD Caching
BT GO 3.0
USB BIOS Flashback
Fan Xpert+
USB 3.0 Boost
MemOK!
EPU
TPU
Ai Charger
ASUS EZ DIY
ASUS Q-Design

</td>
</tr>
</table>

Intel X79 Express Chipset

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Launched November 14th, 2011, the Intel X79 Express chipset is very similar to the Intel P67 Express and Intel Z68 Express chipsets launched earlier this year. The Intel X79 Express platform supports 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes via the CPU for graphics, while the Intel Z68/P67 Express chipsets support only 16 lanes. Of course, the Intel X79 Express PCH itself supports eight lanes of PCIe 2.0 connectivity for external devices, as well as housing all of the I/O functionality via dual SATA 6 Gb/s ports and quad SATA 3 Gb/s ports, which are managed via Intel Rapid Storage Technology 3.0 for RAID support. USB 2.0/3.0 and HD Audio are also supported as is eSATA and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

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The SKT2011 CPUs that the platform supports are also very similar to the previously released SKT1155 CPUs, but nearly everything offered in the SKT1155 platform has been doubled up, including cache and core count. Going by the marketing material given out by Intel, the SB-E CPUs (as they are referred to in enthusiast circles) feature eight total processing cores, but two have been disabled to keep power in check, so rather than a total of eight cores active, we find just six, but as these cores feature Hyper-Threading, they appear as 12 separate cores to the OS.

The PCIe on the CPU can be split many ways, including dual x16 links and a single x8 link at the same time, a single x16 link with triple x8 links, or a single x16 link with dual x8 and dual x4 links. Together these options offer the most flexibility for multi-card GPU configurations, with support for up to five total devices connected directly to the CPU. While only four discrete GPUs maximum are supported in current multi-GPU rendering options, the 5th link can be used for an external RAID controller or other PCIe devices that are commonly found in high-end builds.

The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe has a rather unique configuration, offering dual x16 PCIe 3.0, as well as an x8 PCIe 3.0 link, all at the same time. Combined with all the other ASUS-exclusive features, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe seems like the perfect advanced option for both SLI and Crossfire users.
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Packaging

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For a high-end product, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe comes in a rather small, but very black box, like the rest of the regular ASUS brand boards. The front has very little going on; the board's name stands out in green and white lettering on one side, with just a few technology logos across the bottom. There is also a very large "Digi-Power Control" logo in the upper right corner just under a "PCIe 3.0 Ready" banner that hints at future upgrade options. The back of the box has far more going on, but really, there's just a picture of the board with some specification listings, and then several breakdowns of what ASUS-specific features the P9X79 Deluxe contains.

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Lifting the flap on the front of the box reveals a few more feature descriptions, as well as the board itself, via a fairly large window.

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Upon opening the box itself, we find ourselves looking at the board right on top, nestled in its own protective cardboard tray. Lifting the board's tray out, we find the included accessories below, contained within separate compartments made from a cardboard divider that helps ensure the huge amount of goodies makes it to your door intact.

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As mentioned, there's quite a bit of accessories hidden inside the P9X79 Deluxe box. We finally get cables for every SATA port, and the added Bluetooth/Wi-Fi card is a nice touch, although we have found quite a few Intel X79-based products to include something similar. A full listing is below :

1x I/O Shield
1x User Manual
1x Quick Install guide
1x SLI Bridge
1x 3-Way SLI Bridge
1x Q-Connector kit
1x Driver CD
4x SATA 3 Gb/s cables with locking pins
4x SATA 6 Gb/s cables with locking pins
1x Wi-Fi Antenna
1x W-Fi/Bluetooth module
1x ASUS Case Badge

The Board - Layout

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We find the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe fits in with the rest of the ASUS product lines with similar offerings featuring other chipsets, with the very familiar blue/black/white color scheme being shared between them. There are several blue anodized heatsinks found in the normal spots, and we see that ASUS has dropped all of the legacy expansion slots, equipping nothing but PCIe slots on the P9X79 Deluxe. The rear side of the board is pretty busy itself, with pins and surface-mounted parts all over the place, but this seems to be standard fair for the Intel X79 Express platform, considering all the functionality offered.

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Taking a look at the socket area, we find one of the most cramped sockets we have ever seen, with capacitors close by, and either a heatsink or a memory slot within millimeters of the socket retention mechanism. Those looking to use extreme cooling methods and needing to insulate are going to have a lot of work to do to seal this socket up tight. The rear of the socket is a bit more open, but the upper edge does have several pins in close proximity, as well as part of the board's VRM circuitry, as seen in the third image above.

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The bottom half of the motherboard is filled with six expansion slots; four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (electrically two x16 slots and two x8 slots. The lower x16 slot will split eight lanes off to the white PCIe slot just above to provide an x16/x8/x8/x8 lane configuration when the third slot is populated), and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe features eight DIMM slots for up to a maximum of 64 GB of memory (8x 8 GB), and has two dual-phase power delivery systems, one for each bank of DIMMs. The two banks run along each side of the socket, with the blue slots seen in the two images above intended to be populated first.

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The board's bottom edge holds quite a bit options as well, with the I/O side of the board starting with some audio components, and a POST LED display, the front panel audio header, and three switches; and ON/OFF switch, a RESET switch, and a little red "Clear CMOS" button instead of the standard 3-pin CMOS jumper. We then find four internal USB 2.0 ports, a fan header, two switches labeled TPU and EPU that we will look at later, and finally, the front panel pin header. There are a total of six PWM-based fan headers on the P9X79 Deluxe, which can be controlled from either within the BIOS, or with software inside the OS, making customizing case airflow an easy task.

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On the back plate we find at the top the four USB 2.0 ports, one of which is white. This white port is used for the USB BIOS flashback feature, that lets users flash the BIOS on the P9X79 Deluxe, even with no CPU installed. You simply, place the BIOS file on a properly formatted drive, rename the file as ASUS directs, plug in the USB key to the white port, and hold down the BIOS Flashback Button located right next to the white port. Moving on, we find a couple of USB 3.0 ports in the same tower as a LAN port, an optical audio port next to that, and then a couple of green powered eSATA connectors. Next we find four more USB 3.0 ports, the last two with a LAN port above them, and then finally, the six analogue audio outputs. Over on the opposite side we find eight total SATA ports, four white and four blue. The white ports on the left side of the image above are driven by a Marvell controller, while the other white ports and the blue ports are driven by the Intel X79 Express chipset. The blue ports are SATA 3 Gb/s, while the white pair supports SATA 6Gb/s devices, and all the ports driven by the Intel X79 Express chipset support Intel's iRST software suite for drive management.

The Board - A Closer Look

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We already mentioned the power switch cluster, which you can see in the first image above. Unlike previous ASUS boards, there is no Clear_CMOS jumper on the board, and the little red switch next to the ON/OFF and RESET switches is the only way to clear the CMOS. The button on the back is for the USB BIOS Flashback, instead of a CLEAR_CMOS switch, which might confuse some users, but this little innovation is something we welcome with open arms, as having to pull out a VGA to get to the jumper can be a real pain, never mind having to find a jumper on those boards that only have two pins for CMOS clearing. The BIOS chip on the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe is provided by Winbond, a 64 Mb part. Once the BIOS kicks to life when the switches are pressed, so does the POST LED display seen in the third image above, ultimately useful in diagnosing boot failures, whether by incompatible settings or hardware, or by overclocking.

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The dual-digit POST display isn't the only form of boot-up diagnosis display, either; the four pictures above show the Q-LED system that consists of four LEDs in various locations around the board. The Q-LED feature helps decipher the codes given on the dual-digit POST display; as the POST boot process is active, these LEDs will light up in the order they are in the images above, and should the boot fail, the LED will remain lit, indicating where on the board the fault is.

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There are three other switches that are involved with the boot process; the MemOK! button found just above the 24-pin power connector, and the TPU and EPU switches, located on the board's bottom edge. Pressing the MemOK! button will start a boot-up routine that will test system RAM, and then change the settings for timings and voltage in the BIOS as required, ensuring that nearly every DIMM will in the very least, boot properly. The TPU switch offers a very easy overclock option, as when you flip the switch to the right, a pre-determined overclocking profile that varies by the installed CPU will be enabled, over-riding the defaults in BIOS. The EPU switch kind of does the opposite, enabling some power-saving features and settings that can help lower overall system power consumption. Both the TPU and EPU switches can be enabled at the same time, although it's suggested to use only one or the other for the best stability.

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System monitoring functionality is provided by two onboard devices, the first of which is the Nuvoton NCT6776F Super I/O. the second is the TPU chip, seen in the second image above. Together, both offer all the monitoring and fan control functionality that the P9X79 Deluxe offers, with the TPU chip expanding the Nuvoton NCT6776F's sensor capabilities. The third image above shows the Digi+/EPU chip, that when paired with the TPU chip, forms the ASUS "Dual Intelligent Processors III" solution. The TPU chip does the monitoring, as we mentioned, while the Digi+/EPU chip is responsible for controlling the VRM, although it's just the primary controller, rather than the complete Digi+ solution.

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The three images above show the rest of the Digi+ VRM system, with three slave controllers, each responsible for its own section of the power delivery system. Each is labeled pretty clearly as "A", "B", and "C", with "A" & "B" seemingly responsible for DIMM power control, and "C" takes responsibility for the PCH VRM, and possibly the CPU's System Agent domain, whose VRM is close by. The main controller manages the 20-phase CPU VRM itself, and combined with the TPU chip, we have a pretty complex and robust power management and monitoring system, exclusive to ASUS motherboards. This fine-grained power delivery can allow for the best possible overclocking, or the best possible power savings, which really helps separate the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe from other products available on the market today. It's not often that we need 15 pictures to show how the board boots up, and what powers it, and even though there is 15 pictures just for that, we haven't even covered the VRMs themselves!

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The P9X79 Deluxe features a standard hi/low VRM design, with ten phases all together in a neat row, seen in the first image above, except that there is 20 phases (16 for the CPU, and four for the System Agent), and the second picture above shows the other ten phases on the backside of the board, as is common for most Intel X79 Express products. We do find ten independent input drivers, each of which powers two phases; one on front, and one on back. The third image above shows the VTT power phases, two of them, which are found between the socket and the uppermost PCIe slot. The mid-board cooler sits above these power phases, but doesn't actually make contact with any of the surface-mounted components.

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The above two pictures show the two dual-phase DIMM VRMs, the first image showing the VRM for the right bank, and the second showing the VRM for the left bank. Each VRM section is located as close as possible to the DIMMs they power, in order to eliminate line noise and line interference from other onboard parts. Each phase for the DIMM VRMs has its own input driver and high/low MOSFETs, as well as chokes and capacitors for each phase. Given the complexity of the circuit, it is nothing short of an engineering marvel that ASUS has managed to fit so much functionality into a standard ATX form-factor product.

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The PCIe subsystem is pretty complex as well. We find and ICS PLL and an ICS Clock buffer matched up with ASMedia ASM1480 PCIe 3.0 switches. Together this solution ensures noise-free and jitter-free clocks for all PCIe devices, and is part of what helps the board scale up the BCLK independently of the PCIe bus.

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The included Realtek ALC898 HD codec supports 7.1 audio, and meets Microsoft's WLP3.x audio requirements. Supporting 44.1k/48k/96k/192 kHz sampling at 16-, 20- and 24-bit, the Realtek ALC8989 includes full support for HD audio formats featuring Content Protection, if supporting software is used. It is also DirectSound 3D compatible, so no area of usage or functionality is overlooked, including support for DTS Connect, and DTS Ultra PC II. ASUS has sourced the LAN controllers for the P9X79 Deluxe from not only Realtek, but Intel this time as well, outfitting the P9X79 Deluxe with dual Ethernet controllers equipped to meet the needs of everyone, even those that prefer the Intel 82579V solution over the Realtek 8111E chipset. Both meet the 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet appliance standard, although some users find the relatively new-to-market Intel controller a bit faster as well as offering more functionality than the fairly old Realtek 8111E that has become utterly common in the industry, no matter which OEM's products you refer to.

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For extra drive support via the eSATA and internal SATA ports, ASUS has turned to Marvell and ASMedia, with a Marvell 88SE9128 controller powering the extra two internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and the ASMedia ASM1061 powering the eSATA 6Gb/s ports found on the rear I/O. Both controllers are widely used in many different products found on store shelves today, so we are very glad to see them used rather than something a bit more customized that might bring a whole new set of problems. Fortunately, that's not something that is heard of too often with these particular controllers.

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For USB 3.0 support, we find three matching ASMedia ASM1042 PCIe controllers, two for the ports on the rear, and one for the internal header that provides USB 3.0 to casing front panels. The two ASMedia controllers near the rear I/O are mated with a VIA VLI VL810 USB 3.0 Super-Speed hub to provide the Super-Speed functionality that ASUS boasts as the "USB 3.0 Boost" technology. We are not fully sure exactly how the full solution works, as technically, there's the possibility for quite a bit here, but even driver installations didn't help us decipher how ASUS has things wired up, as our USB 3.0 test drive wasn't supported by the "USB 3.0 Boost" technology. We do know that the VIA controller can run in ganged mode with another device, but we are not sure if that functionality has been enabled, or whether the VIA controller works two ports on its own, as the ASMedia ASM1042 controller only support two ports each, leaving two ports that must be controlled by the VIA VLI VL810 controller.

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Moving on to cooling, we find the coolers in the two pictures above on the lower half of the board, with the first found just below the CPU socket. This cooler is actually only really a radiator for the southbridge cooler shown in the second image, and the two are connected via a heatpipe.

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The next two images show the VRM cooling, and again, the first image shows a cooler that is effectively just a radiator, and doesn't contact the parts underneath it, while the second image shows the actual cooler, and the two are joined together via a heatpipe. The VRM cooler is attached with a backplate that covers the MOSFETs on the back side of the board, and also helps ensure excellent contact.

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With all the coolers removed, we can easily see the heatpipes that join them. We were actually quite surprised to find these heatpipes to be super-efficient, transferring heat to their radiator elements very effectively. Flipping the coolers over, we can see the contact areas in the thermal interface materials in each heatsink. The VRM cooler has very distinctive impressions in it from the MOSFETs it cools, while the southbridge cooler has just a single small contact area that the chipset itself is cooled with. It's also very obvious looking at the cooler undersides that the radiator elements make contact with very little, other than the board surface, but even that is buffered with by standoffs, or foam pads.

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In the above picture you can clearly see the new Intel X79 Express chipset, found under the large southbridge cooler. The chip itself is fairly large, and is surrounded by a complex array of surface mounted bits on the board itself.

BIOS Walkthrough

<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="3">BIOS Options</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col">Clocks</th>
<th scope="col">Range</th>
<th scope="col">Step Size</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CPU BCLK:</th>
<td>80 MHz ... 300 MHz</td>
<td>1.0 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory Dividers:</th>
<td colspan="2">x10.67 (1067 MHz), x13.33 (1333 MHz), <br />
x16 (1600 MHz), x18.66 (1866 MHz), <br />
x21.33 (2133 MHz), x2400 (2400 MHz)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="col">Voltages</th>
<th scope="col">Range</th>
<th scope="col">Step Size</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CPU Vcore:</th>
<td>0.800 V... 1.700 V</td>
<td>0.005 V</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">DRAM Voltage:</th>
<td>1.200 V... 1.990 V</td>
<td>0/005 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CPU VSA:</th>
<td>0.800 V... 1.700 V</td>
<td>0.005 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CPU VTT:</th>
<td>1.050 V... 1.700 V</td>
<td>0.00625 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">PCH Voltage:</th>
<td>1.100 V... 1.700 V</td>
<td>0.00625 V</td>
</tr>
</table>

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The ASUS UEFI BIOS is pretty mature at this point, having been in use for a bit over a year now on nearly every ASUS product. Upon booting the board we are greeted with what ASUS calls "Easy Mode", and easy to use graphical interface that offers most of the basic functionality users need, including a bit of monitoring, too. Pressing F3 or F8 will bring up a shortcut menu, which the second and third pictures above show. F3 leads to the shortcut menu that will lead directly to the listed section in the advanced BIOS mode, while F8 pops up a boot menu that lets you boot directly from any of the listed devices, really handy during OS install, for sure. You can also hit ESC or the button in the top-right corner to access the Advanced BIOS, which provides a ton of options not available in Easy Mode.

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Once in the Advanced mode, we are greeted by the standard ASUS UEFI opening screen that contains time and date setting, but this time we also find security options listed here as well. We have been big proponents of OEMs minimizing the number of BIOS pages and optimizing the click-flow to do certain things, and ASUS is definitely listening. The second image above shows the options contained within the Security sub-heading. The next page over is shown in the third image above, labeled AI Tweaker. This page contains the majority of critical clocking and voltage adjustments, as well as a few other things, such as subheadings for CPU options, VRM adjustment, and DRAM timing control. There's so much, in fact, that the next three images are all of the same page.

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Even though there are so many voltage options here, we can see the need for nearly every one, and there is nothing that stands out as being needed. The complexity of the P9X79 Deluxe VRM design is such that the absolute maximum options for user customization are possible, which helps ensure that all users get the most they can out of their system. We even find that ASUS has separated the voltage provided to each bank of DIMMs, and with the fine-grained voltage options, reaching speeds and stability not possible elsewhere becomes very easy to achieve.

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The DRAM timing options are just as numerous as the voltage options, if not more so. Primary and secondary timings all fit on the first screen, but we scrolled down to find nearly five full screens lower down all filled with system memory or controller timings and options.

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The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe even has separate skew adjustments for every channel, and although the primary and secondary timings are for all channels, nearly every other option is broken down to per channel, if not per DIMM slot.

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Moving on to the DIGI+ subheading, we find a ton of options here as well, with adjustments available not only to increase or limit current as desired, but also quite a few options to separately set the frequency of each of the VRM sections, thanks to the use of multiple controllers. The full list of settings is shown in the first two images above, while the third shows the CPU Performance Settings, which includes settings for the CPU ratio, as well as Turbo parameters and SpeedStep.

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It's hard to believe that all of those options we just showed are contained within the single AI Tweaker page, especially considering how easy it is to navigate from one section to the next. Of course, that's not all, and the next page up is the Advanced page, which contains board-specific settings, as well as other CPU and memory settings that weren't contained within the AI Tweaker page.

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There are even settings for PCIe speed, to help with compatibility, and even the options to enable or disable the hardware-level HotSwap capabilities of the Intel X79 Express chipset are available.

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USB settings are contained within their own page, but all of the other onboard devices are on a separate page, including options for the add-on Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo card. The APM page has just a few power-management specific options, but considering how much there is elsewhere, it seems all too appropriate to have a page or two with very little.

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The monitor page doesn't actually list that much monitoring information other than a couple of temperatures and fan speeds the top, but just below it does offer Fan Xpert settings for each Chassis fan individually, while the dual CPU_FAN headers are in their own section. Below that we find listings with a few voltages and a setting labeled "Anti-Surge Support". ASUS tells us that when overclocking, this setting in particular can be very important in reaching the maximum clocks, and we found it just as useful as they suggested.

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The boot page contains setting for setting the priority for boot devices as well as having a section that allows a direct boot from the devices attached to the board, whether via SATA, eSATA, or USB. The tools page has just four selections inside; access to the EasyFlash utility to flash the BIOS, a tool that lists the SPD information from installed DIMMs, a section to store BIOS profiles for each swaps between stock and overclocked settings, and finally, ASUS Drive Expert, a tool for RAID array creation that offers several different modes, but for the most optimal use, also requires that appropriate software and drivers be installed.

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That leads to the very last page, the exit page, which can not only exit from the BIOS, but can also you get you back to the Easy Mode, should you desire. There is also the option to launch an EFI Shell stored on a drive, for users that need it.

Board Software

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The included software bundle has now become standard fare for all ASUS motherboard products. The "AI Tweaker" software suite contains a host of utilities that offer access to nearly every setting that is offered in the BIOS, but from within a Windows OS. The bar you see across the bottom in the images above and below form the base of the software suite, from which all of the utilities are launched. The leftmost button pops up the tools menu, from which most of the following software is launched. The three images above show the first tool, TurboV EVO, a softwar ethat allows clock and voltage adjustments, as well as providing an auto-clocking utility, that for most users, works fairly well, although it's important to note that the settings used are primarily for water-cooled systems, as the voltages given to the CPU are fairly high for standard air-cooled operation. The third image above shows the warning that pops up when you start the auto-clocking tool, letting you know that if the system crashes, the auto-tune process is ready to deal with that, and get you up and running at reasonably stable clocks. It does mention too, that "Installation of advanced cooling is recommended", even, so as we mentioned, it's best to heed that advice before letting the tool run.

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The next tool is the DiIGI+ Power Control utility that launches to a window that lets you chose which VRM you'd like to adjust, either the CPU, or the DRAM sections, shown in the first image above. The second two images show each section, CPU first, then the DRAM page. There are options here to adjust both the power limits, as well as the frequency the VRM refreshes at, which proves ultimately critical when trying to maximize overclocks.

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Next we have the "EPU" utility, a program for optimizing power usage, and energy conservation. There are several different pre-defined profiles as well as the option to customize each to the end user's preference. After that, we find the Fan Xpert+ utility, for controlling fan speeds. These are a mirror of the same options found in BIOS, so each chassis fan can have its own profile, while the dual CPU_FAN headers are grouped together under the same setting. The third image above shows yet another tool, called MyLogo, which allows users to replace the splash screen shown when the board first boots.

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There are three different monitoring tools offered in the AI Tweaker software package; PC Probe II, a Sensor Panel, and a Sensor Recording utility, for tracking data over extended periods.

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The AI Tweaker software also contains a utility for updating the BIOS from within Windows, shown in the first image above, as well as an application that lists system information, and finally, the last tool allows users to customize the AI Tweaker suite itself, and which tools are offered.

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The final tool included with the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe is for the included Wi-Fi dongle, which allows users to set the Wi-Fi dongle to operate as an access point for other Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Containing the usual settings found within wireless routers, although a bit pared down, it also offers the ability to disable the Wi-Fi portion of the add-in card, if so desired.

We have been fans of the software ASUS has offered for some time now, as it allows users to access nearly every option in the BIOS, but in a far more familiar setting from within Windows. The BIOS itself does a good job of explaining what all the settings are, and the software extends that info in a very usable way, as well as offering a few options that just aren't possible to offer via the UEFI interface. Every tool has a very significant purpose, and we are very happy to see that ASUS takes the end user experience very seriously, not only with the hardware it provides, but also with the software.

Test System

<table class="tputbl">
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Test System</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<th scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td>Intel X3960 (ES)<br />
3.3 GHz, 15 MB Cache</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td>16 GB DDR3 (2x 4 GB) G.Skill F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Cooling:</th>
<td>Noctua NH-C14</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td>ASUS P9X79_Deluxe<br />
Intel X79 Express, BIOS ver 0802</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td>Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td>Western Digital Caviar SE 16 WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA2<br />
Seagate Barracuda LP ST2000DL003 2TB SATA 6 Gb/s<br />
iomega eGo BlackBelt 500GB USB3.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td>Silverstone Strider GOLD 750W</td>
</tr>
<tr class="alt">
<th scope="row">Case:</th>
<td>Test Bench<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Software:</th>
<td>Windows 7 64-bit, ATI Catalyst 11.11</td>
</tr>
</table>

Initial Setup

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Setting up the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe proved an easy task, no different than any other motherboard, with the JEDEC 1600 MHz 11-11-11-31 1.5V profile of our G.Skill DIMMs booting right up without any issue. The OS install went perfectly, and no issues were noticed at any point during our testing period, even when overclocking.

PWM Power Consumption

Since one of our first tasks was to truly verify system stability, while doing so we measure CPU power consumption. We isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, as well as total wattage passed through it. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design.

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The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe put up some pretty impressive numbers on 8-pin power consumption. First, in idle mode, a draw of just three watts was noticed, a full 15 watts lower than the last Intel X79 Express product we tested. At load, the situation was a bit different, however, with 129 watts drawn via the 8-pin EPS connector, just one watt less than the ECS X79R-AX.

CPU Performance Results

We spent a couple of weeks with the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe before beginning our performance testing, running various configurations and CPUs, and checking hardware compatibility. We verified our power consumption numbers using various different power supplies, and played a few hours of games with some members of the TPU community to get an overall feel for the board and to verify stability. Once completed, we tore down the system, mounted our Noctua cooler and put the board through the paces.

SuperPi

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SuperPI serves as our memory-focused benchmark, being highly single-threaded. The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe ended up on the top of the pile of all Intel products we have tested, a good showing, for sure.

wPrime

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wPrime is much more CPU-focused, but memory plays its role as well. In this test, the numbers were much closer, but the P9X79 Deluxe was just a bit slower than the ECS X79R-AX.

WinRAR

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Part of our motherboard benchmarking suite is the built-in benchmark that is part of the WinRAR software suite. In this test, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe put up good numbers, however, we noticed performance a fair bit below what we noticed on the ECS X79R-AX. Given that the wPrime results are also lower, this isn't completely unexplained, but we did expect a bit better performance here. Perhaps a BIOS update will fix that.

AIDA64

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We employed AIDA64's memory bench to highlight memory bandwidth. We isolate the write performance metric as it serves as a good indicator of overall memory performance. Again the P9X79 Deluxe ended up just above the ECS X79R-AX, but only by 53 MB/s.

HandBrake Encoding

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Handbrake is used for encoding testing, and provided results much similar to the previous benchmarks, with the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe sitting a bit over a full FPS ahead of our previously best result.

CineBench Encoding

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In Cinebench, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe was again a bit faster, and there seems to be a trend emerging where the focus seems more centered on 3D performance than CPU performance. The GPU portion was a wee bit higher than on the ECS X79R-AX, but the CPU portion had results that perfectly aligned.

3D Performance Results

Once we completed our CPU test suite, we took some time to play some games with the TPU community to get an overall feel for gaming on the P9X79 Deluxe. After a couple of days we settled in to complete our 3D benchmarking, feeling confident that the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe was going to put on a good show. Let's take a look at what numbers the board provided.

3DMark11

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Once we ran 3DMark11, it became clear that a trend really was emerging. The numbers again have the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe just a single point above the ECS X79R-AX.

Civilization 5

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Our first real-world 3D performance test comes in the form of Civilization 5, using the included benchmark. We let the game recommend us settings, and then disabled V-SYNC and AA to eliminate bottlenecks introduced by the GPU itself. Here the numbers were exactly as expected, with very little variation compared to previous results. A problem in this particular benchmark points to other issues, but the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe passed with flying colors.

F1 2010

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Our second real-world 3D performance test comes from CodeMasters, in the form of the "F1 2010" included benchmark. We let the game recommend us settings, which included 8xAA with our newly added HD 6950 2 GB from Sapphire. Again we were impressed, as F1 2010 proves to be one of our personal favorites, and the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe again noticed higher performance than the other Intel X79 Express product we've tested in the past few weeks. Although there are two higher results here, these are very obviously because of the higher default clockspeeds on those two products.

With the CPU and 3D performance compares out of the way, we took a closer look at the other performance features offered by the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe.

Drive and Audio Performance Results

Our drive and audio testing differs a bit from the rest of our testing, for several reasons. First of all, when it comes to drive performance comparison, nearly every platform on the market is very close to one another, as most do provide external drive controllers which means the numbers offered are very much platform agnostic. And finally, with audio, we do not list any numbers except for those reported by the product we are testing in order to provide the most information possible, as each audio CODEC will behave quite differently, and each board does not employ the same CODEC. As such, there is no standard we can use other than the numbers themselves. You can always check our other motherboard reviews in order to make direct comparisons to audio performance.

We've tested each drive interface separately in order to provide the most complete numbers possible. Employing HDTune Pro for all of the testing, we tested each drive outside of the OS environment, using a separate OS on a separate drive. However, we do use drives with a fair amount of data on them (60% full) to simulate performance in real-world situations.

HDTune Pro (SATA2)

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In HDTune Pro SATA 3 GB/s performance, we found the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe to return results exactly as expected, right near the top, and exactly matched with the ECS X79R-AX.

HDTune Pro (SATA 6Gb/s)

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SATA 6 Gb/s showed nearly the same as SATA 3Gb/s, with the P9X79 Deluxe just one tenth of a megabyte behind our top result.

HDTune Pro (USB3.0)

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USB 3.0 drive performance failed to put the P9X79 Deluxe on top, most likely due to it employing the ASMedia USB 3.0 controllers, much different from the NEC/Renesas and Etron products on the other boards. We are not too sure why the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe seems to come up short here, but we did also notice that our USB 3.0 device was incompatible with the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed technology either, so that may have had some impact on the result. Of course, the ECS X79R-Ax had no such issues and took the top spot, but it did employ a different controller, so the results are not directly comparable, but still stand for what users can expect during normal usage.

RightMark Audio Analyzer

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The RMAA results given by the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe are rated by RMAA as good, however, we did notice that the volume given by the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe was a bit lower than what other products we have tested offer. Quite a few of the results are listed as "average", so there could be some improvement here, for sure.

Overclocking

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Overclocking with the ASUS P9X79_Deluxe was very easy indeed, with the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe board outclocking our ECS sample by a full 200 MHz. We were also able to push our memory further, all the way up to 2400 MHz, but stress testing proved that combined with the memory high 2400 MHz clocks, the system would enter thermal throttle, but still remained stable. Lowering the memory speed to 2133 MHz fixed the throttle issue, as this allowed us to lower both the System Agent and VTT voltages back to their stock settings.

Overclocked Performance Summary

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Cinebench provided a substantial performance increase when over clocked, something that resounds true through the entire series of Intel-based products.

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Likewise, SuperPi 32m results proved the same as Cinebench, with substantial performance increases that are also noticed on previous Intel platforms, but the SB-E CPU core design does limit the increases available in SuperPi.

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WPrime 1024M numbers further the results, showing that there is true power available when overclocking the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe, dropping the final result by a full 30 seconds when overclocked.

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For a bit of 3D action we fired up CodeMaster's F1 2010 to be impressed with the performance boost offered compared to the other products. This does highlight that finally, with the Intel X79 platform offering quad-channel memory support, we are already at near optimal performance in this application, even at stock, while with P67 and Z68 products, we managed to notice quite significant gains in 3D performance that is just not noticed here, as the end result did not even increase by a full FPS. With that, we can say that the Intel X79 Express platform, at stock, is enough to push Codemaster's titles to the max, which is pretty impressive, to say the least.

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With Codemaster's F1 2010 starting to show it's age, and proving less reliable in showing performance increases, we've added the Shogun 2 DirectX 9 CPU benchmark to our testing suite. In the months to come, it will get added to the main testing section, but for now, it does show a very large increase in performance when run on the overclocked ASUS P9X79 Deluxe, being highly sensitive to single-threaded CPU performance. The final result increased by almost 50%, much higher than we had expected.

Value & Conclusion

<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>

The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe should hit store shelves soon, with an MRSP $379.99.

</td><br>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>

Packed with added features and options not seen on some other products in the same price range.
Clean, color-themed and traditional layout.
Fully functional UEFI BIOS, including mouse support and support for 3 TB+ drives.
VRM capable of 300W, over double Intel CPU TDPs.
Exceptional included software package for maximizing performance
Overclocks higher than any other TPU-tested Intel X79 Express product
Very low power consumption both under load and when idle.

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>

Lack of an included accessory to make use of the USB 3.0 front panel header
Crossfire limited by slot configuration, as the lack of an included extended Crossfire bridge means that the majority of AMD GPU users will be confined to a x16/x8 PCIe lane assignment unless a separate bridge is purchased
BIOS may be confusing and overwhelming to some, due to the extensive number of options offered
USB 3.0 performance with tested hardware is underwhelming

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9.0</th>
<td>The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe really did impress us every step of the way during our testing period. It clocked exceptionally well, both for the CPU and the memory, offered many options not seen elsewhere, and ultimately, those options are what helped us push things further than on the other products we have tested. There were a few issues that we noticed, but nothing that stood out as critical to the board's overall functionality, except one. The PCIe slot arrangement is such that Crossfire users may end up disappointed with the PCIe x16 slots, since they are too far apart for the shorter bridges that ship with most cards. At the same time, however, for users that have the ASUS Direct CU II cards using have triple-slot coolers, the slot configuration is ideal, and those cards come with a longer bridge that will work well with the slot arrangement. For a high-end product, we consider this oversight a huge failing on ASUS's part, as the cost of a longer Crossfire bridge is small to ASUS, but finding one for purchase, depending on your global location and local availability, can be nigh on impossible, as it is for me, even though I am located in one of the largest major Canadian population centers.<br />
That said, there's nothing else we could really come up with that stands out as a downside to this product, especially considering SLI users will find the needed bridges right inside the motherboard box. We have deducted a half a point for that issue, and another half a point for the lack of an included USB 3.0 front panel bracket, which will also leave some users missing out on the full functionality of the product without purchasing other equipment, considering only the most recently released cases support USB 3.0. However, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe is good, so good in fact, that we will be re-purposing our test sample to be used in our upcoming memory reviews, as no other product we have encountered at this point offers the extreme flexibility that the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe does.<br />
The $380 US price tag is pretty high, but so is general cost of entry into the Intel X79 Express platform itself, and considering the entire package, the cost really seems worth it, especially considering it beat out the ECS X79R-AX by 200 MHz when overclocking the CPU. ASUS has really outdone itself this time, and this product is very close to perfection.</td></tr>
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</table>