[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by buggalugs

Shame about the fan.

That's about how I feel. But they really couldn't do much about it.

These PLX PEX8747 chips run quite hot. With 48 lanes of PCIe 3.0 going through each of them(or 96 total), plus the chipset, plus the RAID card, that fact they stuffed it all in there and it stays stable is a feat in itself by all rights.

THe 24-phase VRM goes a long way towards that though. On the other X79 boards I've palyed with so far, the VRM generates all the heat, and it's fair bit when overclocked, especially considering that the CPU can easily consume 250 W. WIth this board, the VRM gets heated by the other part of the cooler, and the load being spread out over all those phases makes that no big deal. 24 phases @ 250 W, means that eahc phases is pushing a wee bit over 10 watts...

That helps keep it efficient, too.


There are quite a few products out there with silly amount of power phases, but this board really helps show how that can truly be useful, and that is a lesson that is invaluable. $600 really is a small price to pay.