ASUS Ready With X79 Workstation Board

[btarunr]

Republic of Gamers and Sabertooth aren't the only special client motherboard product lines of ASUS apart from its mainline, there's also the WS (workstation) series, that consists of motherboards fit for mission-critical environments, and which are filled to the brim with features. These motherboards are often based on chipset from Intel's client product lines, rather than enterprise ones. Intel's Sandy Bridge-E 1P platform will get a similar treatment with the P9X79WS.

Based on the ATX form-factor, the P9X79WS uses a typical X79 motherboard layout. The socket LGA2011 is powered by a 10-phase Digi+ VRM, which is cooled by a heatsink that shares its heat with a VRM heatsink cluster over the memory VRM, and the one over the X79 PCH. There are eight DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting quad-channel DDR3 memory. All expansion slots are PCI-Express long-type, though the exact lane configuration is not known. The board is advertised with 4-way NVIDIA SLI and CrossFireX support, so at least four of those slots could be wired to the CPU.



Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s from the PCH, two SATA 6 Gb/s from a discrete controller, and surprisingly, no eSATA. ASUS could have taken the opportunity to provide a more robust storage connectivity, maybe even drop in a discrete SAS controller. There are six USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, four by headers. There are two gigabit Ethernet connections, both driven by Intel-made controllers. Firewire and 8-channel HD audio make for the rest of it. Expect this one to be among the more expensive socket LGA2011 motherboards you can buy from ASUS.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Maban]

Had my eye on that one for a while now. If I was to go SB-E, that's the one I'd get.

I had a look through the manual and the white slots are both x4, but listed as PCI-E 2.0.

 

[btarunr]

I had a look through the manual and the white slots are both x4, but listed as PCI-E 2.0.

Tomorrow you'll be in for a shocker that's somewhat related to PCIe and Sandy Bridge-E.

 

[brandonwh64]

Anybody have a hard release date for sandy bridge - e?

 

[Maban]

Tomorrow you'll be in for a shocker that's somewhat related to PCIe and Sandy Bridge-E.

Downloadable lanes?

/excited

 

[btarunr]

Anybody have a hard release date for sandy bridge - e?

Today, in my time-zone, tomorrow in yours.

 

[Maban]

So I quick looked through the manual again. In one place it says the x16 and x8 slots are 3.0 and the white x4's are 2.0 but later on it says all of them are 2.0. So I'm betting that all of them are actually 3.0.

 

[brandonwh64]

Im surprised that newegg doesn't have them listed yet or atleast selling the motherboards

 

[Disparia]

The lack of SAS is a break from their earlier WS boards :/

I like the rest of it though, very nice.

 

[Maban]

The lack of SAS is a break from their earlier WS boards :/

I like the rest of it though, very nice.

That's what SASsaby is for. I'm sure they'll release a new WS when Patsburg matures and the full chip is unleashed. That's still going to happen right btarunr?

 

[Disparia]

Do they still make the SASsaby cards? They're a bit old now, unless there's new model(s) I haven't heard of yet.

The P6T WS, P6T6 WS and P6T7 WS boards all had an onboard 2-port controller. I thought the P7F7-E WS also had one, but looked it up and it's just an additional SATA controller.

Oh well, hopefully a fixed Patsburg is just around the corner!

 

[HumanSmoke]

So I quick looked through the manual again. In one place it says the x16 and x8 slots are 3.0 and the white x4's are 2.0 but later on it says all of them are 2.0. So I'm betting that all of them are actually 3.0.

Wasn't the scuttlebutt that the X79 boards are PCIe 3.0 capable but the CPU's themselves in the launch stepping were not, and that PCIe 3.0 and the extra SATA 6Gb would be enabled with the C3(?) stepping/revision ?

 

[mediasorcerer]

Jeez my curiosity is piqued by btarunr,s comment recie etc, haha, thanks for the news!

 

[Super XP]

Asus does it again right. Very nice looking board.

 

[mastrdrver]

The lack of SAS is a break from their earlier WS boards :/

I like the rest of it though, very nice.

There is probably coming a 7 slot PCIe WE X79 board later.

That's what ASUS did with the X58. The P6T6 came first and then the P6T7 came later and added on board firewire support and a couple other things. Both of them has support for SAS through a Marvel chip, but performance was meh. Though you can use the Marvel as either a SATA or SAS.

edit: According to S|A the first iteration of SB-E is going to lack PCIe 3.0 (maybe even the extreme version too?).

 

[btarunr]

According to S|A the first iteration of SB-E is going to lack PCIe 3.0 (maybe even the extreme version too?).

^That's one of the shockers. I can confirm two shockers to you at this moment:

• Sandy Bridge-E does not feature PCIe Gen. 3.0. This took even motherboard vendors by shock, because they were pitching PCIe Gen 3.0 on all their box-arts and marketing materials till now, and were kept in the dark about this.
• Intel will initially only launch the six-core Core i7-3930K and six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, and not the affordable quad-core Core i7-3820. So you'll only have a $600-ish and a $1200-ish chip to buy, if you want a Sandy Bridge-E system. No $380-ish Sandy Bridge-E for j00.

 

[mastrdrver]

I was wondering about that 3820 because there were a lot of rumors that did not know the price of that CPU, which didn't make sense to me. How could the other two be known and not the affordable one?

 

[de.das.dude]

that brushed metal finish on the chipset heatsink looks delicious!

 

[cadaveca]

Can Haz?



Yes, CAN hAZ!!!

Memory VRM heatsinks...are....interesting.

 

[Maban]

^That's one of the shockers. I can confirm two shockers to you at this moment:

• Sandy Bridge-E does not feature PCIe Gen. 3.0. This took even motherboard vendors by shock, because they were pitching PCIe Gen 3.0 on all their box-arts and marketing materials till now, and were kept in the dark about this.
• Intel will initially only launch the six-core Core i7-3930K and six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, and not the affordable quad-core Core i7-3820. So you'll only have a $600-ish and a $1200-ish chip to buy, if you want a Sandy Bridge-E system. No $380-ish Sandy Bridge-E for j00.

For shame. That explains why I didn't see the 3820 on the supported CPU list. /unexcited

I see a Rampage IV Formula on ASUS' site but there's no info to be found.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

If it's half of what the orginal WS was it will be a beast!