ECS X79R-AX Black Series Motherboard Pictured

[siopao1984]

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ECS X79R-AX Black Series Motherboard Pictured by VR-Zone.com

Here are the first pictures of ECS' top-of-the-line socket LGA2011 motherboard, the X79R-AX Black Series. This standard ATX form-factor motherboard crams in a ton of connectivity and features to tick all the boxes as far as Intel's next-generation HEDT (high-end desktop) platform goes. It's got room for 4-way SLI or CrossfireX, a strong-looking VRM, and connectivity galore.



Styled in ECS' signature black, white, and gray color-sheme, the X79R-AX belongs to the "Black Series" line of premium motherboards by the company, which helped build the its image as a premium board vendor. The LGA2011 socket takes in upcoming Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E" processors, the socket itself is LOTES-made. The socket is powered by a 14-phase VRM, seven sets of Driver-MOSFETs and chokes on either sides of the PCB. We can imagine this to be a heavily layered PCB to keep signaling proper, when you have high-current electrical components on even the reverse-side of the PCB.



The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, two on its either sides. Each slot has its own 64-bit wide data path to the memory controller, since Sandy Bridge-E packs a hefty quad-channel (256-bit) DDR3 integrated memory controller. Up to 32 GB of DDR3-2400 MHz (via OC) memory can be installed. The memory slots are powered by a 4-phase VRM.



Expansion slots include four well spaced-out PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, which depending on the way they're populated, are electrically configured (top to bottom) as x16/NC/x16/NC, or x8/x8/x8/x8, or x16/NC/x8/x8. Switching is handled by new ASMedia ASM1480 lane switches, that are PCI-Express 3.0 compliant.



Other expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x1.

[siopao1984]

The Intel X79 PCH (platform controller hub, a glorified southbridge), provides quite a few SATA ports. There are no less than 12 internal SATA ports, and two eSATA ones. Not all the ports are wired to the PCH, some use third-party controllers, we spy an ASMedia-made under the shadow of the chipset heatsink. As such it's hard to guess the data rate of each port. It's likely that all the gray colored ports run at up to 6 Gbps, while the white ones run at 3 Gbps, tops. In this scenario, the topmost pair of 6 Gbps ports are wired to the PCH, while the remaining are driven by additional controllers. A lesser-possibility is that the white ports are 6 Gbps, with the gray ones 3 Gbps. The eSATA ports provide up to 6 Gbps.



There's a wealth of connectivity features that extends way beyond the chipset's feature-set. In all, there are six USB 3.0 ports, four on the rear panel, and two via a standard front-panel header; 8-channel HD audio with TOSLINK SPDIF output, two gigabit Ethernet connections, Bluetooth, and what looks like a USB Wireless N dongle.



The board looks quite polished, purely in terms of design. The CPU VRM heatsink and PCH heatsink are linked with a 6 mm thick heat pipe, the PCH heatsink looks to have what looks like a thermometer that gives out direct temperature readings of the heatsink. An LED display gives out diagnostic POST codes. The "clear-CMOS" button is accessible through the rear panel. There are consolidated voltage measurement points next to the 24-pin ATX power connector. As mentioned earlier, the board seems to be using a highly layered PCB, apart from improved signalling, this results in lower EMI emissions.

There are two 4-pin (PWM) fan headers next to the CPU socket, game for push-pull type air coolers. There are three other 3-pin fan headers. Expect UEFI BIOS that at least sticks to the AMI default template.

We expect the ECS X79R-AX to be a part of the first wave of socket LGA2011 motherboards, when the platform launches in mid-November.

[harhar]

May unta maka compete nani ang ECS sa uban brands in terms of performance.

[Cabzjr20]

okay man ang ECS mobos..

[maerkz]

very nice!

[eXpLoDe]

does all the 12 sata slot can accommodate 3tb each? if it does then its very interesting.