X79 successor?

[Mars999]

I am looking at the X79 right now, and am sicken by the fact that it only supports two Intel SATA 3 ports... I though I read somewhere that Intel may end up releasing the full X79 chipset later? Would this be e.g. X38 vs. X48? so would we be looking at X89? Problem is I already have two SATA3 SSD's and I need more and don't want to place them on the inferior Marvell controllers as they all seem to max out around 400 vs. 550 on the reviews I have seen.

Thanks!

 

[ArchAngel777]

I am looking at the X79 right now, and am sicken by the fact that it only supports two Intel SATA 3 ports... I though I read somewhere that Intel may end up releasing the full X79 chipset later? Would this be e.g. X38 vs. X48? so would we be looking at X89? Problem is I already have two SATA3 SSD's and I need more and don't want to place them on the inferior Marvell controllers as they all seem to max out around 400 vs. 550 on the reviews I have seen.

Thanks!

I agree. I was very dissapointed with X79. I don't even see the point of the platform for 99.9% of gamers. I probably won't upgrade until Intel releases a board that supports 4+ Sata 3 in RAID0. Of course, you can buy a PCI-E controller card from LSI, but I'd rather not spend $300-$400 on a card, when everyone knows full well that Intel could have implemented another 2 SATA 3 ports for RAID support.

 

[bankster55]

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...sell-ivy-bridge-late-q4-2011-a-3457515-2.html

 

[lehtv]

I don't even see the point of the platform for 99.9% of gamers.

You could say the same about X58 though. What did it offer gamers that LGA1155 didn't?

 

[Smoblikat]

You could say the same about X58 though. What did it offer gamers that LGA1155 didn't?

Triple channel RAM.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

You could say the same about X58 though. What did it offer gamers that LGA1155 didn't?

Dual PCI-E 16x, 3-channel memory and it was available months before LGA1155 poked its head out of the water.
Before someone raises the dumb point of "but but, 3-channel RAM t3h costs moar!", you could run a 2-channel config.
Mobos weren't that expensive either - I'm still using the EX58-UD3R I got for ~$135 spring of 2009.

It's like the 8800GTX and 5870. ~4GHz X58 setups rocked and are still rocking. Can't believe that its been around for ~3 years now.

 

[ArchAngel777]

You could say the same about X58 though. What did it offer gamers that LGA1155 didn't?

LGA1366 (X58) came out November 2008.

LGA1156 (P55) came out September 2009.

See the difference? If you wanted an i7, X58 was your only choice for 11 months. It made sense, which is why several enthusiests embraced it. So for Nehalemn, it made perfect sense to go X58.

LGA1155 (P67) came out January 2011.

LGA2011 (X79) came out November 2011.

The mainstream part came out 11 months before the enthusiest part. This is completely reversed. Thus, it makes very little sense for most users to upgrade to SB-E.

X58 -> X79 = 3 years apart.
P55 -> P67 = 1 year, 3 months apart.

In fact, people who bought SB-E are going to have a 7-10% IPC disadvantage real soon. So if they don't use software that is going to load across all 6 cores (or 12 threads) they are going to perform behind IVB.

X79 isn't pointless, that would be an incorrect statement and one that I never made. It is just too little, too late for the majority of enthusiests. This is completely opposite of what X58 was to enthusiests.

However, with that said, if IVB-E launches at the same time as IVB, it might make sense to go X79 for a few more people, but even then I doubt it.

 

[bradcollins]

I would suspect that if Intel fixes the SAS port problem on the high end versions of X79, as explained here:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/x79-to-have-10-sata-ports-after-all/13317.html

That we will get a range of updated X79 motherboards with those extra ports. There might even be another round of updates when IB-E is released.

If anyone remembers, over the X58's 3 year life span, when the Hex Core cpu's were released, all of the mothboard manufacturers updated their offerings to support new features, such as USB3 and SATA 6g with additional chips.

I'd expect the same thing to happen here, hopefully by the time IB-E comes out Intel will have integrated USB3 onto the chipset as well as fix the additional SAS ports, but I think integrating USB3 is doubtful.

 

[Rifter]

You could say the same about X58 though. What did it offer gamers that LGA1155 didn't?

double the PCIe lanes.

Triple channel ram.

PCIe controller being on the mobo not the CPU so theoretical more CPU OC headroom/cooler running CPU.

X58 was worth it over the 1156.

X79 not so much worth it over 1155.

I hope we see a real enthusiast platform from intel for IB.


Im very disappointed with X79.

 

[bradcollins]

Just why is X79 a disappointment? It is very fast, faster than 1155 and supports more ram. If you're on a budget then the i7 3820 is quicker than a 2700k and the total platform cost really isn't much more.

 

[jsedlak]

My main dilemma right now with X79 is that they are asking a premium for the boards, but not offering much in the way of premium features. For $400, the board better have top notch audio, 2 gigabit ports, well planned 4-way SLI (so that 2 way separate the cards), plenty of USB3/SATA3 and 8 dimm slots. But I guess that is a bit much to ask for..

 

[Mars999]

My main dilemma right now with X79 is that they are asking a premium for the boards, but not offering much in the way of premium features. For $400, the board better have top notch audio, 2 gigabit ports, well planned 4-way SLI (so that 2 way separate the cards), plenty of USB3/SATA3 and 8 dimm slots. But I guess that is a bit much to ask for..

Ditto on that!

No more crap well if you run these two cards this is nurtured and if you use this much RAM you fall back to blah blah....

Give me the goods for $400 or piss off.

 

[bradcollins]

jsedlak, what is wrong with the Asus P9X79 WS or their Deluxe or even the Intel board, which is only $280 (at the egg). Admittedly the Intel board doesn't split out the PCIe 16x slots very well for 2 card SLI, but the WS and Deluxe do and both are fantastic boards, typically the reviewers choices

 

[jsedlak]

jsedlak, what is wrong with the Asus P9X79 WS or their Deluxe or even the Intel board, which is only $280 (at the egg). Admittedly the Intel board doesn't split out the PCIe 16x slots very well for 2 card SLI, but the WS and Deluxe do and both are fantastic boards, typically the reviewers choices

Bad reviews is all. Granted not everyone will review a board, but 3/5 eggs?

This just came up on Tech Power Up...
http://www.techpowerup.com/157950/MSI-Launches-the-Big-Bang-XPower-II-X79-Motherboard.html

Edit: It is an XL-ATX board though.

 

[Grooveriding]

Ditto on that!

No more crap well if you run these two cards this is nurtured and if you use this much RAM you fall back to blah blah....

Give me the goods for $400 or piss off.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131802

 

[bradcollins]

jsedlak, every review from websites I've seen has praised the Asus boards.

I've just read through the reviews for the P9X79 WS and Pro, looks like the usual story of a few people having a few problems, which will be the same with every motherboard out there!

 

[Qianglong]

My main dilemma right now with X79 is that they are asking a premium for the boards, but not offering much in the way of premium features. For $400, the board better have top notch audio, 2 gigabit ports, well planned 4-way SLI (so that 2 way separate the cards), plenty of USB3/SATA3 and 8 dimm slots. But I guess that is a bit much to ask for..

The ASUS P9X79 WS board supports 4 way crossfire/SLI, 2 intel gigabit ethernet, 4 USB 3.0 (front and back), 2 Intel SATA 6G port and 8 DIMM slots.

I know intel boards have relatively fewer SATA 6 G ports but what they make up for lack in quantity is quality. My SSDs gained almost 120MB/sec read write speed from the AMD 990FX chipset.

As for audio there are really no good onboard options - even those motherboard that has so called creative X-Fi onboard are only software emulated audio, not true hardware audio that you will get from a standalone card.

 

[bankster55]

the first X77 mobo showed on a Chinese website
10 SATA ports unfortunately the 4 extra SATA 6G are 2 marvel controllers of 2 each.

CES next week will be the great unvieling

 

[bradcollins]

Qianglong, I found another interesting problem with the AMD southbridges. Copying a stream of data from each of my raid arrays onto a single drive on ICH9R or 10R will copy at near the sustained transfer speed of the single hard drive. On an AMD southbridge the speed drops by about 30%, and with three streams of data the single hard drive drops even further, whereas with the intel Southbridge it stays at about the same speed.

 

[bankster55]

yeah, Intel 6G best, but still no trim

 

[bunnyfubbles]

You could say the same about X58 though. What did it offer gamers that LGA1155 didn't?

X58 was available long before P55, as well as offering 32nm 6-core CPUs vs. 45nm 4-core or 32nm 2-core. And P55 really offered nothing that X58 did not (other than the possibility of lousy integrated graphics)

In the case of X79 vs. Z68 the total platform is largely a wash, and without absolutely needing the extra PCI-e lanes, I'd even go as far as saying Z68 is a superior platform/chipset because it actually supports SSD caching whereas X79 does not (seriously, wtf)

X79 was supposed to be a beastly chipset and make s2011 truly stand apart from 1155 with up to 10 x SATA6 ports including support for SAS and its own 4x PCI-e channel connection to the CPU to provide plenty of bandwidth for all those potential hard drives

Then it was like Intel said screw it, AMD can't compete so lets just rip everyone off by not advancing our chipset/platform at all and charging everyone an arm and leg for it regardless. Seriously, as a chipset X79 is ultimately no better than P67. As a platform s2011 does offer advantages such as 6+core CPUs, quad channel memory, and extra PCI-e lanes, but that's all in the CPU now...so why is intel charging so much for X79 and driving s2011 motherboard costs up?

 

[Diogenes2]

the first X77 mobo showed on a Chinese website
10 SATA ports unfortunately the 4 extra SATA 6G are 2 marvel controllers of 2 each.

CES next week will be the great unvieling

The ASRock X79 Extreme9 has 12 SATA ports. The six Intel ports, and 6 Marvell SATA 3 ports - 2 on one controller, 4 on another..

 

[Qianglong]

The ASRock X79 Extreme9 has 12 SATA ports. The six Intel ports, and 6 Marvell SATA 3 ports - 2 on one controller, 4 on another..

The thing is that board only have 2 Intel native SATA 6G port which is what most people are complaining. Most people with SSDs will only get the best performance when using Intel SATA 6G port rather than the marvell ones.

 

[bradcollins]

The ECS X79 board still has the headers for 4x SAS from the southbridge. Haven't seen anyone test them though.

 

[Diogenes2]

The thing is that board only have 2 Intel native SATA 6G port which is what most people are complaining. Most people with SSDs will only get the best performance when using Intel SATA 6G port rather than the marvell ones.

The thing is, All Intell desktop chipsets only have two SATA 6G ports.

That is pretty much the thrust of this discussion..

For some people, Marvell is better than nothing..

The other side, is that people get all caught up in benchmarks and how quickly the desktop loads after a BSOD; when in the real world computing experience, the faster SATA ports have little if any perceivable effect ..