| ASUS P9X79 WS LGA2011 Workstation Motherboard |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Motherboards | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Tuesday, 17 January 2012 | |
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Page 16 of 17
X79 Express Motherboard Final ThoughtsA few months have passed since Intel's introduction of the X79 Express chipset, the LGA2011 socket, and the new Sandy Bridge Extreme processors. The new platform brings performance and features (like extra PCI-E lanes) that appeal to the enthusiast, but X79 motherboards are much more expensive than their Z68/LGA1155 cousins. At $380, the ASUS P9X79 WS motherboard is almost double the price of the top-rated ASUS P8Z68-V Pro LGA1155 motherboard. This is why system builders will want to carefully consider which X79 Express motherboard they choose for their next rig.
The ASUS P9X79 WS is, as the name implies, aimed at professional users: those who really use four GPUs' worth of rendering prowess or need to set up a Tesla-based desktop supercomputer. The P9X79 WS motherboard eschews consumer and enthusiast features such as Bluetooth, remote overclocking, THX-certified audio, powered eSATA ports, and the like, and instead adds dual gigabit Ethernet ports, PS/2 keyboard and mouse connections, FireWire, and unique features like Quick Gate. But the defining feature of this board, and the one ASUS touts the most heavily, is its ability to hold four dual-slot graphics cards. And that's where this board's one real weakness comes in: since it's the same 12" width as any other ATX motherboard, even a single slot card in the last PCI-E slot will cover the POST code display, all the headers, the power and reset buttons, and probably the Quick Gate USB connector. The Quick Gate connector and ASUS' "Q Connector" quick connect device for the front panel header may interfere with long graphics cards; even the reference design Radeon HD6850 I used, not a particularly long card, just touched the Quick Gate connector when I put it in the last slot. You could reasonably point out that this is a consequence of the ATX/CEB form factor, and that no board could be designed within these constraints to do better. This would be true, but why couldn't ASUS have made the board 13" wide and eliminated the problem? Granted, that would make the board a non-standard form factor, but it's not as if ASUS hasn't done that before: their Rampage series of motherboards, at 12"x10.6" to 10.7", is a non-standard form factor; other vendors such as EVGA also have non-standard form factor motherboards. You'll need an 8-slot case, at a minimum, to use this board with four GPUs anyway and most such cases could easily handle the extra inch of width. However, I must admit that even motherboards that are 13" wide and support four GPUs, such as EVGA's X79 Classified, put the extra space between the first card slot at the CPU, rather than between the last card slot and the end of the motherboard. All that said, this is still an excellent motherboard with features the professional user will appreciate. Gamers and enthusiasts, however, will be happier with one of ASUS' other X79 offerings.
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Comments
Please read chapter 2.3.11 "USB BIOS Flashback".
benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=4&Itemid=61
Also, I don't know of anyone who builds workstation machines in a rackmount case. Servers are usually fitted into a rack, and workstations are usually on a desk.
My point was simple, Audio Engineering being my profession and game stations my hobby, there is a market for rack mount Case reviews. There are dozens of Turn-Key Rack Mount WS for Pro applications used in Broadcasting, Film, and Recording Industries; its been that way for years. Laboratory applications also used machine racked WS. I have friends that travel with their lab in shock mounted road cases. Many engineers build a lot of what they used, including the Mother Ship. Enough with the HTPC cases, I would like to see some pro 19" machine racks chassis, so I can utilize a PX979 and the USB 3 and SATA 6Gb/s features, not mention keeping the WS cool.
And yes I would happy to build 64GBDDR work station for audio/video production.
Rack Mount Cases
Unloaded examples:
ANTEC 4U22EPS650 4U Rackmount with ATX12V v2.0 PSU
ARK TECHNOLOGIES 4U/IPC-4550
Loaded Pro Audio examples:
Sweetwater CSRackXT Creation Station Rack Extreme Core i7 CPU, 6GB DDR3 RAM, Seagate 500GB and 1TB Hard Drives, GeForce 9500GT Video Card
Or check this sexy thing:
#raincomputers.com/products/ion/
And Peter thank you for also noticing the need for a pro level chassis for an exciting pro-level motherboard like the PX979.
And always remember, don't sell yourself short on PSU's, buy big wattage and let the gaming begin.
That's not to say that there aren't suitable rackmount cases out there...but these don't seem to be them.
Could you try again, using small words and simple concepts, so I can understand?
As Peter and I agree there have been many benchmarkviews.com articles on HTPC cases, mini's and of course our fav gaming towers, but with recent bus advancements and the increase capabilities of higher end high RAM motherboards, such as the P9X79, there is a need for 19" rack mount chassis cases that can incorporate these high RAM hotrods. It had little to do with the P9X79 performance, and more to do with real world application. There is a need and as I asked, and Peter agreed, it would be great to see reviews on some 19" racks to match the P9X79, of which I cannot recall any 19" RU enclosure reviews in recent times. I only use the Antec and Ark Tech as examples that manufactures do understand the need for such products and there are AMD Black and i7 rack mount machines for professional level application (Rain Recording). The rendering of A/V productions re: Film, Game Design, etc., crunches numbers just as hard as when I throw Crysis, Dragon Age or X3 on my Gigabyte/AMD game rig in a Windstorm tower. I have Macs for in-house a/v production but use PC notebooks on the road for particular reasons, one being cost. I have not bought a PC tower in over 15 years and have no plans to buy one when I can build my own. Why not, Fry's is 15 minutes away?
That said, your comment stating the examples I referred to, do not match the example's specs,(Antec), I replied "exactly, that's the point." I, and probably Peter too, would like to see newer 19" RU's enclosures fitting of newer bussing technologies i.e. SATA6 and USB3, and physical WS board dimensions as they come available and I hope they do. In fact I going to shoot Antec an email on the subject.
David, thank you for another in depth review. The site offers the best information I can usually find and I appreciate the articles,,, keeps me thinking.
Once again thanks and all the best.
The "30% graphics boost with 4-way SLI" ASUS touts on the box is in comparison to a 3-way SLI (or, presumably, 3-way CrossFireX) system. In reality, of course, you'll rarely see perfect scaling in performance when adding more graphics cards, especially when going from three to four.
endQuote"
I keep hearing that presumption ( U Will Not See CLOSE TO near perfect Scaling! ) when in my experience ( with tri sli admittedly ) I see very good scaling making 3 27 inch Acer Monitors in 3D and surround bearable.
I see comparison arguments/charts where SLI x16 vs x8 vs x4 speed do not make a 7 percent difference until surround/eyefinity resolutions are used. And knowing that! The same reviewers do not add 3D on top of that were the difference is suddenly OVER 10% and make quite a big difference when yer trying to turn everything up in Battlefield 3 and Metro 2033.
Between Maya and Zbrush and Photoshop open at the sametime and 3dSurround playtime in Arkham City, I have to wonder? Are there really that many secretaries reading an enthusiast review of a $350 motherboard? What does anyone use a computer for otherwise that does not require more power than will be available in my lifetime.
I know indie and lo fi trendy is perty hip nowadayz but I got a billion tris werth of creativity and openworlds as big as states in my handicapped imagination ready to bring yer strongest computer to it's knees! I want mo POWER~!
You just explained why you see good scaling - you put a good load on your cards.
SLI scaling depends on your load versus the SLI overhead.
Run a single display, 2D, at 1920x1080 or less, low AA (or none).
Then look at your scaling, it will be OK from 1 card to 2, meh from 2 to 3, and probably negative from 3 to 4.
You could say 'so what, because no one will get quad SLI for that rez'.
But some people want to go with 120hz displays, 2D, and maintain a MINIMUM fps of 120, basically valuing supreme smoothness over appearance.
Then you find your options limited.
Say 1 card is too slow to give you minimum of 120 fps.
2 might do it with some conservative settings.
And if you still can't get there, adding more cards will only hurt your performance.
So you're basically stuck until a next gen card that can perform faster.
-scheherazade
Consider, possibly lowering the Value score for this board? And maybe increasing the appearance score? Probably this will have no overall effect to the total score, but this might be more in line with the reviewer's actual written conclusion: "At $380, the ASUS P9X79 WS motherboard is almost double the price of the top-rated ASUS P8Z68-V Pro LGA1155 motherboard. This is why system builders will want to carefully consider which X79 Express motherboard they choose for their next rig."
Also, Sandy Bridge E processors are so powerful that the need for multi-CPU motherboards is reduced, even in workstation situations. 12 threads can handle a lot.
The P9X79 WS motherboard does cost almost twice as much as the P8Z68-V Pro, but that's the cost of getting into Sandy Bridge E right now. The big win for workstation applications is the 40 PCI-E lanes you get from that CPU (as compared to the measly 16 you get from a 2700K), which is something that multi-GPU rigs can use.
Lastly, although you and I would probably find a thorough review of a multi-CPU workstation motherboard interesting, it probably wouldn't appeal to the vast majority of our readers.
It appears to me that for one to be interested in this board, one must either need it for its phenomenal thruput in order to make a living with it, or have a bunch of cash to build something they can boast to their friends about. Few if any have have 8 channel memory like this one does. Few if any have 40 PCI-E lanes. I have built some of the P8 series boards that really cooked and did a fine job, but they don't hold a candle to this P9 in video editing and CAD. Hooking up an SSD as a drive casche makes this board jump out in front of most. Yes, sombody will say "mine is better because--- ", but that's OK. Don't speculate, build it. Prove your point. Yea, and rack mount it.
-- It has four channel memory (like all X79 boards), not 8 channel memory
-- Total PCI-E lanes: 48, 40 from CPU and 8 from X79 chipset. This compares to 42 total lanes for an AMD FX system and 40 in an X58 system.