EVGA X79 Dark Motherboard Review

Author: Dennis Garcia

Published: Monday, September 09, 2013

Introduction

Arguably one of the best processor platforms for the hardware enthusiast is the LGA 2011. It may not have the cost efficiency of its retail counterpart but does come with more multithreaded performance than can be used by most "over the counter" applications. Pair a LGA2011 processor up with a specially designed motherboard and you have a monster system ready for 4-way GPU setups and any manner of overclocking you can think of.

In this review we will be looking at the EVGA X79 Dark. The Dark is the latest edition motherboard from EVGA that is specially designed for the enthusiast and their computer activities including custom system builds, multi gpu setups and any level of overclocking you can imagine.

As was indicated the EVGA X79 Dark comes with a whole list of enthusiast friendly features that place the motherboard in a unique position. Normally the Classified edition is the top of the line combining all of the high-end features their community wants but with the Dark EVGA claims it will supersede the Classified edition based on the quality of the motherboard and the fact its newer.

We feel that is a good argument.

Specifications

Performance
Based on Intel X79 chipset
Memory
8 x 240-pin DIMM sockets
Maximum of 64GB of DDR3 2400MHz+
Storage I/O
6 x Serial ATA 300MB/sec (4x Internal + 2x E-SATA) with support for RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 0+1, RAID5, RAID10 and JBOD
6 x Serial ATA 600MB/sec (6x Internal) with support for RAID 0 and RAID1
Expansion Slot
5 x PCIe x16/x8, 1 x PCIe x4
Multi I/O
Audio connector (Line-in, Line-out, MIC)
Integrated Peripherals
8 Channel High Definition (Realtek ALC898)
2 x 10/100/1000 (Intel 82579/82574)
Form Factor
E-ATX Form Factor
Length: 12in - 304.8mm
Width: 10.375in - 263.5mm