ASUS P9X79 PRO – The Pro Advantage

Physique and Features

Mainstream Enthusiast

At this time, ASUS already has a substantial bevy of motherboards that cater to Intel’s most powerful processor line, the Sandy Bridge-E. ASUS’ flock is headed by the Rampage IV Extreme which is probably the most feature-laden X79-based board that we’ve personally encountered by far. On the list, ASUS also has the Sabertooth X79 which is designed for durability-conscious users and the Rampage IV GENE which is a space-saving X79-based proposition because of its microATX form factor. For mainstream users, ASUS has added the P9X79 PRO to its portfolio.

The dominant colors of the P9X79 PRO are black and blue which make it look less fierce than the black and red (due to its Republic of Gamers branding) Rampage IV Extreme. While the P9X79 PRO is more targeted at mainstream consumers, ASUS did not make it look as if it were a shoddy, low-cost solution. Compared with the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7, this ASUS motherboard comes with a set of eight DIMM slots that can support up to 64GB DDR3. The P9X79 PRO is also equipped with a fairly extensive passive cooling assembly that helps in dissipating heat from the onboard components around the CPU socket as well as from the X79 chipset. ECS’ X79R-AX Black Deluxe, for instance, has a heatsink that is concentrated only on the chipset.

Inspecting the P9X79 PRO’s rear connectors, we noticed that the board does not have PS/2 ports. ASUS makes up for it by throwing ten USB ports (six USB 2.0, four USB 3.0) and two power eSATA 6Gbps into the mix. Apart from a Gigabit Ethernet port, the board also has integrated a Bluetooth 2.1+EDR module into its schema for wireless connectivity. To support the latter functionality, ASUS has provided the BT GO! utility that allows for convenient data transfer and syncing between a PC with an P9X79 PRO and other Bluetooth devices. The BIOS Flashback button has also made a comeback in the P9X79 PRO. Located amid the board’s rear connectors, this button allows you to save two versions of the BIOS simultaneously.

On the graphics front, the P9X79 PRO is equipped with four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, among which the last one operates only at x8 speed. The first three slots can support either a 3-way SLI or a quad CrossFireX setup. In addition to these, there are two PCIe 2.0 slots as well. Audio, on the other hand, is supported by a Realtek ALC898 chip with 8-channel audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF out.

The P9X79 PRO has a total of four SATA 6Gbps connectors, two of which are controlled by the X79 chipset. Meanwhile, the remaining two are linked to the Marvell PCIe 9128 controller and these SATA connectors are designed to support the board’s SSD caching feature. When an SSD and an HDD are attached to these connectors while the SSD caching feature is activated on the board’s BIOS, the system gets SSD speeds without having to totally depend on an expensive, large-capacity SSD. The board, like other X79-based boards, still possesses SATA 3Gbps connectors (four). The two eSATA ports on the rear side are managed by an ASMedia ASM1061 chip.