Stefan Mileschin

EVGA launched its flagship socket LGA2011 motherboard, the X79 Dark (model: 150-SE-E789-KR). It made its debut at this year's International CES event. Designed for open-air benches, this motherboard requires a case that can seat E-ATX motherboards. It measures 304.8 x 263.5 mm (LxW). It draws power from a combination of a 24-pin ATX input, two 8-pin EPS inputs, and a 6-pin PCIe input, to stabilize bus-supplied power for add-on cards. The X79 Dark from EVGA comes with a plethora of features for CPU and VGA overclockers alike. In addition to onboard controls, EVBot support, consolidated voltage measurement points, EVGA deployed a brand new UEFI setup program interface, which debuted with some of its premium Z87-based motherboards.

EVGA X79 Dark features a 12-layer PCB. It uses a 12+2 phase VRM to power the CPU, a 4-phase VRM for the memory, and features power-gating to individual PCI-Express slots. On the expansion front, you get five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, from which two are electrical x16-capable, and all five electrical x8-capable, depending on how the slots are populated. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, two of which are from the X79 PCH, four from third-party controllers; four SATA 3 Gb/s ports from the PCH, and two eSATA 3 Gb/s. The rest of its connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces (both driven by Intel-made controllers), six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by header), Bluetooth, and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports. EVGA X79 Dark bear a street-price of US $399.99.

http://www.techpowerup.com/186426/ev...-launched.html