My ASUS X79 Deluxe has been an excellent motherboard. It is a good selection for a well experienced computer builder. If you need technical support you will have difficulty finding high level support at ASUS. This might be because you don’t know the right questions to ask. Also, too often, problems you encounter are caused by other factors not directly related to the motherboard. You need to read the motherboard manual completely before proceeding. At best, things can be awkward and illusive at times. If you like a challenge then this one is for you.
My setup:
ASUS X79 Deluxe S2011
Intel 2011 hex core I7 4930K processor
SSD 840 EVO 2.75mm mSATA 500GB - MZ-MTE500
32 GB, G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) SDRAM DDR3 1866 Model F3-1866C9Q-32GZH
4 each Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST4000DM000
Zalman Reserator 3 Max liquid cooler
Large Cooler Master case
The motherboard is the heart of the system and I’ve been fortunate with my assembly. The overall operation is great. The overclocking feature is very simple when using the motherboard TPU switch in the TPU2 position. The clock speed went from 3.4 GHz to 4.1GHz without further adjustment. The above listed RAM turned out to be great. There is no 1866 MHz setting in the BIOS but the 2000 MHz setting worked great.
In the BIOS the X.M.P. setting will provide greater speeds but it will go back to normal mode if you use the TPU2 switch. You can still go in and set the RAM speed.
You need to take the motherboard DVD seriously as it has many utilities that go with this motherboard. I installed just about everything except Norton Utilities which I don’t care for or need. MS Security Essentials and a firewall has work fine now for 4 years.
My Windows 7 performance test is: (7.9 is the highest possible score)
7.8 Processor
7.9 RAM
7.9 Graphics
7.9 Gaming Graphics
7.9 Primary hard disc
A little more overclocking would probably reach 7.9 for the processor.
16GB of RAM gave me a 7.8 so the 32GB was not a vast improvement for this test. It might be of greater value in my video production. ASUS says 4 chips of equal size located in the preferred slots is best. Dual channel configuration only works up the smallest module in the system, so use 2 or 4 or 8 equal size modules.
The SATA configuration is difficult to understand and only 6 of 14 SATA ports are listed in the BIOS. The Marvel SATA ports do in fact support SSD caching with any HDD plugged into one of the 4 Marvel SATA ports. I believe the motherboard manual refers to several SSD drives and one HDD plugged into the Marvel SATA ports. I believe that is 1 SSD drive and several HDDs. According to the AI Suite 3 program it should be that way for my computer. Perhaps it applies to any configuration with drives plugged into the Marvel ports.
Benchmarking by [...] is OK. Other benchmark web sites I looked at are mostly virus delivery systems.
My personal home based SATA port testing:
The same amount of data copied from and to the same drive. All HDDs are exactly the same.
4.84” (seconds) for the SSD drive on a Marvell SATA port.
1’ 38” for the Marvel SATA port
1’ 25” for the Intel SATA port
The SSD drive copying to its self is exceptional.
A copy from the SSD drive (on a Marvel port) to the HDDs is:
To an adjacent Marvel SATA port = 20 seconds
To an Intel port = 50 seconds
I did not test the AS Media ports.
The BIOS does not have a provision for turning on the computer using the keyboard or mouse.
I installed 3 dual output video cards. Each is full size with its own fan. I run 6 monitors. Each video card can do 3D. 3D is not essential for all 3 cards but that is what I ended up with when adding on. With that much space taken up there is still access to the SATA and USB connectors, etc. on the edge of the mother board. My rear eSATA/USB port module still had room on the rear of my large Cooler Master case above the video cards.
Building this system was a lot of work and with a few headaches but the final result is totally satisfying. I am not aware of any weaknesses in the system. A future BIOS upgrade could make a few improvements.
Once again, read the motherboard manual and take notes. Check all your compatibility issues and specifications for all components. This motherboard will handle the right stuff.
| RAM | DDR3 |
|---|---|
| Wireless Type | 802.11n, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 4 |
