ASUS P9X79 Deluxe Pro Reviews

ASUS has taken what is an aging Intel chipset platform and brought it into a much more modern usable desktop workstation environment with the X79 Deluxe motherboard. There is no doubt that this is not a product that will leveraged by the average enthusiast and certainly not the person that is strictly a gamer. The X79 Deluxe is for the power user that is looking for enthusiast features with tremendous connectability while allowing you to overclock your Ivy Bridge-E processor to its fullest. However it is hard to argue that it is worth upgrading from a previous generation X79 motherboard. As pointed out here, there are diminishing gains to be achieved from the "new" processor architecture. However, if you are looking at the cost of a quality LSI HBA for adding 6GB SATA to a current platform, then you might be able to easily swallow the $350 street price of the X79 Deluxe.

If you are in the market for a high performing feature rich motherboard that can take your computing to new levels then you need to consider putting the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard as a viable option.

The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe is, as were its Deluxe predecessors, a solid performer with plenty of great features, including extremely detailed control over overclock settings and ASUS' SSD caching. However, in our tests the board didn’t post overly impressive scores compared with the rest of the field, yet it costs by far the most at $369.99.

Having seen the progression of ASUS' technologies over the past few years, it is clear to see that ASUS is a step ahead when it comes to really unique features that are a point of difference between what it offers compared to the competition. Don't get me wrong, there is some cool stuff out there, but ASUS seems to have the design teams capable of pulling things off at will. This offers the end user added value for their purchase. In this instance, you have the BT Go 3.0 module for added connectivity and the flexibility to wirelessly transfer data between the computer and portable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, such as smart phones or tablets. In addition, you get SSD Caching built onboard that is a much simpler solution to implement than Intel's IRST - all at the click of a mouse button once the hard drives are in place. You also get USB 3.0 Boost to improve transfer rates between the computer and USB 3.0 devices that support the new protocols (UASP). Last but not least, is the immense feature set that is included: Intel LAN, DTS Connect, USB BIOS Flashback, six PWM controlled fan headers, AI Suite, Crash Free BIOS, ASUS Web Storage, Dual Intelligent Processor 3, Digi+ all digital power circuits, 3-Way SLI and Quad-GPU support for great gaming potential, and more. The P9X79 Deluxe is equipped with eight DIMM slots instead of just four, allowing for capacities of up to 64GB of DDR3 2400MHz system memory when fully populated. This board features the standard look of the non ROG series in blue, gray, and white, which is appealing to the eye. The heat sink package on the board allows the VRM circuits and chipset to stay cool, even with some spirited overclocking.

Lately, when we started studying a new platform or began a series of reviews of mainboards based on a new chipset, we tried to gather several different mainboards in the first review, mostly from the top of the line-up. Of course, it is clear why we did it. Flagship mainboards accumulate all the goodness, feature the most extensive functionality. At the same time, comparing several different mainboards allows to single out leaders and determine what the advantages of each specific model are. This time we didn’t have this opportunity, because Asus P9X79 Deluxe is a startup unit as well, and will become a reference point for our further comparative articles. However, even in this difficult situation we can easily shape up our verdict about this product. And don’t be discouraged by several issues pointed out throughout the review. There are no ideal mainboards out there, but Asus P9X79 Deluxe was easy and pleasant to work with and our experience with it was highly positive. The manufacturer provided this mainboard with sufficient accessories, came up with a pretty good layout, equipped it with all necessary controllers. The BIOS has everything necessary for successful overclocking and system fine-tuning for optimal performance and power consumption. There is a variety of proprietary technologies, programs and utilities that will make your everyday life much easier. The comparison against the competitors’ solution is yet to come, but even at this time we can tell that Asus P9X79 Deluxe will be among the best boards out there and most likely even becomes an absolute winner.

The $380 US price tag is pretty high, but so is general cost of entry into the Intel X79 Express platform itself, and considering the entire package, the cost really seems worth it, especially considering it beat out the ECS X79R-AX by 200 MHz when overclocking the CPU. ASUS has really outdone itself this time, and this product is very close to perfection.

Via both software and hardware, Asus has packed an incredible amount of features and potential into its P9X79 Deluxe motherboard.

In my opinion and from the results of our benchmarks and testing, this board is simply amazing. It’s priced a little lower than Gigabyte’s OC board but the performance difference doesn’t really justify the increase in price. The only real advantage of the OC board is that you can use up to four dual-slot graphics cards. The OC board also has only half the memory support of the X79 Deluxe. With the way the OC board is set up it’s really only going to appeal to the extreme overclocker and enthusiast. That’s great but the rest of us want a little more flexibility for our money and that’s what the X79 Deluxe provides. It’s easy to install and the laundry list of features is fantastic. This is a serious motherboard for those that are serious about quality and performance.

The P9X79 Deluxe is an impressive board in just about every way. It has loads of expansion capabilities (as long as you don’t need legacy ports or slots), it includes a stable and mature software and BIOS suite, and it addresses X79 chipset shortcomings with its additional SATA ports, SSD caching support, and huge collection of USB 3.0 ports.

The ASUS P9X79 Deluxe motherboard has tremendous potential... to do anything and everything. This is the ASUS kitchen-sink model, with more integrated features than a multi-tasking super-user could ever hope to need. P9X79 Deluxe packs plenty of proprietary features onto Intel's X79 Express LGA2011 platform, making this the ideal motherboard for new Sandy Bridge Extreme Edition Core-i7 processors. Digital voltage regulation modules, performance-boosting micro-processors, and integrated Bluetooth 3.0 functionality are just a few of the items other manufacturers discount as unnecessary - to their own detriment. It's my recommendation that for anyone seeking out a fully-loaded motherboard with future-proof features, the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe should be at the top of their list. ASUS enjoys construction quality that leads the industry, which translates into a longer product lifetime with fewer RMA's.