BIOSTAR TPOWER X79 motherboard review
Bluetooth 19 March 2012
If you are out for utmost performance of your PC system, you will definitely want to go for the high end series processors namely the Sandy Bridge-E series. To pair up with this new processor, the Intel X79 chipset mainboard featuring the Socket LGA2011 is required. Today, we take a look at BIOSTAR’s offering – TPOWER X79 motherboard.
The TPOWER X79 uses a 9 Phase Power Design to supercharge your system, giving extreme users unparalleled overclocking ability and the lowest temperatures to reach maximum performance levels. All capacitors are placed with 100% solid capacitors for stability and durability. In addition, the board uses 8 layer PCB design for maximum stability and life cycle. For enhance stability, it incorporates 2 oz copper for both Power and Ground layers for energy efficiency and enhanced stability for overclocking. In addition, this is probably the first board I see Dual 8-pin EPS 12v+ connectors offer maximum power resources for your daily computing on a desktop board.
The BIOSTAR TPOWER X79 features the Intel X79 Express chipset for 2nd generation Core i7 processor and it supports 256bit Quad channel DDR3-2133. For Biostar TPower X79, the board supports DDR3-2400 through overclocking.
3D View of the motherboard
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On the motherboard, there are 3 full length PCIe 3.0 slots which is capable of support 4 way CrossFireX allows up to 4 GPUs to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance or 3 way SLI. As for expansion, the board supports:
•ASMedia ASM1042 USB 3.0 controller
•6 x USB 3.0 Port
•1 x USB 3.0 Header
•2 x USB 2.0 Port
•2 x USB 2.0 Header
•GbE – Realtek RTL8111E – 10/100/1000 Controller
•Realtek ALC898 8 Channel Blu-ray Audio
•4 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector
•3 x SATA2 3Gb/s Connector
•1 x eSATA2 3Gb/s Connector
As for audio, the board supports THX truStudio PRO audio giving you best audio experience for music video and games. If you intend to use it as a multimedia centre, the BIO-Remote2 can be used on Android or Apple handsets to remotely control your PC.
On the next page, we take a look at the board layout.