A few observations...

1. Very happy to see the Rest/Power?Cmos buttons on the upper right of the board. This has been the most exposed area of every build I have done and feel this is a nice place to have them for access. Versus getting out a Popsicle stick to reach them when running TRI SLI or QUAD SLI in a case...
2. The (What we can see so far) single 8 pin power placement being up top while nice for hiding wires, leads me to believe nearly all builders will need an extension to reach it there.
3. The CPU Header Fan being in the top right corner is also interesting. As now the wires will either be laying on the heat-sinks for the Mosphets or the RAM...
4. Having the RAM separated like this is interesting and I look forward to the different looks in the Builds we will see.

btw i hope that vreg heatsink can handle it =/ seems kinda smaller then the x58 vanillas

Those mems with ram coolers like corsair's airflow fan will be rendered useless otherwise they will make 2 of those in a retail package lol.

Halo_003

I bet this is the next X58 SLI board, i.e. EVGA X79 3X(?) SLI, or the EVGA X79 SLI LE.

My assumption is it's not a FTW or Classified due to the all black color.

nah, you see the fireman freedman teases us while he plays around with LN2 on these chips...

this looks pretty awesome but i think I'll save the mouth drool for the high end gaming and overclocking ones as this looks like its more an entry level board as discussed in this topic: http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=1124387

I just hope the Dual LGA2011 X79 variant isn't far behind and i'm able to get my hands on one here in the UK as the wait for SR-2 to hit our shores was beyond a joke!

It looks great.  Moving the reset and power buttons was a much needed improvement.

rjohnson11

The reset button position looks really good. I like that.

 
+1
Well done on re-positioning from under the last PCIe slot.

its a micro ATX LGA 2011 Motherboard i think...probably can be named EVGA X79 Micro...:)

Best news of the week! Thanks, Jacob!
I can't wait to get one! Hope these are coming out on time! Would kill for a sample!.. Dreaming, I know.

I'm ready for the X79 rollercoaster ride...(must save money in a way where the wife can not find it)

hmm let me see... a 350ish dollars board + around 450ish dollars 6-core cpu (locked not extreme) = 800 dollars.  
 
i better start saving dough today lolz

What I like: TBD
What I don't like: Vreg and CPU power location-- for me, I may mod a non-standard cooler on my CPU, I need the clearance.  Part of the reason I choose the EVGA X58 was the space above the LGA1366 socket, unlike every other vendor X58.  Considering the RAM, I'd understand if the Vregs are on either side equally.  I'm just not a fan of typical...
 

Kamseder
why there are 2 Rams right and 2 Rams left from the CPU? This make no sense for me especially if you want to watercool you rig you need 2 RAM Coolers. And what is with big CPU coolers?

It makes the tracer lines somewhat equal on their way to the memory controller in the CPU, reducing the layers of PCB, reduce the cost to manufacture.  Only space contraints would force RAM slots unique to each CPU be lumped beside the CPU, like the triple-channel LGA1366 or multi-CPU configurations.  In other words, LGA2011 wasn't born as a desktop socket.  Like previous LGA1567, LGA1366 and LGA771; they've all had RAM arraigned differently compared to desktop systems.

owcraftsman
This will not be cheap either I'll bet 300+

I did that prediction about the X58's before they came, citing X48 and X38 averaged $350 and $300, yet the average X58 came in at $250.  I assumed the monopoly without an nVidia chipset would make Intel greedy, but the deliberately dampened it to make the second socket popular.   Plus at the time there thought to be AMD competition, but the first Phenom with the TLB error was late, IIRC.
 
It is debatable if we might have competition now, only SBE's quad may compete with the 8-core Zambezi by price, the 6-cores are unmatched but then people who afford $500+ processors are few and far between.  It depends, maybe most people won't mind the non-K quad version with limited overclock if it can gaurantee 4.2GHz from stock 3.6GHz.  Then mainboard costs don't have to be high, I'd say between $250 and $350, though $299.99 isn't far fetched.  That's what the first X58 went for.
 
No clue how much to add for the EVGA loyality + early-adopter taxes...
 

Afterburner
But why only USB 2?

While I could cop-out and claim it is a deliberately reduced functionality from the baseline Patsburg chipset, chances are it is unique to the chipset, that all Patsburgs have USB 2.0.  It's a server chipset, they don't need USB 3.0, which may remain a consumer feature.  That doesn't mean EVGA and other vendors can't include it in their X79 because it is a consumer variant... 

atfrico
I really want to upgrade, but I don't see the point of upgrading if the boards that are going to be released this year won't be PCI-EX 3.0 compatible. 

X79 chipset is just a southbridge, just like P67.  While it may have PCIe 2.0 built in, the LGA2011 CPU has 40 lanes of PCIe 3.0 built-in, which isn't unique to Ivy Bridge.  Also in my opinion, this will be a 3-way SLI default board, citing the default support of the top two high-end cards of each nVidia series since the 200's).   

boredgunner

raku2040
its a micro ATX LGA 2011 Motherboard i think...probably can be named EVGA X79 Micro...:)

Jacob said it's larger than ATX.  Nice looking board but I won't be upgrading my motherboard/CPU for a while.  

This one may be, but that doesn't mean anything regarding smaller versions.  Having seen other X79's full bare, the CPU and RAM do not exceed the I/O panel, which is pretty standard with all PC boards as far down as miniITX.  But the width would imply the cheapest massly produced shrink could only be a microATX.  If a miniITX variant were attempted with LGA2011, the costs would skyrocket. 
 
The only LGA1366 is small form is in a Shuttle SX58J3 case, and that board is 7"x8.5".  The LGA2011 socket is really more wider than taller, so it would fit in the same PCB as LGA1366.  I have a feeling Shuttle will make a version for LGA2011.
 
Historically, Asus and MSI were the first to push microATX LGA1366 boards, EVGA came last literally by two quarters.  I guess DFI was the fourth, so only those four X58's were the only micro boards.  Something similar may happen with X79, and as usual, EVGA will lag.  Understandably so, their market isn't demanding smaller boards yet.  The current demand is simply too small and needs to grow.

Just need a release date!

I just dont like the layout of the ram slots.