gbakmars@aol.com

I am going to have to put some significant time into writing a blob post (what blogs really are!), on Rampantspeculation.com/blog that is complete and covers all of the significant issues. I continue to respond new, every time I read threads or reviews, and in the end I am simply rewriting over and over the same responses, with a slightly different twist based on the thread's purpose.

Every time I come to a new thread on a forum I have continued to hope that I was going be reading comments of the greatest importance when it comes to any X79, Z87, or Z77 motherboard discussions.

When I saw that EVGA was working on the "Dark", I can tell you right now that my immediate response was that three issues would be addressed, and after that, who cares!

Those three criteria that had to be found to make any new X79 motherboard worth anything at this point were and still are: #1 There would be support for the Xeon E5-1600 and 2600 series CPU's, #2 there would be 6 to 8 "Native" Intel Chipset/CPU supported USB 3.0 ports, and #3 there would be 8 to 10 "Native" Intel Chipset/CPU supported SATA 6GB/Sec HD ports. 



I have run tests, bought boards, bought CPU's, sold, bought returned, researched, contacted manufacturers and read so many forum posts, supposed credible reviews, advertisements, suggestions, promises, patches, and hacks, that I am absolutely dumbfounded as to the direction that all of these discussions continue to take.

We need to face the facts. 

Regarding the X79 LGA 2011 Motherboards, Intel NEVER has provided the "hoped for" and "wished for" CPU that would make the X79 motherboard perform as advertised. It failed to provide a Rev. 3.0, with a full 40 lane CPU. There was a complete failure between Chipset/CPU, to provide ONE lousy NATIVE USB 3.0 port. And this big monster "future proof" (that term really upsets me when I hear it used to justify the purchase of the X79 Motherboards), high end, most powerful and therefore most expensive beast of a motherboard also was only able to come up with a whopping TWO NATIVE SATA 6GB/sec ports!
 
 
No “Native” PCIe 3.0 support in any of the i7 Sandy Bridge E processors. No “Native” USB 3.0 support. Only “Native” support for a mere TWO SATA III ports. That is the BIG NEWS that the X79 motherboards have to offer, if you go with the traditional i7 SB E CPU.  The Xeon is like the “life-saving “FORCE” of “STARWARS”, but for only those few X79 motherboards that support it and the good news; there are a couple. The bad news is the majority of the X79 Motherboard users should consider that it is time to quit trying to get something that isn’t hardwired into your product, and cease discussions pointed in that direction and maybe “ask for a refund”. 

Everything else on the X79 are what I call “FAKE add-ons”. Peter is constantly being robbed to pay Paul on all of these boards. There are more *asterisks in the specs of these boards than one can keep track off.

In July of 2012 NVidia made its last attempt to "act like it cared" before it threw in the PCIe 3.0 towel, by providing a "patch" and there was the infamous "registry hack", but when all is said and done there has been more wasted discussion on whether or not users are getting PCIe 3.0 X 16 for his/her $600 GTX 680 or throw in two and now the questions and discussions are even more absurd because if you are spending $1,200 to $2,400 in graphics cards you better be 100% certain that that money is going into a motherboard that isn't full of off-the wall-discussions; where many of the claims are unsubstantiated or simply “hoped for” but not true.

The only CPU that I have found that provides PCIe 3.0 X 16 (40 lanes) is the XEON and Asus makes 2 motherboards that support it-both WS boards and Gigabyte has managed to build all of its X79 motherboard with Xeon compatibility; but the bottom line is that it is slim picking and it isn't going to change until Intel produces the CPU that "NEVER HAPPENED" almost two years ago, when they "pulled" this-and-that feature, due to this-and-that problem, right when the X79 motherboards were being released with all of this advertised and anticipated awesome power to be unleashed.

But you have to ask, how did the X79 motherboard  makers already know to strip the boards of Intel USB 3.0 ports and put in the "off brands", and how did they know to contract with other SATA III providers to add 4 ports so the boards weren't a total embarrassment?

I know from my time “inside” corporate walls that based on the quality of silicon alone, decisions are settled upon 3-5 years ahead of time and competitors have to sit down at the same table and come to agreements, otherwise Intel would be building new CPU's for looks only! Before Intel "changed" its mind about what the Sandy Bridge E could and couldn't do, it was already disclosed to the makers of X79 motherboards. 

They made the things anyway, knowing that there would not be any PCIe 3.0 support to run one graphic card, let alone 4! WHY? I WANT TO KNOW WHY? I WANT TO KNOW WHO LET DOWN WHOM? I ALREADY KNOW THAT REGARDLESS THE CUSTOMER HAS PAID THE FINAL PRICE, but WHO REALLY BOTCHED UP AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF MOTHERBOARDS?

Fact: When Intel decides ( they already have), to make AREA X79 disappear, it will do it by releasing such a wonderful CPU that has everything that all the enthusiasts have wanted, that we will all forget about how long we went with a generation of motherboards that had no business being released.

The New Intel Wonder will have 40 lanes of PCIe 3.0 and it will support 8 Native USB 3.0 Ports, and it will support 10 Native SATA 6 GB/sec and you know what that means!

FACT: All of the "FUTURE PROOF" X79 motherboards are going to look "FUTURE SICK" compared to the new motherboards that have LGA 2011 sockets alright, but they are also sitting on the shelves right now with 8 of those little blue USB 3.0 ports, and 10 SATA 6GB/Sec ports- BOTH NATIVE- so gone is the foolish discussion of how can you have RAID 6 on a board that offers Raid 6, when there are only TWO SATA III NATIVE INTEL PORTS!

FACT: people will be so excited about these two releases that the money will flow like the INTEL Roadmap winds, and although it has indeed been, "The Long And Winding Road", that the Beatles sang about, right after hearing about "Moore's Law", nobody will be as mad as they should be because "We Need To Move On", for that is “Politically Correct”.

This is not a slam on EVGA. I am a loyal EVGA supporter. I have a list so long of video cards that it is embarrassing! Maybe this post will get “Stuck”, and EVGA will lead the charge to “make things right”. I have already tried working with one big Corporation for the past 4 months and after getting to the US Director of Marketing; the correspondence ceased.
 
Maybe Intel isn't going to offer anything new except PCIe 3.0 and 40 lanes of it, like are already found in the Xeon (I throw that jab in just to point out that it can be done, but it was chosen not to be done for the SBE i7’s) but this Dark motherboard will get the best out of what Intel gives, which might make this the best there is. 

But still, why aren't we discussing the issues that matter?

And as for the AREA Z77 and now AREA Z78- yes, Intel finally provided the right number of SATA ports and USB 3.0 ports, which the Z77 came up pathetically short on.

FACT: neither one of these motherboards is able to support any more than a grand TOTAL NATIVE 16 LANES of PCIe 3.0. I don't care how you slice it. YOU GET TO PUT ONE and only ONE PCIe 3.0 X 16 video card in your Z87. If you so much as put an X1 bug in the next slot your first slot just dropped to PCIe 3.0 X 8. 

FACT: PCIe 3.0 X 8 is equal to PCIe 2.0 X 16!
 
 
FACT: If you want SLI with X16 and X16 at PCIe 3.0 then you will have to kick in an extra $200 for a motherboard that is "FAKING" it again with add-ons; you know PLX chips and Peter is being robbed to pay Paul. It isn't Native and the question is why can't Intel put at least 32 lanes into the almighty IVY BRIDGE E Master PIECE? BECAUSE IT WASN'T MADE FOR US! IT was made to push the world to touch screens, tablets, Windows 8...... 

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS and remember there is the ROADMAP we get to see and there is another ROADMAP that goes to places like AREA X79 and AREA Z77, and the question is who shows up at those meetings?

 
AGREED ! Totally. 

gbakmars@aol.com

I am going to have to put some significant time into writing a blob post (what blogs really are!), on Rampantspeculation.com/blog that is complete and covers all of the significant issues. I continue to respond new, every time I read threads or reviews, and in the end I am simply rewriting over and over the same responses, with a slightly different twist based on the thread's purpose.



Every time I come to a new thread on a forum I have continued to hope that I was going be reading comments of the greatest importance when it comes to any X79, Z87, or Z77 motherboard discussions.



When I saw that EVGA was working on the "Dark", I can tell you right now that my immediate response was that three issues would be addressed, and after that, who cares!



Those three criteria that had to be found to make any new X79 motherboard worth anything at this point were and still are: #1 There would be support for the Xeon E5-1600 and 2600 series CPU's, #2 there would be 6 to 8 "Native" Intel Chipset/CPU supported USB 3.0 ports, and #3 there would be 8 to 10 "Native" Intel Chipset/CPU supported SATA 6GB/Sec HD ports.



I have run tests, bought boards, bought CPU's, sold, bought returned, researched, contacted manufacturers and read so many forum posts, supposed credible reviews, advertisements, suggestions, promises, patches, and hacks, that I am absolutely dumbfounded as to the direction that all of these discussions continue to take.



We need to face the facts.


Regarding the X79 LGA 2011 Motherboards, Intel NEVER has provided the "hoped for" and "wished for" CPU that would make the X79 motherboard perform as advertised. It failed to provide a Rev. 3.0, with a full 40 lane CPU. There was a complete failure between Chipset/CPU, to provide ONE lousy NATIVE USB 3.0 port. And this big monster "future proof" (that term really upsets me when I hear it used to justify the purchase of the X79 Motherboards), high end, most powerful and therefore most expensive beast of a motherboard also was only able to come up with a whopping TWO NATIVE SATA 6GB/sec ports!


No “Native” PCIe 3.0 support in any of the i7 Sandy Bridge E processors. No “Native” USB 3.0 support. Only “Native” support for a mere TWO SATA III ports. That is the BIG NEWS that the X79 motherboards have to offer, if you go with the traditional i7 SB E CPU.  The Xeon is like the “life-saving “FORCE” of “STARWARS”, but for only those few X79 motherboards that support it and the good news; there are a couple. The bad news is the majority of the X79 Motherboard users should consider that it is time to quit trying to get something that isn’t hardwired into your product, and cease discussions pointed in that direction and maybe “ask for a refund”.



Everything else on the X79 are what I call “FAKE add-ons”. Peter is constantly being robbed to pay Paul on all of these boards. There are more *asterisks in the specs of these boards than one can keep track off.



In July of 2012 NVidia made its last attempt to "act like it cared" before it threw in the PCIe 3.0 towel, by providing a "patch" and there was the infamous "registry hack", but when all is said and done there has been more wasted discussion on whether or not users are getting PCIe 3.0 X 16 for his/her $600 GTX 680 or throw in two and now the questions and discussions are even more absurd because if you are spending $1,200 to $2,400 in graphics cards you better be 100% certain that that money is going into a motherboard that isn't full of off-the wall-discussions; where many of the claims are unsubstantiated or simply “hoped for” but not true.



The only CPU that I have found that provides PCIe 3.0 X 16 (40 lanes) is the XEON and Asus makes 2 motherboards that support it-both WS boards and Gigabyte has managed to build all of its X79 motherboard with Xeon compatibility; but the bottom line is that it is slim picking and it isn't going to change until Intel produces the CPU that "NEVER HAPPENED" almost two years ago, when they "pulled" this-and-that feature, due to this-and-that problem, right when the X79 motherboards were being released with all of this advertised and anticipated awesome power to be unleashed.



But you have to ask, how did the X79 motherboard  makers already know to strip the boards of Intel USB 3.0 ports and put in the "off brands", and how did they know to contract with other SATA III providers to add 4 ports so the boards weren't a total embarrassment?



I know from my time “inside” corporate walls that based on the quality of silicon alone, decisions are settled upon 3-5 years ahead of time and competitors have to sit down at the same table and come to agreements, otherwise Intel would be building new CPU's for looks only! Before Intel "changed" its mind about what the Sandy Bridge E could and couldn't do, it was already disclosed to the makers of X79 motherboards.



They made the things anyway, knowing that there would not be any PCIe 3.0 support to run one graphic card, let alone 4! WHY? I WANT TO KNOW WHY? I WANT TO KNOW WHO LET DOWN WHOM? I ALREADY KNOW THAT REGARDLESS THE CUSTOMER HAS PAID THE FINAL PRICE, but WHO REALLY BOTCHED UP AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF MOTHERBOARDS?



Fact: When Intel decides ( they already have), to make AREA X79 disappear, it will do it by releasing such a wonderful CPU that has everything that all the enthusiasts have wanted, that we will all forget about how long we went with a generation of motherboards that had no business being released.



The New Intel Wonder will have 40 lanes of PCIe 3.0 and it will support 8 Native USB 3.0 Ports, and it will support 10 Native SATA 6 GB/sec and you know what that means!



FACT: All of the "FUTURE PROOF" X79 motherboards are going to look "FUTURE SICK" compared to the new motherboards that have LGA 2011 sockets alright, but they are also sitting on the shelves right now with 8 of those little blue USB 3.0 ports, and 10 SATA 6GB/Sec ports- BOTH NATIVE- so gone is the foolish discussion of how can you have RAID 6 on a board that offers Raid 6, when there are only TWO SATA III NATIVE INTEL PORTS!



FACT: people will be so excited about these two releases that the money will flow like the INTEL Roadmap winds, and although it has indeed been, "The Long And Winding Road", that the Beatles sang about, right after hearing about "Moore's Law", nobody will be as mad as they should be because "We Need To Move On", for that is “Politically Correct”.



This is not a slam on EVGA. I am a loyal EVGA supporter. I have a list so long of video cards that it is embarrassing! Maybe this post will get “Stuck”, and EVGA will lead the charge to “make things right”. I have already tried working with one big Corporation for the past 4 months and after getting to the US Director of Marketing; the correspondence ceased.


Maybe Intel isn't going to offer anything new except PCIe 3.0 and 40 lanes of it, like are already found in the Xeon (I throw that jab in just to point out that it can be done, but it was chosen not to be done for the SBE i7’s) but this Dark motherboard will get the best out of what Intel gives, which might make this the best there is.



But still, why aren't we discussing the issues that matter?



And as for the AREA Z77 and now AREA Z78- yes, Intel finally provided the right number of SATA ports and USB 3.0 ports, which the Z77 came up pathetically short on.



FACT: neither one of these motherboards is able to support any more than a grand TOTAL NATIVE 16 LANES of PCIe 3.0. I don't care how you slice it. YOU GET TO PUT ONE and only ONE PCIe 3.0 X 16 video card in your Z87. If you so much as put an X1 bug in the next slot your first slot just dropped to PCIe 3.0 X 8.



FACT: PCIe 3.0 X 8 is equal to PCIe 2.0 X 16!


FACT: If you want SLI with X16 and X16 at PCIe 3.0 then you will have to kick in an extra $200 for a motherboard that is "FAKING" it again with add-ons; you know PLX chips and Peter is being robbed to pay Paul. It isn't Native and the question is why can't Intel put at least 32 lanes into the almighty IVY BRIDGE E Master PIECE? BECAUSE IT WASN'T MADE FOR US! IT was made to push the world to touch screens, tablets, Windows 8......



ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS and remember there is the ROADMAP we get to see and there is another ROADMAP that goes to places like AREA X79 and AREA Z77, and the question is who shows up at those meetings?

 
Agreed. But AMD option too crappy at the moment to switch.

jotole
Yes I read them, and I wanted to show is that if there is loss of performance of 16 x to 8x.






At no time will talk about sli, I talked about 3 way.

Performance is lost, insignificant, but there is. But if I pay € 1,000 for each of my graphics card and 600 for my cpu. I overclock to get the maximum performance. I like to have all the performance available without lost ....

Even knowing this, the safest thing to make me a Dark, I tested several X79 motherboard, and all have ended in RMA. To my EVGA has always been a leader in building motherboards. I had a X58 Classified, (the best board I've ever had) and I have a SR-2. I just find it strange that the 3 way 16x/8x/16x not work on, as it makes a RIVE. Its good reasons will

Clearly you don't understand something, and I'm not really sure how to make it click in your head. If you're running SLI with any amount of cards all your graphics cards will run at the speed of the slowest card. It was proven in your second link that X8/X8 was actually faster than X8/X16. If the slowest card in X8/X16/X16 is the same speed as the slowest card in X8/X8/X8, then both setups will run the same speed, and if anything the X8/X8/X8 will be slightly faster (don't know why it's faster and not exact same, but that's what the benchmarks showed.) I understand that you're paying a lot of money, and for that reason I suggest you try better to educate yourself on what you're buying. There is no opinion about it. X8/X16/X16 is not faster than X8/X8/X8. There is effectively ZERO additional bandwith.

Did anyone say if that giant red E lights up at all?

DrLejos

Criticizing them for not adding the extra bandwith is like criticizing a water bottle for only having one hole. Unless you're running PhysX (or in my other analogy having someone else drink out of the second hole in the water bottle) you will have no use for the extra bandwith and it will be to no benefit at all. I don't see how any of you can be "majorly disappointed," EVGA has saved themselves a little bit of money and a little bit of space to put more useful things into the board and you're all complaining about something that will have no impact on performance.
 
Here's how computing works: the slowest component is what limits the speed of the system. If you're running X16/X16/X8, the X8 will be your slowest card. SLI syncs the three cards together, so the whole system will run at the speed of the card running X8. You will be effectively only getting X8/X8/X8 speeds in this situation to begin with, so wiring up the extra lanes would be a waste of money and space. I hope the next person to bring this up against EVGA falls down the stairs today.

 
Finally someone has said it!!!! same goes for RAM 

Just sighed up for the upgrade program, I never used my x79 Classified I got back from RMA on my x58 Classified. I wish i didn't have to pay the $150 upgrade fee but I assume its a great deal as I didn't have to pay for the original x79 board.
 
I am happy that I don't have to buy a new case now!

jotole


Ok, Well I did not know that, it's more. As I say, surely I will make with the X79 Dark. Currently I have an MSI Big Bang X79 (tired of the follies of the RIVE BIOS).
I will do an analysis of both motherboards with some games and check it there any truth to that.
It will be a pleasure to present my results here too.

Glad we got that cleared up, hope everyone else understands ^^

DrLejos

Clearly you don't understand something, and I'm not really sure how to make it click in your head. If you're running SLI with any amount of cards all your graphics cards will run at the speed of the slowest card. It was proven in your second link that X8/X8 was actually faster than X8/X16. If the slowest card in X8/X16/X16 is the same speed as the slowest card in X8/X8/X8, then both setups will run the same speed, and if anything the X8/X8/X8 will be slightly faster (don't know why it's faster and not exact same, but that's what the benchmarks showed.) I understand that you're paying a lot of money, and for that reason I suggest you try better to educate yourself on what you're buying. There is no opinion about it. X8/X16/X16 is not faster than X8/X8/X8. There is effectively ZERO additional bandwith.

 
Should have guessed as much since almost everything else in the computer world when linked works off of the slowest one
 
Thanks for the additional info that I did not know about.

rsmilford

X79 Dark looks pretty sweet, I still feel their a day late and buck short of the competition. Isn't the next enthusiast chip set(X99) just around the corner, 2005 or so.  If that's the case I would hate to see a huge price tag on something that is being released really late.

 
Haswell E, X99 and 2011-3 Socket won't be due till Q3/4 2014. 

I re-read the arguments above. I just can't help myself. Here is what it felt like when I read the arguing.
 
Two people each bought the same brand of boats with serious unknown cracks in the construction. Out on the lake they argue about the speed of the boat. One takes the side that it is as fast as it should be. The other takes the side that he was taken advantage of and it should be faster. As they speed along arguing, both of their boats are disappearing below the water-line!
 
Because they were going so fast and didn't take any precautions when each of their boats begin to take on water, but just kept arguing and racing; they lost their grounds for compensation or refund; not to mention they were in such deep water the boats were not recoverable for inspection.  Also because they were so intent on proving their points and to get their boats in the water they failed to buy insurance.
 
They both ended up buying brand new boats with the other two at the bottom of the ocean to this day.
 
I'll save the post I wrote to try and steer the discussion at another time! LOL 
 

jamesln5392

Did anyone say if that giant red E lights up at all?

I don't believe so.. it would be hidden behind GPU's for many users anyway... but I will miss the red pulsing EVGA logo.. I guess that's why this board's called Dark.. lol
 

DrLejos

gbakmars@aol.com

I re-read the arguments above. I just can't help myself. Here is what it felt like when I read the arguing.

Two people each bought the same brand of boats with serious unknown cracks in the construction. Out on the lake they argue about the speed of the boat. One takes the side that it is as fast as it should be. The other takes the side that he was taken advantage of and it should be faster. As they speed along arguing, both of their boats are disappearing below the water-line!

Because they were going so fast and didn't take any precautions when each of their boats begin to take on water, but just kept arguing and racing; they lost their grounds for compensation or refund; not to mention they were in such deep water the boats were not recoverable for inspection.  Also because they were so intent on proving their points and to get their boats in the water they failed to buy insurance.

They both ended up buying brand new boats with the other two at the bottom of the ocean to this day.

I'll save the post I wrote to try and steer the discussion at another time! LOL 

Best laugh of the day, thank you for that. Not sure how the second paragraph relates to the argument at all but it was certainly funny ^^

 
 
Funny indeed especially how he missed the part were the manufacturer says that the boats have hardware defects that aren't fixable... very funny.

I love EVGA products, but Im sticking with ASUS until the X99 platform. Then I will give the EVGA another shot at motherboards

Hello,
I signed up for the upgrade from my x79 classified. When can I expect to get my x79 dark?