Value Award
ASUS X79-DELUXE RRP: $349.99 | Website: www.asus.com
Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4960X • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 4x4GB DDR 2666MHZ C10 • EVGA GTX 780 Classified • Corsair LS 240GB SSD • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 • BIOS 0403
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e’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it again. Since 2011 up until now, there has not been a better X79 motherboard than the Rampage IV Extreme, despite what some overclockers and vendors may claim. The result submissions on HWBOT speak for themselves. The numbers are in favour of the RIVE and that’s to be expected. From the minute this motherboard was previewed to when it was available at retail outlets; it’s been pretty much peerless in just about every respect. 34 The OverClocker Issue 26 | 2013
This however, isn’t a Rampage IV Extreme review; we’ve been there and showered it with all appropriate accolades. It is astounding though that two years later and perhaps going into the third year, there still isn’t a thoroughly better alternative. The recently announced black edition comes to mind, but perhaps that is a more refined and updated version of the RIVE rather than a true successor. After all, it’s no Rampage V. Far from that motherboard are most people though, who think $430 is a bit much to justify, no matter how good it is. As such, other boards from ASUS become appealing. One such alternative is the recently announced X79-Deluxe which we have here. As with all Deluxe products from ASUS, it’s packed with a host of features, from Wi-fi to Bluetooth. Both of which have been upgraded from the previous high end model, the P9X79 Deluxe. If you will, think of this as the successor to that model. Bluetooth has been
upgraded to v4.0 and the Wi-Fi supports the newer ac standard for up to 867Mbit/s (via a 5GHz Antenna). With that you’ll get an upgraded SSD caching scheme, a better BIOS, USB 3.0 implementation, and of course native support for the newer 4000 Core i7 CPUs. The board has been re-designed as well where power is concerned. No longer do we have the older 16+4+2+2 PWM, instead we now have a simpler* 8+2+2+2 PWM. Sounds like a downgrade but it’s not; in fact it actually is a better system. Things like multi-GPU support remain unchanged but you will get the added benefit of better PCIe 3.0 compatibility if only because the 4000 series CPUs have better adherence to the standard. The rest is as you’d expect with more SATA connectivity options for a total of 12 drives up from the previous 8. Of interest to us though are the overclocking options. The previous UEFI from ASUS was great, but the new one,