Conclusions
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If you want to build the most high-end gaming system in the world, the ASRock X79 Extreme11 is the motherboard you should buy. Thanks to the presence of two PLX PEX8747 switch chips, it allows the installation of four PCI Express 3.0 video cards truly working at x16 speed. On competing motherboards, at least one of the slots will work at x8 speed, if not less.
Another highlight of this motherboard is its storage configuration. Since the eight additional SAS/SATA-600 ports are controlled by the same chip, you can set up a massive RAID0 system with up to eight SSDs or hard drives. On competing products with chips that control only two ports, you can only have RAID systems with two SSDs or hard drives.
The audio section of this motherboard is also high-end, using a Creative Sound Core3D, which is specifically optimized for audio chat, which is great if you play online games with audio chat.
The voltage regulator is also high-end, with 22+2+2 phases and hi-c capacitors.
The only negative of this motherboard is, obviously, its price: USD 600. But if you can afford four high-end video cards and eight SSDs, this price tag may not be a problem.
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