ECS X79R-AX Motherboard

Introduction

ECS has released two motherboard models for the new socket LGA2011 platform, the X79R-AX and the X79R-AX Deluxe, targeted to the most high-end processor Intel offers for desktops today, the Core i7 “Sandy Bridge-E” models. Let’s take a look at the X79R-AX, which comes with four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, eight SATA-600 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, and more.

To better understand the differences between the two socket LGA2011 motherboards released by ECS, we compiled the table below. Despite its name, the “Deluxe” version has fewer features.

	X79R-AX	X79R-AX Deluxe
Form Factor	ATX	ATX
Memory Sockets	4	4
PCI Express x16	4 (x16/x8/x16/x8)	4 (x16/x8/x16/x8)
PCI Express x1	2	2
Standard PCI	0	0
SATA-300	4	4
SATA-600	4	2
SAS-600/SATA-600	4	4
eSATA-600	2	0
USB 2.0	10	10
USB 3.0	6	6
FireWire	0	0
Gigabit Ethernet	2	1
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n	Yes	No
Bluetooth 2.1	Yes	No
Price	USD 310	NA

In Figure 1, you see the ECS X79R-AX motherboard.

Figure 1: ECS X79R-AX motherboard

The ECS X79R-AX has a strip thermometer attached to the chipset heatsink, as you can see in Figure 2. A similar strip is available on the heatsink of the voltage regulator circuit, which changes its color according to the temperature. See Figure 3.

Figure 2: Chipset thermometer

Figure 3: Thermal strip on the voltage regulator heatsink