ECS X79R-AX Motherboard

On-Board Peripherals

The Intel X79 chipset is a single-chip solution which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip supports two SATA-600 ports and four SATA-300 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5).

ECS discovered that the Intel X79 chipset has four hidden SAS-600/SATA-600 ports, and they were able to add these ports to the motherboard. These ports, however, can’t be used for boot devices, as you need to install a driver in the operating system in order to make them available.

In fact, we had a hard time putting these ports to work, since the product manual is poorly written. In order to use these ports, you must enable the options “SCU SATA 6 Gb/s Devices” and “SCU SATA 6 Gb/s OpROM” available after you select the “SCU SATA 6 Gb/s Configuration” in the motherboard setup. Inside the operating system, these ports will only be recognized after you install the “Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise” drivers. If you have already installed these drivers, you will need to remove and reinstall them, as the ports won’t be recognized automatically.

The ECS X79R-AX has another two SATA-600 ports, controlled by an ASMedia ASM1061 chip. These ports are labeled “EXSATA6G1_2” and are the ones located on the far left in Figure 6.

The motherboard also has two eSATA-600 ports, controlled by another ASMedia ASM1061 chip.

One drawback is that the manufacturer used only two col
ors to identify the SATA ports: white for the SATA-300 and gray for the SATA-600. The problem is that this is the opposite color code used by all other manufacturers, which use white for the SATA-600 ports. Also, the manufacturer should have used different colors to identify to where each port is connected. We think they should have used one color for the SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (which are the ones to the right of the SATA-300 ports), another color for the “hidden” SAS-600/SATA-600 from the chipset (which are the ones to the immediate left of the SATA-300 ports), and yet another for the ports controlled by the ASMedia ASM1061 chip (which are the ones on the far left).

The SATA ports are located at the motherboard’s edge and rotated 90°, so video cards won’t block them. See Figure 6.

Figure 6: SATA-600 (gray) and SATA-300 (white) ports

The Intel X79 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports. Unfortunately, support for USB 3.0 ports isn’t integrated in the chipset yet. The ECS X79R-AX offers 10 USB 2.0 ports, six soldered on the rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard. It also supports six USB 3.0 ports, the four located on the motherboard rear panel controlled by a Texas Instruments TUSB7340 chip and the two available on the motherboard header controlled by a Texas Instruments TUSB7320 chip. The motherboard comes with a 3.5” panel containing two USB 3.0 ports for you to use the motherboard USB 3.0 header, if your computer case doesn’t have USB 3.0 ports with an internal connector.

The ECS X79R-AX doesn’t have FireWire ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the Realtek ALC892 codec. The specifications of this chip include a 97 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, a 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, and 24-bit resolution. In order to cut costs, ECS decided to use a mainstream audio codec on a high-end motherboard. They should have picked a codec with an SNR of at least 100 dB for the analog outputs and 97 dB for the analog inputs. If you are looking into working professionally with audio editing, you should look for a motherboard that provides an SNR of at least 97 dB for the analog input.

This motherboard comes with independent 5.1 analog audio outputs. However, if you install a 7.1 analog speaker set, you will have to use either the line in or mic in jacks, making the jack unavailable for other usage. It also features optical SPDIF output. You can install an optical SPDIF output through an SPDIF header that is available, using an adapter that doesn’t come with the product.

The portrayed motherboard has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, controlled by two Realtek RTL8111E chips. These ports support the “teaming” function, where you can increase the network speed to 2 Gbps if you use compatible network equipment.

This motherboard also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n (Atheros AR9271 chip) modules, soldered on the motherboard rear panel.

In Figure 7, you can see the motherboard rear panel, with a clear CMOS button, shared PS/2 connector for keyboard and mouse, Wi-Fi module, six USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA-600 ports, Bluetooth module, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, shared 7.1 analog audio jacks, and an optical SPDIF output.

Figure 7: Motherboard rear panel