 Corsair RM series power supplies are optimized for silent operation. Click now to learn more. Welcome to my unboxing of the Asus X79 Deluxe. Yes, they have changed their naming scheme, which isn't the only thing that they've changed about this X79 board. It's LGA 2011, which means it's not going to work with the latest Haswell processors, but it will work with the latest Ivy Bridge E processors. So that is quad-core and six-core processors on the 2011 platform, even the all-new 4960X Extreme Edition. So what makes the new X79 Deluxe different from the older P9 X79 Deluxe? Well, mostly it comes down to updating the feature set, because there's actually been a couple of board technology refreshes on the consumer side. So that is on the LGA 11.5X line of boards since Asus originally launched the P9 X79 Deluxe, so it's gotten a little bit long in the tooth. They've also implemented specific optimizations for Ivy Bridge E to make sure that their newer refresh board works a little bit more optimally with the new processors than the older boards, because quite frankly, when you were building a board a couple years ago, you didn't necessarily have the knowledge to optimize it for a processor that isn't going to be released for a very long time. So without further ado, here's everything that is in the box. We get 10 SATA cables, five right angle, five straight. We get a flexible SLI bridge. This is a channel series board, so you don't get the sexy black SLI bridge. It's got an I.O. plate. It's got their Q connectors. It's also got, ah, yes, another updated feature, so wireless AC. Just like the Z87 boards and Bluetooth 4.0. It's also, ah, that's funny, it comes with an ROG three-way SLI bridge though, because they probably didn't have an ugly three-way SLI bridge, because most people don't run three-way SLI unless they want a sexy bridge on it. Also has a user's manual, and that's funny, there's no disk in here. I wonder if that's because Asus just stopped bothering, because you might as well download the latest, or if maybe this is a reviewer board, so it didn't include a disk, because they know that I'll just download the latest. All right. Now the board itself. Just like the Z87 boards, it's been updated with their new black and gold color scheme, which on this particular one actually looks quite sharp. The power delivery system not only looks better, but it's also been completely overhauled with superior performing components, including new inductors, new MOSFET and driver power stages, and I mean, this is important because as Intel moves the manufacturing process down, going from Sandy Bridge E to Ivy Bridge E, operating voltage goes down, so tolerances actually get tighter as you go. They've also added their new T topology, so new DRAM topology, which basically amounts to how the traces are connected to the pins on the CPU, because that's where the memory controller is these days, for better performance. Now when you couple that with the fact that Ivy Bridge E has a much stronger memory controller than Sandy Bridge E, you should be seeing better memory speeds on this platform than you got on previous edition boards and running the previous edition processors. In terms of the overall layout, we've got our 8-pin connector in its ideal location along the top left. We've got our 24-pin connector on the top right edge in its ideal location. The Memo-K button is also here. This is important if you're running sort of high spec memory and you want to make sure that it posts long enough to actually set up the memory the way you want it to run, just in case it doesn't post. It's less of an issue these days, but it's good to have just in case. You've also got your USB 3.0 front panel connector in its optimal location, but I would prefer to see a right angle connector if they could arrange that. Twelve SATA ports, okay? So two of which are SATA 3, 6 gigabit per second running off the Intel controller. Four of which are SATA 2, 3 gigabit per second running off the Intel controller. And the rest of them are running off of a new generation third party controller. So ASUS is using one that has a PCIe Gen 2 link, which means better overall throughput. It also supports their latest SSD caching, which allows an unlimited size SSD to cache your mechanical storage, which is great because Intel RST only allows up to a 60 gig SSD for that. In fact, you can even use three separate SSDs to cache your mechanical volumes, which is very, very cool. So there's a lot of connectivity options here. You've also got your front panel connectors as well as an EPU switch. So remember, that's the processor that allows for better power consumption for the system, as well as TPU, which allows for maybe not quite as good power consumption, but higher performance. You've got four USB 2.0 front panel headers, a clear CMOS switch, as well as their direct key, which is actually super handy. When the system is turned off, you just press it and then it boots up directly into the UEFI, so you can make any changes you want. Onboard reset and power switches as well as a post indicator, which makes this a pretty feature-rich board, even from an overclocking or operating outside of a case standpoint, which isn't necessarily its intended market. The PCI Express lanes are distributed in pretty much the normal way, so there's no funny switching going on with PLX switches or anything like that. So basically what you see is what you get. Remember, there's 40 lanes available, and with the new Ivy Bridge ECPUs and an optimized board and optimized components, you can run at PCIe 3.0 speed. So the top one is a PCIe 16x slot, followed by a 1x, a 16x that is wired for 8, a 16x that is wired for 8, a 16x that is wired for 16, and a 1x. So the way that these are going to run is they can run in 16x, 16x in the gray slots, or can split up to 8x, 8x, 8x, 8x, if you wanted to run a four-way SLR crossfire configuration. However, the bad news about that is because of the spacing, it's not really optimized for it. It's only got six PCI expansion slots, and because most cards these days are dual slot, even if you install water blocks on them, there's not a whole lot that can be done about it. They're using an updated USB 3.0 controller, so speaking of USB 3.0, it's got six USB 3.0 ports on the back, and what that allows is UASP operation even in Windows 8. The older boards only supported UASP in Windows 7, or just the regular Turbo Mode in Windows 8. With that said, UASP does perform a little bit better than Turbo. You can go back, we did an old NCIX Tech Tips about it, but it's not that noticeable of a difference, and both of them are better than running in the default configuration. It also has four USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, including a new Intel NICs, so it's the latest iSeries controller, which gives you better throughput, reduced CPU utilization, all that usual stuff you'd expect, as well as their network iControl, which you can control through AiSuite. My personal experience with it isn't that great, but in theory it allows you to prioritize traffic depending on what is more important to you. There is their BIOS flashback button, which allows you to flash the BIOS even if the board is pretty much bricked, two eSATA ports, so that brings the total SATA connectivity up to 14, the dual antennas for the wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as 7.1 audio out, and optical audio out. So what does all this mean in real terms? That was a lot of specs and a lot of improvements, but what does it amount to? Well, you get a more updated feature set. So you've got FanExpert 2, which allows you to have full granular control of all of the fan headers through the software, whether you're plugging in three-pin or four-pin fans. In fact, there are six fan headers, one, two, three, four, five, and six, located all around the board. You get their, of course, most modern UEFI implementation, and you get just generally better overall operations. So ASUS is saying that the auto-tuning, which actually is excellent, their board's auto-tuning is outstanding. It's better than a one-touch overclock that just loads a profile. It actually runs through and tunes the different components. They're saying with their auto-tuning, they're seeing overclocks around up to 4.6, 4.7 gigahertz, and RAM overclocks up to 2133, running 64 gig configurations, or up to 2400 megahertz in lower density configurations. This is all automatic tuning. So there you go. It's tuned better, especially for Ivy Bridge E. It's the X79 Deluxe from ASUS. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos. Leave a like if you liked the video, leave a dislike if you disliked it, and leave a comment if you think that JJ was probably watching this video and figured that I probably missed something about his board and is going to send me an email.