Since a number of X79 motherboard were already previewed, it was only a matter of time before Sapphire leaked one of its own, so the Pure Black X79 definitely didn't go by unnoticed.
Then again, this isn't so much a formal preview on the company's part as it is an unofficial photo shoot, of sorts, carried out by
VR-Zone.
The X79 Express Chipset may or may not be supplemented by a PCI Express bridge chip.
The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 memory slots, which means that up to 32 GB of RAM can be in a system at any one time,(4 x 8 GB).
Also, six PCI Express x16 slots are present, of which three are x16 electrical.
CrossFireX setups should be easy to set up (multi-GPU AMD card configurations), though SLI (NVIDIA) doesn't seem to be on the list of supported features.
The list goes on, though, with a significant degree of thoroughness as far as expansion capabilities go.
In addition to four SATA 6.0 Gbps ports (SATA III), Sapphire threw in the same number of SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors (SATA II).
Meanwhile, the back panel has a pair of eSATA connectors and four USB 3.0 ports (two more are available as headers on the motherboard), plus Bluetooth, 7.1 channel audio and dual Gigabit Ethernet.
Other specifications include UEFI BIOS, a debut LED, Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons, voltage read points and an active cooler on the chipset.
Like all the other X79 platforms, the Sapphire Pure Black X79 (obviously, it gets the name for the PCB) will reach stores in a week or so.
While the Intel Sandy Bridge-E CPUs will get to stores around mid-November, 2011 (14-15), the LGA 2011 motherboards should show up and start competing a bit sooner. Unfortunately, no price was mentioned.
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