14 DAY TRIAL // For some reason or other, Intel is trying to get more than just extreme enthusiasts interested in its Sandy Bridge-E CPUs and X79 platforms, so out comes DX79TO.
This is one of those motherboards that, rather than selling because of its smaller price, has a higher chance of encouraging purchases of its more expensive but visibly mightier siblings.
After all, while the price of $230 (176.47 Euro) seems nice enough, it isn't that much lower than the $260 (199.45 Euro) of the significantly more advanced DX79SI.
Intel posted the product page of the desktop platform here, along with some fairly small-resolution photos.
All in all, it can be described as a DX89SI that was relieved of some of its features (its own product page is here).
One thing that jumps into view is the lack of the PCI Express x8 slot of the DX79SI.
While the card does have three PCI Express x16 slots and a conventional PCI bus connector, it settles for three PCI Express x1 slots.
Another thing is how a piece of metal is what links the two lower heatsinks instead of a heatpipe.
Furthermore, there is no USB 3.0 front port and there is only one Gigabit Ethernet connector instead of two.
At least the board still supports DDR3 2400+ O.C. memory (up to 64 GB), USB 3.0 (two on the back), a TPM module and six SATA ports (2 x 6 Gbps and 4 x 3 Gbps).
Nevertheless, even with these specs, there is little to justify the acquisition of this product with a much more appealing alternative that sells for just a pittance more.
We suppose it is possible to make a PC out of this and the Core i7-3930K CPU and keep the price at around $1,000, but that would defeat the purpose of the enthusiast-grade CPU, as it would imply that the graphics and, more importantly, RAM capabilities be kept at levels far lower than what the central chip needs to live up to its title.