ASUS P9X79 Pro (Intel X79) Motherboard Review

Introduction

Today we're checking out the ASUS P9X79 Pro which is a board we actually previewed the other week alongside the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe which we've also just looked at . The P9X79 Pro we're looking at today is the last board that we previewed prior to the launch of the X79 chipset from Intel.

Out of the ASUS boards we've looked at which include the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme, the ASUS Sabertooth X79 along with the P9X79 Deluxe we linked to just above as well, the P9X79 Pro is actually the cheapest option out of the four boards we've checked out. What does the drop in price mean, though?

We'll find out about the performance soon enough, but the first thing we need to do is look at the package and while we've already checked out the box in our original preview, we didn't get a chance to look at the contents of the box.

From there we'll move onto the board itself and cover the few areas that we couldn't cover in our original preview like the RAM side of things along with the PCIe x16 expansion slots. At that point we'll move into the BIOS and see what's going on before we finally get into the overclocking side of things which will then of course lead us onto the performance tests.

The Package

Looking at the box, you've got a wealth of information as it opens up and reveals the motherboard and shows off some of the X79 features and exclusive ASUS ones that are on offer.

Moving into the package of the box, we've got the manual and driver CD along with six SATA cables, extended SLI bridge, 3-Way SLI bridge, EZ Connectors and a rear I/O panel. The bundle is fairly similar to the Deluxe model; the main difference is the lack of BT 3.0 GO adapter and accompanying antenna. If you're not interested in Bluetooth, though, it's going to mean little to you.