The X79 chipset is nothing new, in fact in motherboard years it is quite old. However that does not mean that is it obsolete. If anything there are still many people that use the platform for their Sandy Bridge-E CPUs and now that the Ivy Bridge – E is out it is a great option. As we have both of these CPUs in the lab we decided to take a look at a single X79 board and see how it fares with both the Core i7 3960X and 4960X. The board we chose for this is the Gigabyte X79-UP4. Since we have not had this board in the lab before we decided to do the full work up on the X79-UP4 before we dive into the meat of the matter and run both of these CPUs through our gauntlet of tests. So let’s get things started.
The Box and Goodies -Looking into the mind of the marketing guys that designed the box we find a very typical box for a motherboard. You get the name of the board in large letters along with logos for all of the major features.The back extends this and adds a few more graphics just to make sure you are not missing the point. There are some solid feature bundled into the X79-UP4, but to be honest most of them will be lost in the jumble of images on the box. If you want more information, you can always use the QRC on the back which will take you to the Gigabyte page that deals with the X79-UP4.
Inside the box is a meager fare, but it is enough to get you going. You get four SATA cables, an I/O shield, two manuals, a driver/ utilities DVD, a bunch of SLI connectors, and a crossfire connector. Like we said: not much, but enough to get things going.
