Normally when a new chipset hits the market we like to try and get a motherboard from one of the major companies for use in our reviews and initial testing. This goes for any new CPU regardless of if it is AMD or Intel. The reasons are pretty simple; the first is that realistically not that many people but Intel reference products. You get some that will, but the majority are going to buy from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI or one of the other players. This is not saying that Intel boards are not good products; it is just that most consumers have their favorite brands. However we wanted to try things a little differently with the launch of the X79 chipset. We have decided to take a first look at Intel’s reference motherboard and see how well it performs. As with everything we do there are multiple reasons for this. One is we want to see how Intel’s implementation of three-way SLI using the CPU for all PCIe lanes works and we also wanted to see what the overclocking envelope turns out to be. This will give us a great baseline for the reviews of other X79 motherboards in the weeks ahead. So with all that out of the way lets dive into Intel’s X79SI Siler (insert Heroes Reference here).
Value -Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item. We do not have a list price on the Intel X79SI. However, we would guess that it will come in around the $200 mark. Anything higher than that would be out of the range of the performance and features you are getting here. It is a good board, but it is not good enough to rate the $250-300 price tag that you are bound to see on other motherboards out there.Conclusion -Intel’s new X79SI when combined with the new Core i7 3960 (or any of the new Sandy Bridge E CPUs) is a nice product. It does great when it comes to productivity work while not leaving you completely out in the cold for gaming. True it is not the best gaming platform out there, but we have not finished up our SLI and Crossfire testing yet so we may change our minds about this board and gaming yet. However, for right now it seems more suited for professional work where it certainly shines. The layout is very clean as usual for Intel and you have plenty of options for connecting all of the USB devices you want. We would recommend you keep an eye on the USB 3.0 controllers though, the chip used might be less expensive than NEC’s but we have had our issues with them before and even more popped up during out testing of the X79SI. In the end if you are looking for a clean board with a tendency toward the professional and prosumer then you might take a look at the Intel X79SI.Disuss this in our Forum
