Introducing the latest motherboard from the award-winning TUF (The Ultimate Force) series – the SABERTOOTH X79. This board features the Intel X79 chipset supporting the Intel LGA2011 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 Processors. ASUS 8-DIMM Design provides maximum performance and versatility of memory configuration. ASUS SSD Caching which offers similar functionality as Intel SRT with additional features. There is no SSD capacity limitation, and it is as easy as one-click away.
$ 310.77
[wpramareviews asin=”B0061XSBZG”]
One of the best 2011 socket motherboards available!,
I just built a new computer and this motherboard was one of my key choices. I have had good luck with ASUS motherboards as they are top quality and I love their new UEFI Graphic BIOS for set up and over clocking. This board has some very good features that I liked and that was why I selected it.
I needed a LGA2011 socket for the new 3930K six core Intel CPU and I wanted 8 DIMM slots. I am running 32 GB of memory in quad core at 1600 MHz. This board is designed with Thermal Armor heat dissipation and uses two on board fans to cool the North Bridge and South Bridge as well as the high end power control section. The entire board is manufactured with military grade components and carries a 5 year limited warranty. This board is ideal for the CPU I am using as the CPU can draw over 150 watts when overclocked.
One of the new features is a Thermal Radar system that continuously measures the temperatures at 12 critical areas of the motherboard and displays them in real time. The Thermal Radar calculates ideal fan speeds and it has seven fan connectors on the motherboard to control your fans. You can have the system control the fans or you can use the AI Suite II (Or BIOS) to set the fans manually where you can even program the temperature versus fan speed curve yourself.
The board features tunable power control for the CPU and DRAM and you can program the over or under voltage and current you desire for your set up.
Out of the box with no overclocking my computer build was rated by Windows 7 as:
Processor 7.8
Memory (RAM) 7.9
Graphics 7.9
Gaming Graphics 7.9
Primary Hard Drive 7.9
The system runs very cool and I used a Corsair H100 water cooler with an extra set of Corsair fans for a push/pull cooling system pulling cool air into the case. By adjusting my case fans to equally pull in cool air and exhaust the warmer air I was able to achieve ideal results. Pulling in cool air at the top of the case also helped to cool the multiple VCore components at the top of the motherboard as the air flows right across them. At Idle the CPU is 19 to 22 °C and at 100{b81fbfd19e1fca5890798868c0714c408bbd5ec471654b6f9630c0fffa6e7eb3} core usage it was at 38 °C after 30 minutes. I stopped the test as I have not done any overclocking yet as I want to fully load up all of my software and transfer my files before I start. Overclocking this board is a little different and there are some very good videos by ASUS on overclocking and all the settings to use. Check out You Tube and look for the ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard. Take lots of notes as you will need them!
Just remember to check your BIOS and look for an update. My board arrived with BIOS 0604 and there were already three new ones on the ASUS website. I upgraded to 0906 which seems to offer a lot of benefits for improved performance in multiple areas. Just remember it is very easy to update the bios from a USB stick after you install all of the drivers from the included ASUS CD ROM. You can save your original BIOS on your hard drive. You will have to rename it to the ASUS standard formatting as it will only be named 0604 for example. Download your updated BIOS, unzip it and save it on a USB stick that is formatted to FAT32. Reboot your computer and go to the advanced BIOS. Go to the ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility and select your new BIOS that you want to use from the memory stick. MAKE SURE THAT YOU COMPLETE THE PROCESS AND DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER FOR ANY REASON! After the bios loads your computer will restart and load the new BIOS into the motherboard. It then restarts and loads Windows.
I am having fun with this new system and sometime next week I will be ready to crank it up. I am looking to achieve 4.8 to 5 GHz on the CPU. Here is my computer build:
CASE COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced Blue Edition RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower
MEMORY Corsair CMZ16GX3MX1600C9G 16 GB matched set time 2 for 32 GB memory
PSU Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W
LIGHTS LOGISYS Computer CLK12BL2 12″ DUAL COLD CATHODE KIT
MOTHERBOARD Asus Sabertooth X79 TUF Motherboard
CPU COOLER CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
FANS Fan kit for Hydro Series H80/H100 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit – OEM
GPU CARD SAPPHIRE 100311SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
SSD Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F180GBGT-BK 2.5″ 180GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
HARD DRIVES Four Seagate – Barracuda 2TB Internal HD Sata II
HARD DRIVES Seagate – Barracuda ST1000DN003 1 TB 3.5″ Internal HD Sata III
DVD DRIVE ASUS 24X DVD Burner Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS – OEM
BLU-RAY DRIVE Pioneer Black SATA Blu-ray Burner BDR-206DBKS
CPU Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo)130W Six-Core Processor
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office 2010 Home…
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|Great Motherboard and Features but not TUF as advertised.,
I purchased this board two months ago for my first build in preparation for the Diablo 3 and Max Payne 3 release. Although the memory specifications for the Sabertooth X79 were overkill, no game really requires over 8GB of RAM (not even that much), I wanted to make sure that my first build would not require an upgrade for some time to come. Upon receiving the board I flashed the BIOS and conducted a POST before running installing the OS. After installing Windows 7 Ultimate the board worked perfectly recognizing the 8X4GB of RAM. Everything check out fine; smooth sailing. That is until two months later… Powering on the system I discovered that the system was registering only 16GB of RAM instead of the 32GB I installed the two months earlier (I check at least once a week in “computer properties” to verify everything is running okay). Upon resetting the system to access the BIOS, RAM slots A1, 2 and C1, 2 were giving a status of “abnormal” or DRAM Error. Sections A and C giving duplicate uniform error codes seemed a little too suspicious to be a RAM error. Investigating, I removed Section’s A and C in order to check if 16GB of 32GB of RAM failed overnight. Powering up with only Section B and D loaded with 16GB of RAM I than confirmed that the motherboard was only registering 8GB of RAM. To confirm an error of RAM installation on my part I double checked ASUS’s instructions in the operational manual to see if I had installed the RAM incorrectly and begin the long arduous process of 1 stick RAM verification. Sometime later everything checked out fine but the system was only registering 8GB which was strange. Again I conducted a reset of the system and accessed the BIOS to check the status of the DRAM. This time Sections A1 and B1 were giving off the “abnormal” error status. In short after some tinkering I was was able to get the system to recognize 16GB or RAM (up from 8GB)at my workstation however once I moved the system back to my office it would not POST and gave the error signal of one long beep followed by three short beeps (VGA failed detection) so I have concluded that the RAM is not the issue but rather the motherboard. The RAM that I am using is Corsair Vengeance which is on the RAM approved list and a Galaxy GTX 680. I fine it highly unlikely that both RAM and Graphics Card are the issue. As of this writing I will be sending this board off to ASUS for RMA. As mentioned in the title of this review, this board has alot of great features for anyone who trying to squeeze every last dollar of longevity from an expensive home built system: 64GB of RAM, temperature/controlled monitoring software, military grade components, lots of ports, and a five year warranty. However, I just wished that it would have lasted a lot longer before my first RMA. At this rate I will go through a ton of boards before the 5 year warranty is up.
My Build:
i7-3930k
H80 Liquid CPU Cooler
(Average non work CPU Temp in 75F room is 28C/84F, Average work (Max Payne 3 and Diablo 3 on high settings 1920X1080P)CPU Temp is 40C/104F with H80 on the lowest setting.
32GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
Sabertooth X79 Intel Motherboard
Average non work motherboard Temp in 75F room is 38C/100F, Average work CPU (Max Payne 3 and Diablo 3 on high settings 1920X1080P) Temp is 47C/116F.
GTX 680
1200W Cooler Master Silent PRO Power Supply
HT Omega Halo Sound Card
Cooler Master HAF 942 Case 4X120MM Fans
Samsung Blu-ray Drive
2X128 SSD (total 256)
1TB Hard Drive
Note: Plan to overclock in the future once tech comfortable with tech knowledge.
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|Jun 13, 2012 9:49:36 AM PDT
We apologize for the issue you had with the motherboard.
If you’re using 32GB of memory (4x8GB), please use slots A1, B1, C1, and D1. Please try going to UEFI, change the voltage (VTT and VCCSA) and timings of the memory, or select XMP. In addition, also try reseating the memory.
Please let me know when you receive the replacement motherboard and continue to experience problems. cl-benson@asus.com reference #C1037-1474.
For support information, please visit http://support.asus.com. For service, visit http://service.asus.com. For motherboard warranty, visit http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx
Regards,
Benson
ASUSCustomer Loyalty
Rocks,
This board is amazing, nuf said… lol no it deserves a more in depth review. Been an Asus guy for half a decade now and have no intentions of changing that with this latest helping of awesome sauce. The Sabertooth X79 is the best X79 board that Asus offers at the moment. It out preforms the RIVE but a small amount but has higher quality parts, costs much less, and has a longer warranty. While the board cannot support 4×1 Crossfire/SLI it can do 2×2 Crossfire/SLI. I would not recommend using the third pci-e port as it is half speed.
While the board also does not have all of the features that the fully kitted RIVE does it also has some improvements and much of the same technology build into it. I have not attempted to overclock with it yet as I want to break it in first with some stock system usage but I have read it is a very stable OC platform. It supports up to 32 GB of ram and has quad channel ram support. The rear IO and chipset have their own dedicated fans that do their job well (CS is usually 1C). Easy to install and easy to install stuff onto like many of Asus other motherboards (q-connectors = pwn).
With military grade parts that are put through heavy testing before being installed you know that this board will last quite a long time and also be able to take the heat, literally, from overclocking.
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