Best New X79 Gaming Motherboards Socket 2011 - 2012

According to CPUBenchmark.net using a new Sandy Bridge-E type CPU can improve your CPU performance by over 30%. The new Sandy Bridge-E CPU also have 4 memory channels of DDR3-1600 which gives you up to 100% increased memory bandwidth when compared to triple memory channels, as well as 40× PCIe 2.0 or 3.0 lanes. Finally, there's a reason to look at performance series products again!

What about the differences in the motherboard design that's been fitted for use with socket 2011 CPU?

Quick Facts

Cross Generational Compatibility

X79 motherboards are not only compatible with Intel's new Sandy Bridge-E CPU they are also compatible with Intel's Ivy Bridge-E processors set to release in Quarter 4 of 2012. Thanks Intel.

Support for PCIE 3.0

PCIE 3.0 Doubles the bandwidth from 8GB/s with PCIe 2.1 to 16GB/s with PCIe 3.0. This should improve the overall speed and functionality of your PC. Will it improve your performance while gaming? Probably not, but it is useful in GPU compute applications. In addition the Intel X79 can support up to 40 lanes of PCI express 2.0 while the Z68 only supports 16. So basically the new chipset will support up to five graphics cards in 1x16, 2x8, and 2x4 configuration.

Quad-Channel DDR3 memory

LGA 2011 motherboards can 4 or 8 DIMM slots with up to 128 GB of ram compatibility. No, that's not a typo - 128 GB of ram capacity. Of course, you might have to look a little bit or pay more than a little bit to come up with 8 of those and you'll have to find the right X79 motherboard that supports it. MSI's GD65-X79A is one such capable motherboard.