Intel BOXDX79SR LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 64GB RAM, USB3, SATA3, SLI, Back to BIOS, load/save BIOS profiles... This things got it all and, *despite several reviewers' feedback, has proven very stable and been a pleasure to work with.

*Preemptively download the newest BIOS from Intel (saving it to an SD USB thumb drive (MBR/FAT32), momentarily remove the BIOS config jumper, then the BIOS will auto-update and several show stopping issues will have been resolved (not booting with an i7-3820, for instance) .

Cons: SLI: The two 16x slots are right next to each other. (16x, 16x, 8x) rather than (16x, 8x, 16x).

XMP: Tried two different 2400MHz kits (Kingston HyperX 10'th anniversary 4x4GB/G.Skill TridentX 4x8GB) and neither will boot with their 2400MHz profiles under any circumstances I could readily provide. I'm currently using the G.Skill Kit @ 2281MHz (CL9) which is fast enough. Not sure if it's the MoBo or i7-3820 not working with said 2400MHz kits...?

USB3/Boot without boot optimizations: Unless USB boot is disabled, booting will halt/hang indefinitely in the event a USB3 external drive is plugged in. While turning off USB boot resolves this, it also disables other USB (see bluetooth) and there's no PS/2 or anything to get to BIOS normally. Of course, there is the back to BIOS button and the ability to hold the power button for three seconds, forcing a boot to BIOS which will also hang if the USB3 device is still plugged in. I'm hoping a BIOS update will fix this, though it's a nuance on can work around.

Bluetooth: Other USB bluetooth dongles will work with my bluetooth mouse and keyboard pre-OS while the included WiFi/Bluetooth device will not, even if USB is optimization disabled.

Other Thoughts: Future BIOS updates may very well account for the missing egg which, to give the board the benefit of the doubt, excludes the XMP knit-pick as that might be the CPU/RAM rather than the board. I'd be really curious to know if any have gotten their RAM to run at 2400MHz with this board or one of its siblings and, if so, which CPU they were using/etc.

Pros: NONE!

Cons: Two boards DOA with a chipset error, likely an entire BATCH of boards that are bad, so RMAing it for a replacement will do you no good! Stay away, far, far away!

Other Thoughts: Absolute junk. Garbage! Just say "no!" to Intel-brand MOBOs.

Pros: Supports 64GB
Relatively easy to set up
I have it working with the GTX 690 so not having the video card issues that many on this board are having.

Cons: Nothing but blue screens every 24 hours using the on-board Intel RAID with the RSTe drivers on SSD.
Used the server version of the RAID driver and it works better, but get the occasional blue screen still. Loose TRIM support on those.
Windows 8 drivers where spotty well into the MS release of Win 8. You would think Intel would have seen that OS coming.
No eSATA port
Nothing but issues with the on board SATA ports when using SSD's.

Other Thoughts: All said, I would have taken my chances with another board knowing what I know now about this board.

Pros: This board works just fine. I don't know why all these people are having problems with their graphics cards -namely the NVIDIA 600 series- because I was able to install and a card just fine (only bought one). I am using EVGA's GeForce GTX 680 and it worked on first boot, I was able to update all drivers without a hitch. I have played BF3 and a few other games on ultimate settings and there are no problems. Before this turns into a graphics card review let me continue with board review. The Bluetooth dongle that came with the board works great, I have been using a program to use a Ps3 controller with it for emulation playing. (I didn't know I was getting the bt dongle which was awesome!) I have yet to utilize all the memory slots because a lack of money but I am using a 4 slot config. with the G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 2133 Model F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH, and the overclocking assistant made it real simple for me to select a profile and set the memory up to 2133. Although, I do have to say for some reason there does seem to be a problem with USB. *SEE OTHER THOUGHTS* Other than that my rig seems to be running just fine. All in all great motherboard with great functionality and easy to use bios settings and profiles. I WOULD recommend this board for sure.

Cons: None really the only thing I had a problem with USB functions on the mobo. but I wouldn't really call this a con especially since there was a quick solution. no eggs taken off for this

Other Thoughts: Okay so the thing with the USB on the rear ports was that I had an Xbox controller plugged into it, it worked just fine but after I shutdown and started back up the next day, the pc did not want to boot. I automatically assumed the pc was trying to boot from the controller for some reason and after unplugging it that turned out to be the problem. I tried going through the bios to find if there was a boot sequence setting problem but everything was fine, it was set to boot from the HD first, then Optical drive, then everything else. So I just scrapped that and used the BT with the ps3 controller, no big deal.

Pros: ABSOLUTLEY NONE!!

Cons: ABSOLUTLEY NONE!!!

Other Thoughts: This MB WILL NOT WORK with ANY higher-end GPUs. So forget anything like 660, 670 or 680 from EVGA & anything like 7700, 7800, or 7900 series from AMD..Spent more than a week with support from Intel only to have them finally admit these GPU's weren't compatible with this MB. Wonderful. $329.00 out the window as Newegg won't refund neither will Intel. STAY AWAY FROM THIS MOTHERBOARD!!

Pros: Nothing...it $uk$ and is overpriced.

Cons: Intel should be sued for false advertising over their "gaming motherboard". For a $320 motherboard, it's hard to find a graphics card that works with it that was made in the last year. I tried the gigabyte radeon HD7970...and nothing. Tried the geforce 670, and nothing. The card that works is my old 4850 that's 5 years old.

Don't waste your time with this board. It's total junk.

Pros: Sturdy board, nice design.. Lots of ram slots.

Cons: The ram slots surround the CPU mounts, it'd be hard to get a decent heat sink on the cpu.

Other Thoughts: The ram location really limits the type of heat sink you can use, choose get one with that in mind.

Pros: Stable! Easy oc to 4.5g with the 3930k. The price was good for its performance when I bought it.

Cons: Not enough room for large video cards to set up sli or cf. If you are not planning to set up sli or cf, this is not a problem at all.
The oc options in bios are less user friendly than Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI.
The price went up??

Other Thoughts: This is my first Intel motherboard from Intel. I like it! Unfortunately, Intel is quitting the motherboard market after 8 series chipset.

My rid
i7 3930k @4.5
Intel dx79sr
g skill ddr3 2133 16g
Msi 680 Lightning
Samsung 840pro 256g
Seagate 3tg X2
Raidmax 850W PSU

Pros: Great layout, cool design, internal HDD activity light, good tech support.

Cons: No "real" UEFI BIOS like other manufactures.

USB 3.0 does not work, has not worked, and will not work. Intel first claimed that the drivers need to be reinstalled and the BIOS needs to be updated to the latest version. This does not work. After contacting Intel for a second time and speaking to others with the same issue, Intel is giving me a full refund. The issue is now a known problem and there is currently no known fix or known future fix.

This board also has an issue sometimes where it will constantly reboot for no reason. It will boot after going B2B (back to BIOS) and exiting not changing anything.

Other Thoughts: This is a board that had great possible potential, but intel did not put much thought into getting it working correctly.

Pros: Has everything you'd want in a high end board.

Cons: Won't work with EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti. Intel support is rather lacking with note taking and knowledge of their boards.

Other Thoughts: Despite a match of hardware and software, this intel board doesn't know how to handle 600 series cards. You'll find forums online with others having similar troubles, but the two boards I have and the two cards I got, regardless of combination will not work. I have to use a "smaller" card to get graphics from the nvidia cards. Otherwise, you can't use the cards on their own with the board. Buyers be ware.