The Board - A Closer Look

The X79R-AX is outfitted with a 64Mb Winbond BIOS chip, which we found close to the board's bottom edge. Right next to it is a dual-digit POST display, handy for diagnosing boot failures, and right next to the dual-digit display we find both ON/OFF and RESET switches, both of which are illuminated by an LED enclosed inside the switch itself. The internal LEDs can be disabled inside the BIOS, too.


Once the BIOS has booted the X79R-AX up, an Intersil ISL6366 VRM controller is in full operation to provide the CPU with power. Designed for dual 6+1 phase control, the Intersil ISL6366 provides support for temperature monitoring and compensation, DVC (Dynamic VID Control), droop control, as well as offering external monitoring interface that is capable of providing accurate readings without interfering with the internal signal, as can happen with monitoring loops with an outside ground. Speaking of outside voltage monitoring, we found a set of pads near the 24-pin connector that allows users to monitor various critical system voltages using a digital multi-meter of their own choice, shown in the second image above. Through this interface we were able to confirm the fairly stable and reliable voltage controls the Intersil ISL6266 boasts of, although there was still some variance under load that might affect things when trying to break records under extreme cooling methods.


The ECS X79R-AX uses the Intersil ISL6366 to the best of its capabilities, doubling the 6+1 outputs to drive 12+2 phases. This involves using seven separate input drivers located on the top side of the board, each of which can signal for two phases. In turn 14 separate DriverMOS packages with matching inductors provide the power, with seven sets located on the front of the board and seven on the back of the board, as seen in the two images above. There's a series of cooling strips between the phases and the socket backplate on the rear of the board, and we were almost hoping for more, due to the nature of the VRM circuit, which will adjust its output according to the temperature of the circuit. When overclocking, the VRM can get quite warm, and does need pretty good cooling in order to maintain the precise power needed at higher frequencies.


The ECS X79R-AX, like nearly all Intel X79 Express products, has dual independent DIMM VRMs for each bank of slots, but on this product, there's only one voltage adjustment selection available inside the BIOS. Featuring a standard hi/low VRM design, each is located near the slots it provides power to. This layout with VRMs and memory slots on both sides of the socket is forced by the platform design, and it's quite impressive to see so much stuffed inside a standard ATX format.


The ICS 932SQ420DGLF clock generator in the second image above is used to source PCIe bus clocks, and is paired with an ICS 9FGL1222AKFL clock buffer that together allows for the "speedboost" for multi-GPU configurations by attenuating jitter and stabilizing clocks when many devices are installed. The fourth image above shows the PCIe lane-switching hardware, provided by Asmedia. The ASM1480 is a PCIe Gen3 capable switch and paired with the clockgen and clock buffer and a white Molex plug found just above the slots for additional PCIe power, the ECS X79R-AX has a pretty refined and tuned PCIe subsystem ready for Quad-SLI and Quad-Crossfire.


The included Realtek ALC892 HD codec supports 7.1+2 audio, and meets Microsoft's WLP3.x audio requirements. Using DACs that output a 97 db SNR, and ADCs with a 90 db SNR, it supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192 kHz sampling at 16-, 20- and 24-bit, including full support for HD audio formats featuring Content Protection, if supporting software is used. It is also DirectSound 3D compatible, so no area of usage or functionality is overlooked. ECS has sourced the LAN controllers for the X79R-AX from Realtek as well, with the dual RTL8111E controllers being parts we've run across very often, which feature low-power operation and run along the PCIe bus. Due to their wide use throughout the industry, we’ve glad to see these employed as they have proven to be quite reliable as tested on many other products.


For Super I/O functionality, we find an ITE IT8728F, responsible for fan control and data monitoring. Meanwhile, for extra drive support via the eSATA and internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, ECS has recruited a pair of Asmedia 1061 SATA 6 Gb/s PCIe-based controllers, the first just below the southbridge heatsink and another is found near the rear I/O eSATA ports, each close to the ports in order to reduce EMI interference.


For USB 3.0 support, we find two matching Texas Instruments PCIe USB 3.0 controllers, with one between the lower PCIe slots, supporting the internal port we find nearby the controller itself, while the second is placed by the rear I/O assembly to support the 4 ports on the rear I/O. Both chips are slightly different in the number of ports they support, but otherwise feature the same overall functionality. While we're on the subject of USB, we have to mention that the onboard Wi-Fi is bought by an Atheros AR9271L hidden in one of the rear I/O towers. The same tower has a cable and antenna sticking out of it, that you can see in the third image above. There's a bit of two-sided tape on the backside, and ECS recommends you attach it below a HDD, for the best reception. The Atheros AR3001 Bluetooth controller is also hidden in one of the rear I/O towers, and runs on USB 2.0 like the Wi-Fi Atheros chip does.


The cooling solution provided by ECS for the X79R-AX is one large multi-element cooler, with the two main sections joined together via a heatpipe. Once removed, we can see that the heatpipe not only connects the separate elements, but also directly passes over the Intel X79 Express chipset in an “HDT” design (Heatpipe Direct Touch) for the best possible cooling. The VRM cooler is one piece of aluminum with a thick sticky thermal pad in place to interface with the MOSFETs, which upon close inspection makes excellent contact.


The southbridge cooler element is a large, flat, finned piece of aluminum, with a thin black sticker running from edge to edge just offset from center. Flipping the heatsink over, we find that only part of the actual heatsink has the pink thermal interface material we find quite commonly on board chipsets, while about 25% of the contact area uses a blue pad that on the other side of the pad sits the heatpipe. It's interesting to see that ECS didn't bend the pipe a bit over to run directly over the middle of the chipset, but in our usage testing, nothing in the cooler design seemed to affect system stability.


The VRM cooler features a very small and thin contact area, just enough for the seven DriverMOS chips on the front side of the board above the socket. There is the heatpipe that attaches to the southbridge element just above the contact pad, while higher up in the cooler body is another heatpipe that goes from end to end through the heatsink, and then wraps back in a "U" shape through the cooling element. ECS claims this design adds 20% better cooling than other solutions used elsewhere. Like the southbridge, there's sticker on the VRM cooler as well, and together they form a notification system for temperatures each is running under.


Under minimal load, the VRM cooler is just black and grey, but when the cooler hits 40°C, orange slashes appear in the tribal pattern that's print on the sticker's surface. Once the cooler hits 50°C, the slashes turn from grey insides to red, an easy and simply to read visual indicator similar to what's found in some fish tank thermometers.


The sticker on the southbridge, however, functions a bit differently than how the VRM cooler does, starting at 50°C rather than the 40°C the VRM cooler does. As it approaches 50°C, you'll see the indicator go from yellow to green to light blue, then dark blue, and then the next indicator will show up. The thermo-chromatic sticker on the southbridge cooler shows a new indicator at 5°C intervals, from 50°C all the way up to 90°C, but even when fully overclocked, the highest we could do was get the cooler to 55°C, as you can see in the images above.


The large visual monitoring interface is something ECS has released on quite a few of their products as of late, both on AMD and Intel products. We've got to extend congratulations for taking an existing technology as working it into a functional part of the board that seems so ingenious in its simplicity. Every single board has components that need cooling, like the Intel X79 Express chipset in the second image above, and we really like this specific feature A LOT.