EVGA has launched its flagship socket LGA 2011 motherboard that features an E-ATX form factor, draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 6-pin PCIe and two 8-pin EPS inputs and utilizes a 12-layer PCB, 12+2 phase VRM to power the CPU, a 4-phase VRM for the memory and individually power-gated PCI-express slots.
The X79 Dark features a single PCI-express x4 slot and five PCI-express 3.0 x16 slots (arranged in 1×16, 2×16, 3×8 or 4×8) that supports 4-Way SLI / CrossfireX. The motherboard also includes eight DIMMs with support for up to 64 GB of DDR3-2400, six SATA 6.0 Gb/s, 4 SATA 3.0 Gb/s and two eSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports.
With regard to connectivity, the X79 Dark features two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports, 8 Channel Realtek HD Audio, Bluetooth V2.1, 10 USB 2.0 ports (six rear panel, four onboard) and six USB 3.0 ports (four rear panel, two onboard).
The EVGA X79 Dark motherboard has a retail price of $399.99. Users can also take advantage of EVGA’s X79 Upgrade Promotion whereby owners of the X79 Classified, X79 FTW and X79 SLI motherboards can upgrade to the X79 Dark for $150, $200 and $250, respectively.
