The Intel X79 (
codenamed ''Patsburg'') is a
Platform Controller Hub
The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a family of Intel's single-chip chipsets, first introduced in 2009. It is the successor to the Intel Hub Architecture, which used two chipsa northbridge and southbridge, and first appeared in the Intel 5 Se ...
(PCH) designed and manufactured by
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
for their
LGA 2011
LGA 2011, also called ''Socket R'', is a CPU socket by Intel released on November 14, 2011. It launched along with LGA 1356 to replace its predecessor, LGA 1366 (Socket B) and LGA 1567. While LGA 1356 was designed for dual-processor or ...
(Socket R) and LGA 2011-1 (Socket R2).
Socket and chipset support CPUs targeted at the high-end desktop (HEDT) and enthusiast segments of the Intel product lineup:
Core i7-branded and
Xeon
Xeon (; ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same archite ...
-branded processors from the
Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge is the List of Intel codenames, codename for Intel's 32 nm process, 32 nm microarchitecture used in the second generation of the Intel Core, Intel Core processors (Intel Core i7, Core i7, Intel Core i5, i5, Intel Core i3, i3). The Sa ...
and
Ivy Bridge CPU architectures.
The supported CPUs feature quad channel memory controllers, and a certain number of PCIe lanes, the chipset features additional PCIe lanes; it is designed to connect an Intel processor through a
DMI 2.0 interface to peripheral devices.
Features
The first product was announced on November 14, 2011, for "Extreme" CPUs using the
LGA 2011
LGA 2011, also called ''Socket R'', is a CPU socket by Intel released on November 14, 2011. It launched along with LGA 1356 to replace its predecessor, LGA 1366 (Socket B) and LGA 1567. While LGA 1356 was designed for dual-processor or ...
socket.
Features include:
* 2×
Serial ATA
SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host adapter, host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PAT ...
(SATA) 3.0 (6 Gbit/s) ports & 4x SATA 2 (3 Gbit/s) ports.
* 8×
PCI Express
PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed standard used to connect hardware components inside computers. It is designed to replace older expansion bus standards such as Peripher ...
2.0 lanes
* 14
Universal Serial Bus
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...
(USB) 2.0 ports
* Integrated
Gigabit Ethernet
In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...
MAC (Lewisville PHY)
* Optional
Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise 3.0
** SATA RAID support (0/1/10/5)
** Write journaling
* 100 MHz BCLK
* Supports processor, memory and chipset overclocking
* Supports Intel Extreme Tuning Utility 3.0 (XTU)
* 8-layer
printed circuit board
A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of electrical conduction, conductive and Insulator (electricity), insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes ...
(PCB), 2 oz copper recommended
The X79 chipset is made to work with the Intel
LGA 2011
LGA 2011, also called ''Socket R'', is a CPU socket by Intel released on November 14, 2011. It launched along with LGA 1356 to replace its predecessor, LGA 1366 (Socket B) and LGA 1567. While LGA 1356 was designed for dual-processor or ...
(Socket R) which features 2011 copper pins. The added pins allow for more
PCI Express
PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed standard used to connect hardware components inside computers. It is designed to replace older expansion bus standards such as Peripher ...
lanes and interconnects for server class processors.
Newer Core and Xeon processors address 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes directly through
Sandy Bridge-E architecture (Xeon) and
Ivy Bridge architecture (Core processors).
Partial support for Windows XP
The X79 chipset does not support installing Windows XP in
AHCI
The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the Hardware register, register-level interface of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its Intel chip ...
mode for Intel's Serial ATA controllers as Intel won't release AHCI drivers for 32-bit Windows XP. Windows XP can be installed in IDE mode but without SATA features enabled. For users that dual boot Windows XP with another operating system installed in AHCI mode, this means changing to IDE mode every time to boot into Windows XP and changing back to SATA to boot the other OS, or installing the other OS which supports AHCI also in IDE mode to prevent switching the setting in the BIOS each time. This restriction applies only to 32-bit Windows XP; 64-bit Windows XP is supported by Intel drivers.
For motherboards with X79 chipset but with third party SATA disk controllers, 32-bit Windows XP AHCI drivers may still be supported by the disk controller vendor (non-Intel).
A third party, generic Intel AHCI/RAID driver for 32-bit Windows XP has been released by Fernando.
Integration of Intels AHCI/RAID drivers into a WinXP/W2k3/W2k CD
/ref>
See also
* List of Intel chipsets
*Platform Controller Hub
The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a family of Intel's single-chip chipsets, first introduced in 2009. It is the successor to the Intel Hub Architecture, which used two chipsa northbridge and southbridge, and first appeared in the Intel 5 Se ...
(PCH)
References
External links
Official Release Date and Ivy Bridge vs Sandy Bridge Benchmarks Revealed
by Lenzfire.com
{{Basic computer components
X79
Computer-related introductions in 2011