Conclusion

Allgemein		+	-
The X79 Dark is EVGAs interpretation of an Intel X79 based high end gaming and overclocking motherboard. This board scores with a very nice design, whereas the black PCB as well as the black and red heatsinks looks strikingly good. Furthermore there are no less than five PCI Express x16 slots and on the back panel and six SATA 3.0 with four SATA 2.0 as backups. Even the delivery is convincing, you will find everything you could possibly need to setup your new board appropriately.		- Design - Features
Layout		+	-
Generally the EVGA X79 Dark's layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors. There are also practical power- and reset-buttons along with two clr_CMOS switches. Furthermore there even is a debug display which is very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Totally you find five PCI Express x16 slots, which have been very well positioned, which means it's possible to build a quad SLI setup using this motherboard. Another nice addition is the two LAN controllers on this board. If we start looking for overclocking features, we find two EVBot connectors as well as an impressive power design with high quality components.		- Angled SATA connectors - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - 2x CLR_CMOS - 2x LAN - EVBot Connector
Performance		+	-
A closer look at this boards performance reveals that the X79 Dark is a very good contestant. In our 2D comparison talbes we find this beast on an average position but as soon as we start looking at our 3D comparison tables we find the X79 Dark on the second spot. Other than that the efficiency is excellent, since this board has been able to keep the competition in safe distance when it comes to this point.		- SiSoft Sandra Arithmetic - SiSoft Sandra Memory Latency - SiSoft Sandra Memory and Cache access - Super Pi 1M - Gaming	- PCMark 07 - Super Pi 32M
BIOS / Overclocking		+	-
EVGA ships this board with a decently structured BIOS. At first it might take you some time until you know where which settings are. In our opinion the BIOS could and maybe even should be a bit more intuitive. Other than that it might help to make the design a bit more plain and simple. Maybe EVGA is going to consider this and provide an update in future.
Recommendation		+	-
If you should be looking for a high end gaming/overclocking motherboard for Intels socket LGA2011 then the EVGA X79 Dark is certainly a great choice.		- Gaming - High-End
Rating
We give the EVGA X79 Dark four and a half out of five stars.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 3 - Layout	Page 11 - Super Pi 1M / 32M / wPrime
Page 4 - Connectors and I/O	Page 12 - Games
Page 5 - BIOS	Page 13 - Power Consumption
Page 6 - Test setup	Page 14 - Performance Rating
Page 7 - 3D Mark 11	Page 15 - Conclusion
Page 8 - PC Mark 7

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Author: c.ney@ocaholic.ch