Layout

Already at a first glance the ASUS P9X79 WS looks very good with its harmonic design. The colors suite nicely and the different blue tones on a black PCB are calming. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers.

ASUS equipped the P9X79 WS with a 16+4 phase current supply regarding CPU and Memory. The memory gets the additional 2+2 phases which should allow very reasonable overclocking capabilites. Furthermore ASUS implemented a digital power design which should emit less electromagnetic radiation than its analogue counterpart. Meanwhile ASUS uses their Digi+ Power Design in the third generation. ASUS claims that the system stability could be enhanced even further, especially during extreme overclocking.

Totally you'll find eight DIMM-slots on the P9X79 WS. The official clock speeds that are - if the CPUs integrated memory controller is capable: DDR3 2400 (O.C.) / 2133 (O.C.) / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066. There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders.

Southbridge as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The cooling blocks haven been positioned wisely, which means that they don't collide with memory or CPU cooler. What is very unusual with this board concerns the placement of two cooling block right next to the DIMM slots on the right side of the board. Because of the fact, that this board comes with a slightly bigger, non-standard CEB form factor this is quite a good choice.