Test – Designate Gigabyte X99-EX |Specs | CPU | Hashrate

Hi all!

Back at Gigabyte today with their latest motherboard model equipped with a 2011-3 socket, I named the X99-Designare EX! Taking advantage of the release of the latest Intel Core i7 6950X processor, the brand has decided to expand its offer a little, with a range called Designare EX, particularly designed for professionals but also “anthousiastes”. On the program, a motherboard designed above all to be robust (PCIe ports and metal memory, high-end capacitors, etc.) but also equipped with RGB LEDs, we must follow the completely useless RGB mode.
Offered at a recommended price of € 499, it sits at the top of the stack of X99 motherboards, which means that it is not made for everyone. Let’s see if this exorbitant price is justified.

As we can see Gigabyte has not made in the lace here, and this even with a motherboard that remains in ATX format and not E-ATX (larger). Of course it is equipped with a 2011-3 socket, compatible with all i7 processors ranging from 5820K to the very latest 6950X. The memory part has 8 slots supporting the “Quad channel”, the native supported frequency is 2133 MHz but can go up in OC mode (via XMP profiles) to 3600 MHz, which means that there is room here. and a supposed compatibility with a very large part of the kits on the market, be careful however because the more you go up in frequency, the more there are risks of incompatibilities.
Regarding the expansion ports namely Mr PCIe, the X99-Designare EX is very clearly well supplied, there are only 16X PCIe ports here (and a small 1X). As usual they are not all wired the same, 3 ports can work in 16X, 1 port in 8X, 1 port in 4X and the small PCIE 1X in 1X of course. This will leave a lot of leeway and will allow you to install 3 graphics cards and use them all with maximum bandwidth (everything will depend on the processor, the i7 5820K and i7 6800K are for example limited to 28X). On the other hand, we should not be deluded, if the motherboard is shielded with daughter cards it will not be possible to reach these speeds, for example if a card is installed in the PCIE 16X port wired in 8X then the port PCIE 16X closest to the processor will also work in 8X. Likewise if something is plugged into one of the U2 connectors (the U2_32G_2 in this precise case) then the PCIEX12_2 connector will operate at 8X. There are also other restrictions, which is quite normal and I will not do a full listing here but you will have to look at the compatibilities before buying if the goal is to force-feed the X99 Designare-EX until core.
The integrated components are also part of the celebration, with a Realtek ALC1150 audio part supported by high-end capacitors and isolated from the rest of the card as is done today to avoid interference as much as possible. The network part is equipped with 2 Intel GbE controllers, capable of operating from 10 to 1000 Mb, it is also possible to configure them in “teaming” or in link aggregation, namely that the theoretical bandwidth would then be doubled. (to go up to 2 Gb / s). WiFi is also no exception with an 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac module and Bluetooth 4.2, so everything is covered here as well.
Regarding storage once again, it is not left out, 10 Sata 6Gb / s ports are part of the game, 6 of them support RAID 0/1/5/10 while 4 others only support modes IDE and AHCI. On these 10 Sata 6Gb / s ports 2 can be converted into 1 Sata Express ports. An M.2 PCIe 4X connector will also allow you to install an SSD. In addition, 2 NVMe PCIe 4x U.2 connectors (including 1 which is not available with a Core i7 5820K or i7 6800K). In short, storage level there is plenty to do.
To all this is of course added USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Type-A, USB 3.1 Type-C (capable of providing 36 Watts for peripherals connected to it and Thunderbolt 3 compatible) and a DisplayPort input port.
An avalanche of technology and features emanate from this Gigabyte X99 Designare-EX, with a price tag that is up to par, around € 490 at the time of this writing, it is clearly not suitable for everything the world, let alone all budgets.