There are five usual suspects when discussing the X79 chipset, Asus’s P9X79 Deluxe, the Asrock X79 Extreme9, ECS’s X79R-AX, Intel’s DX79SI and last but not least, MSI’s X79A-GD65(8D).  While very similar overall, each board has distinct features that the companies have introduced as standard over the years, from ASUS’ Q-LED to MSI’s OC Genie.  TechSpot had their work cut out for them, the boards range in price by $100 and the board that they picked as the winner might just surprise you.

"Those wanting to build the ultimate performance system will naturally turn to Intel’s new LGA2011 platform which recently made its debut with the Sandy Bridge-E processors. This highly refined architecture takes the original Sandy Bridge design and pumps it full of steroids, while adding a few new things. Moreover, the platform is expected to support enthusiast-level Ivy Bridge processors that are slated for release by the end of 2012, adding to the platform’s longevity.

So if you’re already spending $600+ on a processor alone, you’ll want to make sure your motherboard is equally impressive. Today we are checking out five high-end X79 motherboards from Asus, Asrock, ECS, Intel and MSI."

Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:

Motherboards