Sapphire Pure Black X79N Review - PAGE 1

When it comes to motherboards (or any product, really) in the enthusiast market, the consumer expects only the best and don’t mind paying a premium to get it. This means the motherboards in this range must include a wide range of features, have best-in-class performance along with a host of overclocking functions and be built of the highest quality components. The latest motherboard to enter our labs is the Sapphire Pure Black X79N, which fits into the enthusiast market in both features and pricing.

The Sapphire Pure Black X79N is a $499 motherboard, making it one of the most expensive products based on the Intel X79 platform. However, to ensure the board is worth the premium Sapphire has packed this thing with features that include six PCIe x16 slots, Bluetooth support, dual Gigabit LAN ports, USB 3.0 and eight SATA ports, four of which utilize the SATA 6Gbs standard. In addition, the Sapphire Pure Black X79N is built exclusively with high quality components. Throughout the motherboard, Sapphire has included all solid Japanese Polymer capacitors, Diamond core chokes and 30μ gold plating for better contact.

With so many features the Sapphire X79N should be a welcome addition to the X79 market, but at $499 it is really going to have to deliver on all fronts if it wants to compete with products such as the MSI Big Bang-XPower II, or Gigabyte G1.ASSASSIN2, both of which are less expensive than the Sapphire X79N.