ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion (X79) Motherboard Review

When in the market for a motherboard, most users who have decided on Intel for their processor are left with a big choice, do they go X79 or Z77? Well it comes down really to your main use of the system and more so your budget. Z77 is typically the chip set of choice when it comes to day-to-day computing and gaming, but if you’re more like us at eTeknix where gaming is not a thing that you get time for or you generally don’t want to do, where the focus is more on sheer power for the likes of video rendering and image editing, then with out a doubt X79 is the way to go.

Of course this doesn’t mean that if you’re gaming you must go Z77, X79 is still more than capable of giving a large amount of gaming performance, and a number of people chose to go down this path. Those who are into the games will recognise the name ‘Fatal1ty’ – the tag for world famous and champion gamer Johnathan Wendel. To endorse a product with his name means that we must have something a little special here with some extra features and performance to go with.

Like many top ends boards that we are used to seeing by now, the X79 Fatal1ty Champion comes in a larger box in comparison to some other mainstream boards. Inside this larger box are two smaller boxes which house the board and all the included accessories separately. The front of the box is a simple design with a red and black image of Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel’s head, which is common across a number of the products that have been endorsed with his gamer tag.

Opening the box up, we get the usual array of manuals and paperwork, a CD with drivers & utilities and an I/O plate.

Cable wise we find four black SATA data cables and a pair of molex to SATA power adaptors.

The inclusion of SLI bridges is very common with higher level motherboards and the Fatal1ty Champion is no exception with five assorted bridges for different configurations and allowing the cards to placed in varying positions on the board.

USB 3.0 expansion is another feature that is common amongst higher level boards, but unlike some, we have the option here to either mount the expansion in a front panel or into an expansion slot in the rear of a case.