I keep hearing current x79 are not nvidia certified and not true pci-e 3.0 and have missing features that bio update alone will not cover. With new ivy bridge coming out with z77 chipset that are officially pci-e 3.0 certified nvidia and have other features current z68 gen3 boards don't have, will there be new lines of x79 motherboard too? I have been dying to upgrade for since last week but timing seems to be not so good now and I keep getting feeling that I will regret if I wait now before release of ivy bridge.

If you are talking about EVGA, I'd say they might do a mATX board, but thats about it. Overall as a socket, I'm sure other brands may do some more here and there, but with Ivy Bridge pretty much out, I doubt it.
When the Ivy Bridge-E comes out there will be more LGA2011 boards, but I doubt they will be X79.

Evga aside then, are there any major features beside pci-e 3.0 missing on current x79 boards in general? Also, I would really like to know if quad channel memory is just market scheme or real deal.

The 3930k AND 3960x are both PCI-E 3.0 chips, and my 7970's run on my Asus Rampage 4 Extreme just fine. 
 
It is a DRIVER issue with the Nvidia 680 currently and can be hacked to run.
 

There are all sorts of articles about this:
 
http://www.anandtech.com/...e-x79-pcie-30-it-works
 
Here you can see that they were waiting on a GPU that was PCI-E 3.0 ready....enter the 7970.
 
 
 

EVGA made almost a dozen variations of X58 over three years, while I wouldn't expect more variations of X79 out towards the year 2014, the market has shifted to a smaller segment: With X58 the $300 part was most popular and brought more attention, with X79 the $600 part is popular while the $300 market went back to the mainstream socket LGA1155.  So there may not be as many X79 variations because there aren't as many people getting a $600 CPU.
 
Next set of X79 boards may be in development now, EVGA is currently using PLX PCIe 3.0 chips in SR-X, soon they will apply them to X79 in order to retain their full x16 quad-SLi capable title.
 

Macros

When the Ivy Bridge-E comes out there will be more LGA2011 boards, but I doubt they will be X79.

The "-E" part of the codename refers only to X79 while "-EP" in dual 2011 and "-EX" in quad-2011.  There is an "-EN" coming but for an entire different socket. 
 
Either way, there is no overlap, you can't stick one in another just because the socket is the same, just like with previous socket(s).  If an Ivy-E shows, it will only be for X79, except Intel doesn't have incentive since AMD isn't forcing their hand.

crap... I did it. I ordered myself x79 platform. I did buy 3820 though.. I didn't want to blow $1000 coz 3820 and 3930k, 3960x are about same for gaming purpose. I will wait dropping $600+ bombshell on cpu till ivy bridge E. Also I bought thermaltake air cooler. I was thinking about corsair h100 but I hear some horrible leaking problem ruined some people motherboard and those stuff inside h100 is very toxic. Coolermaster's tcp812 cooler looked better but that one isn't out yet and x6 extreme's tilted design looked like it will block memory module.

So what features are not going to make the X79 full(true) 3.0 and even with the nvidia driver updates its still not going to unlock this board to the fullest?  and currently all 2011 chips can run pci-3.0 and the x79 is 3.0 ready and the graphics are up to 3.0 all is missing is nvidias update to make it 3.0 and the only thing diffrent from ivyb. is the plx and nf2oo the nf200 gives 40 physical lanes 32 graphics and 8 dedicated elsewhere all blazing at 3.0 when ever the boards are unlocked. With the plx chip its only 16 physical lanes but the plx chip has what i beleave to be hyperthreading(I know its not Hyperthreading) for the plx chip allows up 32 virtual lanes. its how i understand it to be and you never get true x16x16 at all its really x8x8 which is the same as x16x16 2.0 so just that alone puts nf200 equal to plx in bandwith allowance but what happends when x79 is allowed to run free in 3.0 is X16x16 3.0 going to be faster than x8x8 3.0

Johnny_Utah


The 3930k AND 3960x are both PCI-E 3.0 chips, and my 7970's run on my Asus Rampage 4 Extreme just fine. 

It is a DRIVER issue with the Nvidia 680 currently and can be hacked to run.

 
Agreed. The limitation is completely software based at this point. NVIDIA decided to disable 3.0 in their drivers until they do some kind of certification. Thankfully there is a way to bypass this limitation. PCI-E 3.0 seems to work okay via both my Asus and EVGA boards with the hack.
 
--
 
If EVGA does release a new x79 board, I hope it will finally be able to support x16/x8/x16 like the RIVE, Formula, DX79SI, and quite a few other x79 boards out there and that they replace the Marvell NICs with Intel. In my opinion, these two changes would be a great improvement over what they have now.

Hmm food for thought but hoping for that means having to wait for it and if i get x79 classy it won't be out with in 90 days of step up naw mean but those upgrades woould tip this bored over the edge who nees 64 gigd of ram anyways just adding more heat to the system for nothing!

I think the 3820 is also 3.0 capable i read some where that all sndy-E's are 3.0 ready its just that intel only can garauntee that it runs 2.0 because there is no 3.0 hardware or software just yet so i am assuming now that Ivy is being sold as we speak, I hope there updating thee specs on this to pci 3.0 ready and maybe the unlocked pci 3.0 drivers are available cause i want to see coparison between X79 @3.0 and the Z77 @ 3.0.
anyone notice that the 3820 and 3960x were near the top in gaming and graphics benches, i winder whats going to happen when x79 gets to Breath unless the reviewers got an unlock driver just for review purposes but no one says the x79 is running 3.0 so i must assume it is 2.0 and that its goig to walk all over poor lil brother Z77 in games

linuxrouter

Johnny_Utah


The 3930k AND 3960x are both PCI-E 3.0 chips, and my 7970's run on my Asus Rampage 4 Extreme just fine. 

It is a DRIVER issue with the Nvidia 680 currently and can be hacked to run.

Agreed. The limitation is completely software based at this point. NVIDIA decided to disable 3.0 in their drivers until they do some kind of certification. Thankfully there is a way to bypass this limitation. PCI-E 3.0 seems to work okay via both my Asus and EVGA boards with the hack.

--

If EVGA does release a new x79 board, I hope it will finally be able to support x16/x8/x16 like the RIVE, Formula, DX79SI, and quite a few other x79 boards out there and that they replace the Marvell NICs with Intel. In my opinion, these two changes would be a great improvement over what they have now.

Ok.., so I just ordered an EVGA Classified X-79 on Saturday to go with the I7-3930K chip I bought at Frys.  For now I'm going to be using my EVGA GTX-580SC's until the GK110 video cards finally come out.
 
Does this mean that the S-79 Classifed won't run the new cards in PCIE-3 mode?

Not if you use your current 580, one needs to have 3.0 graphics card and 3.0 mobo and 3.0 cpu.
 x79 and the 3930 along with a 680 or a red team 3.0 card but "pls not today" will do just fine.... 
 
so basically what your getting is just primo but you will be waiting till you up grade to a 3.0 graphics card to take full use of pci 3.0if you wait for gk110 which i may do also since its due out in a couple months. more food for thought. should i play the waiting game for gk110 i have made my mind for everything else including a case and let me tell you theres not to many chassi's out thee for a 10 slot mobo!

comrade


Ok.., so I just ordered an EVGA Classified X-79 on Saturday to go with the I7-3930K chip I bought at Frys.  For now I'm going to be using my EVGA GTX-580SC's until the GK110 video cards finally come out.

Does this mean that the S-79 Classifed won't run the new cards in PCIE-3 mode?

There is no hardware based PCIE 3.0 limitation with the X79/SB-E configuration.  It's all software based (i.e. NVIDIA drivers).
 
As has already been noted, it works fine once you add the registry keys to force PCIE 3.0.
 
The whole x8 vs x16 argument is silly in light of that.  PCIE 3.0 x8 is faster than PCIE 2.0 x16 because the bandwidth of the lanes double but there is also a significant reduction in interface overhead from 2.0 (~20%) to 3.0 (~5%).