Does this means xeons can now be unlocked

[Solanke Olayinka]

Just read this article http://www.anandtech.com/show/7613/asus-p9x79e-ws-review the writer seems to sugest that you can contol the turbo frequency of a xeon cpu from the motherboard.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

It allows you to set turbo to always on and the CPU will lock itself to the maximum clock rate available, regardless of load. This can be handy because a lot of software out there doesn't push the CPUs hard enough to engage full turbo, but will benefit if the clock rate is up. In other words, compensating for software that isn't written as efficiently as it could be or with modern CPU abilities in mind. Somewhat of a pointless feature though, Windows already lets you make this adjustment in the OS. Probably more convenient if you're running Linux or trying to set up a Hackintosh. FWIW, turbo can be enabled via the OS on those platforms as well, it's just not convenient for casual users.

Base clock multiplier can be adjusted for Xeon CPUs, not internal clock multipliers, which are locked. This is nothing new though, most Xeon motherboards out there allow for base clock adjustments and depending on Xeon CPU model, usually we're only going to get a 4 to 7 % OC on the bClck.

Why anyone would put a Xeon on this motherboard running an X79 chipset is beyond me. This motherboard is an enigma, IMNSHO...

The PCIe arrangement and overall cramped design of this board is bordering on silly. But whatever floats your boat, I'm sure someone out there will find a need for a motherboard like this. Looks like it could make a nice reasonably compact 6-core workstation with one of the newer i7 CPUs. Due to the cramped layout, I'd look to water cooling on this board if you want to push the performance.