News - Gigabyte reportedly works on extras for X79 mainboards

[HEXUS]

Certain SKUs to ship with Bluetooth 4.0 + WiFi card.

Read more.

[kalniel]

Nice, but why couldn't they put the chip on the board instead of taking up a PCI-E slot?

[OilSheikh]

Is that a USB port on the top of the PCIE card ?
Btw, why couldnt they add things like LCd poster, OC button, etc.

[DDY]

That is indeed a USB port on top of the card.

The PCIe interface is used for the WiFi and USB for the bluetooth, mini PCIe carries both PCIe and USB signals. The cable which connects the card to the motherboard's internal USB header is a two port internal cable, that leaves one spare - hence the USB port.

I think this is a poor effort, I'd expect a high end board such as this to boast 300N and some form of MIMO. A third antenna and a 300N WiFI card isn't too much to ask for...

[baius]

Is it just me, or does that thing look like it could run a small airport?

It looks awesomely complex without any (additional) components!