EVGA X58 Classified - Trophy Board
by Rajinder Gill on May 8, 2009 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
The Board
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The final rendition of the heatsink is a little smaller than what was on our ES sample. The reduction in size makes the heatsink compatible with the bulkier CPU coolers and allows the use of a "long" soundcard in the top PCI-E slot. Feature wise, everything we mentioned in our ES preview made it to retail release.
The ES board did leave us hopeful of a release with minimal end-user issues. On the BIOS front at time of publication, the one remaining requested fix is proper CPU FAN Speed recovery from S3 Sleep states. EVGA is addressing this and a fix should be ready shortly.
A certain amount of "pickiness" has also been revealed with certain batches of PSUs. We've encountered no problems ourselves using the venerable PCP 1200W and Corsair HX1000w PSUs. Based on these problems and ones that we have experienced with other X58 boards, we suspect the problems are with start-up current protection timing on older units. We recommend you head over to the EVGA forums to see if your PSU is on the potential hazard list before you purchase the components for your build. Units from Enermax and Thermaltake seem to be those with the most compatibility issues thus far, although not all batches seem affected, suggesting that revisions are already in the wild.
The retail board exhibited excellent compatibility with our own test hardware. Everything from onboard sound to various USB devices and peripheral cards including RAID controllers works. We can find nothing negative when it comes to overall functionality of the board.
Despite its size, the IOH cooler employed by EVGA on the Classified is not suitable for passive cooling of the IOH/ICH and NF200 when used in a closed PC case during overclocking runs. We have found temperatures can easily soar over 80C if there is no cross-flow across the heatsink. EVGA's design allows the user to mount a small 40mm fan to the PCI-E slot side of the heatsink that should help reduce temperatures into the 50C region and ensure stability when overclocking.
Unfortunately, you will have to buy a fan separately, which we think should have been included in the retail package considering the price of the motherboard. A well-executed waterblock option with a heatpipe linking all critical areas would also have been welcome on a board in this price range. Active cooling of this heatsink is necessary in any overclocking configuration; expect overclocking and even stock stability in poorly ventilated cases to be somewhat flaky without some form of cross-flow.
CPU side mounting holes are not provided, because the space between the heatsink and most of the larger CPU coolers is not sufficient to place a dedicated fan into this area. It is possible to mount coolers like Thermalright Ultra 120 or Noctua NHU12P in either direction. There's just enough room to allow for push-pull fan configurations too, leaving a paper width of space between either the memory modules and the fan or the IOH heatsink and the fan in both orientations.
The PWM heatsink is segregated from the IOH heatsink and cools both the PWM FET's and inductors. The low voltage situations experienced in daily use do not require active cooling in this area. However, you'll find that cross-flow is again needed to keep temps in the 40-50C region when overclocking as the heat dump from the FET's and Inductors into the sink becomes quite substantial as soon as you elevate VID above 1.4V or so. It's not always easy getting airflow into this area of a board either. Again, a 40mm fan will suffice for the most part, but you'll probably have to find some way of balancing it around the heatsink or using a case like the CM Stacker 830 with fans in the side door that blow air across the board.
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JackFoobar - Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - link
Yea, and Hechler & Koch in Germany hasn't shipped any US parts in 4 months. While it's unrelated to computers, it's a similar issue. Overseas shipments have been slacking since the election.C'DaleRider - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
I suppose you can fix a 40mm fan to the sink, but has anyone tried a solution like the Antec Spot Cooler aimed at the sink instead? I've found the Spot Cooler to be a very flexible solution to difficult cooling problems.icingdeath88 - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
Neat, good find. I'd never seen anything like that before. bet it would be kinda loud and whiny though.QChronoD - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
I enjoy reading about boards like these, especially when you guys get to break speed records and all that.But would it be too difficult to put together a small writeup every few months on the new boards that have come out. I want to upgrade my old A64X2 system to an i7 920, but the damn motherboards are so expensive. I can find prices on boards easily, but its hard to find reviews about many of them from places that I trust to know what they're doing.
takumsawsherman - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
Not only are the motherboards expensive, most don't seem worth it. I won't mention the fact that this $400 board doesn't even have Firewire 800. The $600 mac mini has this, and that includes a processor, graphics, and hard drive, and and enclosure. Oh wait, I just did.Rajinder Gill - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
I'd have thought people who are still intent on Firewire do what you did - buy an Apple. I hardly think those that benchmark for fun are bothered about Firewire. In fact, I happen to know that most disable it in the BIOS. Others that care about any form of high speed interface are more concerned about the next step for USB. It's not the intended market of the board at all IMO.JAG87 - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
QFT. What do you need firewire for? I always disable it together with onboard audio. If you need fast access to external storage you should be using eSata, plus USB 3.0 is coming and it will make firewire obsolete for good.Anyway my own opinion of the board having owned it since day 1, is that it's simply the best overclocking desktop board ever made. The only boards that have touched the same heights as the classified are some DFI boards. The difference with DFI is, you have to put up with ridiculous bioses that have settings which neither you are I have ever heard of before, and their support compared to EVGA.
I have a shitty C0 chip and I can clock it at 200x21 without touching any voltages on the board just vcore. It all depends on the chip, but the board itself can do 200 bclk at stock VTT, which is 1.2V for this board rather than 1.1V. If you don't have crazy IMC demands like Rajinder, you can leave every voltage at stock and still achieve 200 bclk. That's just amazing IMO.
takumsawsherman - Saturday, May 9, 2009 - link
Well, if you ever want to record music using your computer (Cubase, etc), good luck with USB-XLR interfaces. Unless you are using Firewire, be prepared to waste a lot of time recording over and over because USB falls off too quickly.Meanwhile, I'll take a Firewire 800 external drive interface over eSATA any day. They are far more durable when you are actually using the plug for it's intended purpose (plugging and unplugging and moving the drive, etc).
Then, of course, you can daisy chain your devices. It'd be one thing if this was a $150 board. But for $400 you should be getting the best of everything. Nothing should be second rate so that they can save $5.
erple2 - Sunday, May 10, 2009 - link
You're complaining that this board doesn't have some feature for an audience it wasn't intended for? Is it just me, or does that sound a little ... odd?I suppose you're also the type to complain that the necessary sound and video equipment to record a live concert doesn't fit into a Lotus Elise?
Honestly, you need to realize who the intended audience for this product is. This board is intended, rather strictly, for the overclocking crowd, not for the general public that wants to use some FireWire peripherals.
JackFoobar - Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - link
I seem to see this mentioned in every review on anandtech. What's the obsession with that interface? Nobody I know uses it unless they are apple people. I'd like the best of everything on the board too, but firewire isn't the best of anything. Why bother.