EVGA X58 Classified - Trophy Board
by Rajinder Gill on May 8, 2009 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Taking Things Down Another Notch
Next up we were eager to see if using liquid nitrogen to cool the processor would allow further scaling in any of these benchmarks. A previous attempt at finding the "cold" limit of this CPU on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme had showed a maximum temperature limit of around -125C for booting from BIOS and a maximum -128C while idling within the OS (to be honest, other boards from several manufacturers fall into this same category and perform worse). However, this was misleading as it turned out the processor was capable of far lower temperatures on the Classified, which has onboard jumpers for disabling thermal motherboard cut-off thresholds.
Much to our surprise the CPU was capable of booting on the Classified at a brutally cold -160C, and being benchmarked all the way down to -190C during peak CPU loads; that's an instant 35C gain over the ASUS board. In the world of extreme overclocking, this is a big deal. The following picture pretty much says it all, with the CPU test of 3DMark06 running in the background with a pot temperature of -186C.
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We only had approximately 15 liters of LN2 for the Classified testing, and with a little bit of BIOS voltage tinkering were able to extend our 3DMark06 run all the way out to a scintillating 248BCLK with HT enabled.
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 A landmark believed to be "unobtainium" is squashed by the EVGA X58 Classified, Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 modules, and a retail 920 D0 stepping processor. |
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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.