OC Mini-Review- EVGA X58 SLI

[Pedro Rocha]

Today FedEx knock on my door delivering a nice package from my friend Peter Tam / Shamino

Here is the content of the box :



Oh yeh it's the EVGA X58 SLI motherboard developed with the help of one of the best overclocker in the world - Shamino

Here you can check all the features and specs of the motherboard : http://www.evga.com/articles/00438/

Well the best "feature" is of course the fact that Shamino is involved in the developement and support - for instance new bios with more and more OC oriented features, there is a new beta bios that will make 920 and 940 very very happy (that's a surprise for now)


Will start on with air cooling results with my retail i7 920, before put the mobo in the Cascade with the 965XE

I mount the Thermalright True Copper Ultra-120 Extreme - a good mobo deverserves a good (an quite heavy) cooler

Here is a photo:




And here is what I get on the first attempt:




210x21 = 4.400Mhz with 4 cores + HT so so easy with moderate voltages


The EVGA LEET is realy a nice piece of software, you can control all the voltages and see all the temps and even save you favorite / stable OC settings for later recal

Whell the first quick impression was quite nice, much more to come..

Thanks Peter, I will do my best on helping the next bios developments..

Stay tuned for more results

[Pedro Rocha]

Here is some Air 3D Action :

Setup:
- EVGA X58
- i7 920 Cooled by True Cooper
- 3 Cellshocks 1440
- 2 Stock EVGA GTX2800's in SLI


First some 2D


4.450Mhz - PIFast - less than 20secs..




wPrime32 - 8 Threads




Let's start 3D - using 2 stock GTX280's with low OC


321K Aquamark at 4.450Mhz




36K 3DMark 2005




And finally 26.653 3DMark 2006



Love this 8100 CPU Score with a CPU Air Cooled


After the 1st quick tests on air, I must say that I'm quite impress with the results - in fact with air cooling the EVGA gives me higher CPU OC's in 3D comparing to the other 2 X58 I tested (the GB UD5 and the Asus RE2)..

The stability of the board is quite good and VDroop control really seems to work ..

EVGA and Shamino are consistently developing new bios, so I'm sure that this motherboard still have a good margin for improvement...

Nice work EVGA

Next the 965XE on the Cascade, time for serious OC

[Pedro Rocha]

Reserved 2

[LardArse]

Pedro, really happy to see the 920 working nicely on the board. Air-cooled 4.3+G Octo stable and 4.4+ Duo stable is really great results man.

[Solarfall]

somehow im digging this EVGA board over the other brand of x58.. and it seems to perform very well. 1 thing that bothers me with it is the area around the cpu socket is very cramped an i would imagine that the board might be kinda tricky/time consuming to prepair for extreme cooling

[LardArse]

I dont have a problem with insulating the cpu socket area, but I've never really been using the tradtional doughnut method anyways, just a slightly differenty doughnut apporach should be fine. For me caps as close to cpu as possible is always prefered as what matters is when the power going into CPU, not before it.

[NBF]

Very good air results Pedro!

there is a new beta bios that will make 920 and 940 very very happy (that's a surprise for now)

I hope you will be able to share that with us

[Solarfall]

I dont have a problem with insulating the cpu socket area, but I've never really been using the tradtional doughnut method anyways, just a slightly differenty doughnut apporach should be fine. For me caps as close to cpu as possible is always prefered as what matters is when the power going into CPU, not before it.

oohhhh i've never even heard such an insulating method, could you shed some light into what you mean by that, im very intrigued ??

[Pedro Rocha]

Very good air results Pedro!

I hope you will be able to share that with us

Thanks

New beta bios is now public check : http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=672252

SZ1A BETA 1 Updates:
Adds memory support for 1333MHz, 1600MHz, 1866MHz, 2133MHz, 2400MHz, 2667MHz, 2933MHz, 3200MHz, 3467MHz, 3733MHz, 4000MHz (2:10, 2:12, 2:14, 2:16, 2:18, 2:20, 2:22, 2:24, 2:26, 2:28, 2:30)

Enables support for these memory speeds on all retail CPU's (920, 940, 965)

These new memory multiplieres shure will help 920 owners to get the optimial DDR3 speeds

[NBF]

Thanks

New beta bios is now public check : http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=672252

These new memory multiplieres shure will help 920 owners to get the optimial DDR3 speeds

Nice! That is very good BIOS update

Thanks for the heads up.

[Pedro Rocha]

Here is a quick PCMark 2005 run





More than 20K with a air cooled CPU

[SAE]

Great board - would be my second choice, right after BloodRage
And it's really exciting there's someone like Shamino with evga pushing the envelope further.

[Josifek]

Looks really promising. I wonder, if its better than Rampage II. I my i7 build i want to buy the best board there is...

[mascaras]

Hi

great results Pedro

this EVGA X58 looks good and the Software (EVGA Leet) seems great !


best regards

[Oliver]

thx alot for posting Pedro Rocho

this board is really one you should have an eye on i reckon, it seems very strong and as you say more will come

keep pushing it

[zlojack]

That is certainly a nice board!

[namegt]

Hello.
I EVGA X58 is a test.

[nut311]

this mobo can run with ATI CF?just like variant X58,

nice mini test i cant wait your BIG Serious Test

[clon22]

Nice board.
And the Evga E-leet s/w looks real convenient to use.
Too bad they don't sell in my country.

[namegt]

EVGA X58 & EVGA GTX 260







http://www.ripping.org/database.php?cpuid=873

[Planet]

Nice results Pedro. Cant wait to see what you can get on the mini cascade.

[Movieman]

Nice looking board Pedro.
Grats on the numbers.
I can't get anywhere near that on the Intel board but it's good and stable.

[bazx]

4330 loaded on air all cores is just nuts

what kind of voltages pedro

qpi pll

[Pedro Rocha]

4330 loaded on air all cores is just nuts

what kind of voltages pedro

qpi pll

Thanks !

Here are the voltages used with the air cooled i7 920



1.4v QPI and the default PLL voltage (1.8v) are more than enought..

Also this board seems to need less VCore than other i7 mobos - due to the VDroopControl - in fact the droop is virtually inexistent..


Kinda busy, so no much time for putting it on the cascade, hope I can during xmas break..

BTW a new Bios is out http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=...55897;�

SZ1A Updates:
Adds support for 2:10 memory divider (1600MHz)

Enables 1333MHz and 1600MHz memory support on all retail CPU's (920, 940, 965)

The motherboard is getting better and better with new bios updates and Shamino is working to improved some features for extreme cooling

[msimax]

can this board run xfire??